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Author Topic: Difference between Rankings in Google USA and Google UK  (Read 1913 times)

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Offline sparksTopic starter

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Difference between Rankings in Google USA and Google UK
« on: June 10, 2010, 02:40:12 PM »
Once again, l am hoping l might get an answer to something that puzzles me regarding getting your site ranking in google for different countries. Why does google rank you, say on page one in google usa and maybe page 6 or 7 in the UK (or whatever other country).

l have been trying to get my site ranked high in the serps for google UK, but it seems the more backlinks l get and the harder l try, it seems to make no difference. However, for the States, l can manage to get highly ranked for lots of keywords without too much trouble. l use all the usual ways with building backlinks, but for the last 3 months, as l progress up the rankings in google USA, l am moving in the opposite direction for Google UK.

For one particularly competitive searchterm, l am now ranked at position 6 in google USA. However, for the same term in google UK, l moved from 30 to 289 in 3 months!! It's like google is deliberately slapping me. Everything l do is completely white hat. The problem is l am not interested in being ranked in the US. l am only interested in getting ranked for the UK.

Has it got anything to do with IP addresses, or the sites where the backlinks are coming from? Frankly, l'm baffled.

Most guru's talk about getting ranked in google, as if google doesn't exist outside of the States.

Could anyone here enlighten me regarding this?

Thanks
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Offline linus

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Re: Difference between Rankings in Google USA and Google UK
« Reply #1 on: August 05, 2010, 03:04:12 AM »

Hey Sparks,

I can maybe give you some answers, assuming your site's TLD is a .com ...

1. Is your hosting based in the US, or better, are the servers of your hosting based in the US ?
If the answer is yes then you should know that GG give "more importance" to sites hosted in x country. As both in the UK and the US language is English, if a .com site is hosted in the US, it will rank higher in the US and viceversa (don't worry, see "turnarounds" below)
2. Where are your backlinks coming from ? Are you just backlinking from sites without considering from where they are ?

Turnarounds for you (I'm not going deep as there's a lot to say about, but trust me, following tips might  help you a lot):
a. about Q no. 1: one thing would be to have ( if you just aim to have a UK audience ) a .co.uk TLD. Otherwise, you could also go to GG webmaster platform, register your site in and tell the tool you want to geotarget UK.
b. about backlinks. if you want to rank high in the UK you have to build backlinks FROM sites in the UK ( the closer those sites are to the audience of your site, the better )

Just my 2 cents, I'm not an expert, but I read those advices quite a few times in forums.

Good Luck !  ;)

 
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Offline metalmaster

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Re: Difference between Rankings in Google USA and Google UK
« Reply #2 on: September 19, 2010, 05:58:26 AM »
Your answers makes perfect sense, however my experience may add to the mix an actual result, be it only one result.

My website is hosted in the USA but my TLD is .co.uk and for my primary keyword I am in the organic postiion for Google UK #1 and #2 position where I have been for 4 years + . However I was also in the same position in the Google USA as well until about 1 years ago where I have slipped back to #3 & #5.

I am not an SEO expert but I have done the very basic SEO on my site, with about 30 backlinks, nothing special, my site is very basic - I sell product if you wanted to know so the site is a niche site.

Hope this helps.
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Re: Difference between Rankings in Google USA and Google UK
« Reply #2 on: September 19, 2010, 05:58:26 AM »

Offline webnet

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Re: Difference between Rankings in Google USA and Google UK
« Reply #3 on: September 23, 2010, 01:12:02 AM »
Just to throw something else in the mix.

I have a site, [These are not the keywords, but are something related] which I am optimising for "accommodation birmingham".  It is hosted in the USA, but I am getting UK traffic.

In this case, I think that because the search term itself it localised, and the content in the site is localised, this works.

In general, I would recommend hosting the site in the country where you want to do business.

I personally use webhosting.uk.com:

Affiliate link version Webhosting.uk.com

Not affiliate link version: Webhosting.uk.com

(We are all Internet marketers here, so I put the affiliate link up, but also the not-affiliate link as well so that you don't think that I am only doing it as an affiliate).

Their servers are located in Exeter in Devon, which is very local to me personally.

Of course, you could look around for another UK based hosting company, there are a few around.  I hear Google is useful for that kind of thing... ;) ;D

In other things, there is evidence to suggest that Google shows different results based on the location that you are in, particularly for localised searches.  A lot of it depends what the keyword is.

Hope that helps.
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Offline sparksTopic starter

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Re: Difference between Rankings in Google USA and Google UK
« Reply #4 on: January 20, 2011, 06:02:47 AM »
Hey Guys, Thanks for that info, which l sorta suspected was to do with where your hosting was and whether it was co.uk or com.
Sorry for the late reply ;D
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Offline dandan594

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Re: Difference between Rankings in Google USA and Google UK
« Reply #5 on: December 11, 2011, 02:04:13 AM »
It is not where your severs are based at all. Google allow you to target one country predominantly and then the rest are a lot of hard work to rank for.

You can change the country you target in you webmaster tools. Use geo-targeting to rank for other countries. 
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Offline davidash2

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Re: Difference between Rankings in Google USA and Google UK
« Reply #6 on: December 11, 2011, 01:52:48 PM »
This is interesting. I am in the US, and do not have any sites that target any other countries, but it is something that I have wondered about.

What would you do with a site that is "globally" targeted - something that someone anywhere would be interested in? (And you want to be ranked as high as possible in every Google search engine.)
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Offline BuildMyLinks

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Re: Difference between Rankings in Google USA and Google UK
« Reply #7 on: December 22, 2011, 04:10:21 AM »
I agree.  A .co.uk domain, links from UK sites, and even maybe hosting it in the UK all give Google context that your site is relevant for UK searchers.

Makes link building that bit more difficult since there's no where near as many tools/services/networks just for the UK.

Low competition UK local keywords seem to respond to general link building at the moment, but for moving up the UK serps for more competitive terms, you're going to want to focus on the usual link building methods, but with a focus on UK sites - bookmarks, directories, articles, guest posts...etc.

Quote from: linus on August 05, 2010, 03:04:12 AM

Hey Sparks,

I can maybe give you some answers, assuming your site's TLD is a .com ...

1. Is your hosting based in the US, or better, are the servers of your hosting based in the US ?
If the answer is yes then you should know that GG give "more importance" to sites hosted in x country. As both in the UK and the US language is English, if a .com site is hosted in the US, it will rank higher in the US and viceversa (don't worry, see "turnarounds" below)
2. Where are your backlinks coming from ? Are you just backlinking from sites without considering from where they are ?

Turnarounds for you (I'm not going deep as there's a lot to say about, but trust me, following tips might  help you a lot):
a. about Q no. 1: one thing would be to have ( if you just aim to have a UK audience ) a .co.uk TLD. Otherwise, you could also go to GG webmaster platform, register your site in and tell the tool you want to geotarget UK.
b. about backlinks. if you want to rank high in the UK you have to build backlinks FROM sites in the UK ( the closer those sites are to the audience of your site, the better )

Just my 2 cents, I'm not an expert, but I read those advices quite a few times in forums.

Good Luck !  ;)

 
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