google.com vs google.co.uk

[simonr]

I'm tempted to wonder if they've got different alogos. I have two sites for which I do the SEO myself - basically focusing on the term presentation skills training.

www.tellingpeople.co.uk (http://www.tellingpeople.co.uk) and www.curved-vision.co.uk. (http://www.curved-vision.co.uk.) On google.co.uk they both appear on page on but for google.com one of them is on page one while the other doesn't appear until page three. This is despite the fact that I do the same things for both of them. The only real difference, I think, is that the corporate site (company homepage) has a PHP script which updates the site every time I update my blog and puts the first para of each new blog entry onto the homepage.

Could it be that .CO.UK isn't impressed by this where as .COM is? Or is it simply that .COM has more/different sites to compare my sites to and there just happen to be 20 or so sites that rank in the gap between my two?

Does it matter? If it does, what can I (and should I!) do about it?

S

[sirearl]

well I am not sure but I think google .com give preference to US sites.

does it matter well that depends on how many people use google,com in the UK or your market country and whether you want to capture the US market.

We find the US market a bit of a pain cause they don't know the difference between a pound sign and the dollar or of course where the UK is in relation to there own country :D

I would be interested if anyone has figures on this ?

Earl

[RayB]

Our dot com ranks well on both .co.uk and .com - but the results are different (different positions and different pages returned for the same KW's)

There are definately differences in the algo - which do not make sense (and I study this a lot)!

That said - if you want a dot com to rank on .co.uk you MUST physically host it in the UK with a UK IP address.

(Beware - some UK hosting companies use servers located abroad)

[PintoPotts]

Agreed, there is a different algo for both, .co.uk's are easier to rank on Google.co.uk than .com and vice versa.

[WHUK]

Agreed, there is a different algo for both, .co.uk's are easier to rank on Google.co.uk than .com and vice versa.

Also location of hosting server also affect ranking ;) if you are hosted with UK host having their server located in UK this will give you added benefit.
Contents and backlinks plays a major role in SEO, usually cctld ranks well for their own premises.

[Max Jennings]

Also location of hosting server also affect ranking ;) if you are hosted with UK host having their server located in UK this will give you added benefit.
Contents and backlinks plays a major role in SEO, usually cctld ranks well for their own premises.


That's right - if your site is specific to a particular market then it is wise to host your site in the same country. Google also has lots of different data centres, which means that search results can even very occasionally vary between locations on the same Google extension.

[eye138]

Also location of hosting server also affect ranking ;) if you are hosted with UK host having their server located in UK this will give you added benefit.
Contents and backlinks plays a major role in SEO, usually cctld ranks well for their own premises.

[WHUK]

Also location of hosting server also affect ranking ;) if you are hosted with UK host having their server located in UK this will give you added benefit.
Contents and backlinks plays a major role in SEO, usually cctld ranks well for their own premises.

Welcome to UKBF MR eye :)

Please don't copy-paste post of other members try to write them in your own words.
I think you have just carbon copy of my previous post or you forget to edit it lol;)

[simonr]

Does anyone have any thoughts, then, about whether people tend to use google.co.uk or google.com when they're searching for things? Personally I go to .co.uk 'cos I know I'm likely to get a better UK-relevant response but I'm not sure that "Joe Public" thinks like this - they just tend to use google.com......?

S

[WHUK]

It may depends on what your are searching if your are looking for some local product/service then you may go with country specific ( I mean if you looking for some UK based company then certainly you will search it in Google.co.uk )

[lewey]

Google have publicly stated that they are trying to improve relevancy by distinguishing between countries, and taking country specific domains and IP addresses as part of the consideration.

As to what google version (.com v .co.uk) people use for searching - I use both depending on what I am searching for, general info or if I want more country specific info I will use a country google version.

I suspect that the average "Joe Public" isn't so aware of there being differences. This will depend somewhat on your audience. The other issue here that may influence what people use is browser and toolbar choice.

I say this, as I use Safari, for which the inbuilt google search box uses google.com which I use by default, and I will go to google.co.uk when I want to. The firefox browser I also have and use sometimes, by default uses google.co.uk for me.

For the majority IE users, what default google version do they get if they have downloaded the google toolbar?

[RayB]

Does anyone have any thoughts, then, about whether people tend to use google.co.uk or google.com

S


I would be interested to know if there are any "stats" on this - if you are using Google Toolbar - which is installed by default on many new PC's (dell etc) I guess the.co.uk Goog is the default?

I use both .co.uk and .com to keep an eye on my SERPS's

[Phil_]

I can definately vouch for hosting server location. If your host isn't in the UK, it will heavily affect where you are (if at all) for search terms in google.co.uk.

*gulp*


Phil