Why does US sites still rank better on other live domans

[zeus]

I saw this 12 month ago where american hosted and .com sites rank better on other versions of live sites, like .se, .dk .de .....but when you make the same search on .com you are pushed 10 places or so.

I dont get it, where is the logic.

[BillyS]

There is no logic. It seems that a filter is being applied in the US market that is not applied outside the US.

I'm in the same boat, I rank fine outside the US - unfortunately my audience is US. It's extremely discouraging because based on a long email exchange I had with MS in My MSN Story [webmasterworld.com] they don't seem to have a clue or are unwilling to help.

The encouraging part is there are rumors that MSN is restarting search.

[zeus]

yes lets se what they are gonna do then, but it goes on my nervs, I also focus on the US market.

[centime]

Could it be because there are more sites targeting the US market?

So, your rank in live algo is enough to rise high outside US, but not sufficient when set against US competion

[BillyS]

>>Could it be because there are more sites targeting the US market?

I don't believe that is the problem.

[Shurik]

In US my site does not even rank for its unique name. After several email exchanges with MSN i'm certain that the penalty is algorithmic and there is nothing they can do to remove it. MSN have never admitted that there was a problem. They argue that the site is not penalized and that if i type my site’s URL then it shows in the results. They also refer me to their AdCenter if I want to improve my SERPs :)

BTW, we do advertise with AdCenter but the traffic it brings pales in comparison with AdWords despite bidding higher then in AdWords

[centime]

>>I don't believe that is the problem.<<

Might I ask why?

USA = world biggest market, most SEO experts, most webmasters, most money to be made, usually equates to most competiton

[BillyS]

>>Might I ask why?

>>USA = world biggest market, most SEO experts, most webmasters, most money to be made, usually equates to most competiton.

Because I rank fine for my own site name everywhere but in the US. It's not like the difference is related to some competitive term.

When you're #1 for your own unique name outside the US but inside you don't show until page 25 then it's more than competition. It's an automatic penalty of sorts that MSN refuses to discuss.

Shurik and I have exchanged notes on this problem before:
>>After several email exchanges with MSN i'm certain that the penalty is algorithmic and there is nothing they can do to remove it.

It's the same exact pattern for both of us. To combat spam in the US, MSN uses a different filter. We're tripping that filter for some reason. It would bother me more if MSN's results were good.

[Shurik]

BillyS, I recently played with their "advanced search results ranking" feature and noticed that popularity above 55 {popl=55} brings me back to the first page in US serps.

[BillyS]

Shurik - that works for me too on my domain name. Interesting.