How do you optimize a site for G UK and G International?

SERPS not even similar.

[Henley]

Looking at a very competitive sector in both Google UK and Google International I was surprised by how much the Serp's varied. Why is this and how would one optimize a site for both?
Let's say this was the order of appearance for Large Widgets under a search in Google Int.:
1,2,2a,3,4,5,6 this is how the same entries appear in Google UK: 2,P,Q,5,R.S,3 where P Q R & S are different sites.
No 1 in Int has no UK in the title, the remaining 5 entries do have UK in the title. Yet, No 1 in Int doesn't appear on the first page of Google UK let alone in the first 6.
What's going on here?
I was expecting to find UK in the title of ALL in Int Google.
Many people have commented in other threads that the title has become less important in Google's algo but it seems to be making nonsense of separating UK companies from, say, US.
Google UK is still little known. So what's the answer? Two websites with different content, one optimized for Google UK the other for International.
Totally confused and in dire need of enlightenment.
Henley

[xr2boy]

With UK Google you get an advantage if your server is located in the UK. Probably based on IP number. We have servers located in UK & US and can see the difference.

[jimbeetle]

Hi Henley,

I *think* I'm correct in saying that Google UK only indexes .uk domains or other TLDs hosted on servers located in the UK. This explains the difference in SERPs because Google UK is picking from a much smaller universe than Google Int.

A search for "Local Widget" on both shows 846K results for UK as opposed to 2,290K for international (curiously "Search the web" on UK brings 2,480K; maybe the database hasn't been updated since the last dance as yet).

The top results are somewhat comparable results with the exception of some high-powered, non-UK sites sneaking into the top of the international SERPs. The number 1 UK result is number 3 on Google international; the specific rankings after that are mixed up a bit, but most of the top UK sites are well represented in the international SERPs. Local UK sites are high in the international SERPs because they are optimized -- by design or by chance -- for the local market and those specific key words.

With the very varied results you got for your "Large Widgets" keywords I think I would optimize pages against sites 2, 3 and 5 since they are included in Google UK and also rank high in the international SERPs.

As for UK in the title, unless that is part of the search term it shouldn't have any bearing on the SERPs. Do people search for "blue widget dealer UK" or "blue widget dealer specific UK city"?

A couple of more things that you might have to keep in mind. I don't know how it works if you connect to Google UK from the UK, but when I connect from NYC the default is set to "Search the web" NOT "Search pages from the UK." Also, clicking on the Google logo brings me to "Google home" NOT "Google UK" home. Looking at that I think I'd optimize against the full Google.

Well, I think I ran off at the mouth enough. Hopefully it's food for thought.

Jim

[Henley]

Jim,
Many thanks for your full response.
I haven't digested it fully yet. However, the product I did a search on in Google UK and Google International is a software (thus a mail order ) item.
So searching for this by town, city or county is probably not the way most people would do it.
Yes, they want to be able to talk to a real live human being and know they can get support/consultancy but it doesn't have to be in the nearby town. They need the UK version NOT the USA version (or any other country)because it is related to local business practice; a search in the UK is therefor the answer.
So UK in the title is imperative; or else use Google UK - but as I have already observed only circa 15% of Brits use Google UK so someone on this forum believes.
Please keep thinking on this one.
Regards
Henley

[jimbeetle]

So what it basically comes down to is either a smaller slice of the larger pie or a larger slice of the smaller pie.

Would think that folks in UK would like to do mail order business with a company located there and, even if using the full Google would try to find a UK company. So there UK in the title or domain would be important to get the visitor -- but not something necessarily to be optimized for.

Would seem to be best to optimize for whatever you usually do (title, type of software, whatever) against the full Google database. Would think that as you move up in the SERPs there you would see a corresponding improvement in the Google UK SERPs (as the other UK sites are also part of the full DB you would also be improving releative to them).

Depending on when Google UK does its dance or the DB updated it might not happen at the same time, but seems like it should.

Almost sounds logical.

Jim

[Bronte]

As Jim says, if you optimise for Google internationally, you will also be aiding your rankings in Google UK (assuming you have a .uk domain or UK hosting).

I have no statistics yet, but since changing to a .uk domain and getting the google uk listing, my visitors have gone up dramatically. A lot of UK net users are savvy enough to check the 'UK sites only' box, especially if they can't find what they're looking for the first time in a sea of US sites.

I only optimise once, as far as I can make out the SERPS are pretty much in the same order, with the overseas ones weeded out. But now I have top place in many competitive searches for Google UK. Even if the percentage of net users employing this search is low, that's still a bonus considering my 'standard' Google placing may be as low as 25.

[Terrier]

It is also worth while targeting keyword UK for the international index some people myself include when doing a search do a second search adding UK after the keyword when the results are full of US results.

One thing I have noticed to get the best of both worlds is to have a .co.uk but host it in the states.

I also find the serps are in the same order on G UK without the international results.

As everyone else has said just optimise for the international serp and you will do well in the UK with a UK site.

I find that UK index updates a couple of day after the international one.

[coco]

Need UK tld or and hosted in the UK and links from other sites in the google uk index.