How does the Google UK search engine work?
May 19th, 2008 | by Peter Cullen |Are the results you get back from the Google UK Search Engine radically different from the Google.com? How does Google determine what is more relevant for a UK audience than an Irish audience or a French or Spanish or German audience?
If you take into account that localised pages get special treatment, what additional factors influence ranking on Google’s tld’s? Let’s take the example of a random surfer who types in the phrase, ’seo companies’. What is the result from Google.co.uk? I’ve left the ‘Search the web’ radio button clicked and hit search! An analysis of the top 10 websites:
| Ranking | TLD | Hosted | Registered |
| 1 | .com | UK | UK |
| 2 | .co.uk | UK | UK |
| 3 | .com | UK | UK |
| 4 | .co.uk | UK | UK |
| 5 | .co.uk | UK | UK |
| 6 | .co.uk | US | India |
| 7 | .com | Denmark | UK |
| 8 | .co.uk | US | UK |
| 9 | .co.uk | UK | UK |
| 10 | .com | Germany | UK |
So, in the top 10 results you have no website that has no connection with the UK, i.e. no website that is registered and hosted outside the UK and has not got a .co.uk. So, what about when I search on ‘pages from the UK’? Does the top 10 change? What changes are there? Let’s have a look…
| Ranking | Search the Web | Search pages from the UK |
| 1 | www.whitehatmedia.com | www.whitehatmedia.com |
| 2 | www.dolphinpromotions.co.uk | www.dolphinpromotions.co.uk |
| 3 | www.dolphinpromotions.co.uk | www.dolphinpromotions.co.uk |
| 4 | www.positiongoldltd.com | www.bigmouthmedia.com |
| 5 | www.bigmouthmedia.com | www.bigmouthmedia.com |
| 6 | www.blueclaw.co.uk | www.maximumhit.co.uk |
| 7 | www.maximumhit.co.uk | www.positiongoldltd.com |
| 8 | www.freshpromotion.com | www.positiongoldltd.com |
| 9 | www.smart-traffic.co.uk | www.blueclaw.co.uk |
| 10 | www.hobo-web.co.uk | www.smart-traffic.co.uk |
Look at the results above, there is very little difference between results from the Web and results from the UK. So, what’s the key to getting a good ranking if you are targeting the UK?
From the (admittedly small) example above, if you are hosted in the UK, have a UK tld and register your domain with an address in the UK, then you stand a much greater chance of your content appearing in the UK.
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11 Responses to “How does the Google UK search engine work?”
By fatih on May 31, 2008 | Reply
interest article. I should also add that if tld or hosting is located outside UK, you can use google webmaster to define the location of your website.
By Jay on Sep 1, 2008 | Reply
smart-traffic.co.uk is the company we regretfully chose.
We opted for a complete SEO package from smart-traffic.co.uk after promise of a great service.
smart-traffic.co.uk did a complete analysis of our site and said it would be possible with the site we have to guarantee they can get us a number 1 spot on one of our key words in google after 6 months.
After regular monthly calls for our stage payments and six months later they were not getting us to number 1.
smart-traffic.co.uk said because we have a .com domain and not .co.uk and our site is hosted in the US smart-traffic.co.uk could not get us to number 1 and we would need to spend more money for this.
We refused and asked smart-traffic.co.uk why they didn’t outline this in the initial review before we agree. All smart-traffic.co.uk could say was its not up to them.
So we would need to somehow get a .co.uk domain and move our hosting!
How ridiculous and yes after our last payment to smart-traffic.co.uk there was no more calls to see how we were going. One thing smart-traffic.co.uk said was if they could not get us to number one in the specified time they would shell out the cost building more links etc. To get us to number 1, but nothing.
To sum up there are plenty of reputable and honest companies out there and in our onion, smart-traffic.co.uk isn’t one of them. Do not get caught up in the what we now know as the scam of position 1 guarantee, there will always be a way for smart-traffic.co.uk to get out of it and stitch you up.
By Peter Cullen on Sep 1, 2008 | Reply
Hi Jay,
I think it’s safe to say there is no company that can guarantee a number one position in Google, be it .co.uk or .com or whatever.
Looking for a quick solution to good traffic usually leads to tears!
Maybe http://www.smart-traffic.co.uk would like to reply to your comments?
By Dan on Oct 1, 2008 | Reply
Peter is right Jay, there is no quick fix to ranking business and if they come at you which such promises run a mile or better yet keep your money in the bank.
By Ivan | Jobs Blog on Dec 4, 2008 | Reply
Perhaps a situations like this could be avoided if the SEO agencies would be paid based on the performance? Like the Google AdWords PPC model? It would benefit the good SEO agencies and weed out the ones who make promises only?
By Peter Cullen on Dec 4, 2008 | Reply
You’re absolutely right Ivan.
I think performance related incentives should be a part of all SEO campaigns. Makes sense, the better the SEO, the more money you charge, the worse the SEO, the less you charge.
Of course, the one draw back with this appraoch is time. It can take 6-9 months to get traction in some sectors, which is alright if you have a client on a year long contract.
Bur what if you only a client for 3-6 months?
How long does it take, on average, to see an increase in targeted traffic?
By Visitor on Dec 10, 2008 | Reply
No company can guarantee number 1 in the search engine. That is a nonsense. Rules are changing so often, there is no steady position in Google and continuous SEO work should be done.
6 Months and what happens after? (well, they didn’t even get there)
By Alan on Aug 3, 2009 | Reply
Hello,
We have a .co.uk TLD. Its neither hosted nor registered in UK. We can see some improvement in pages from UK. however, there is less improvement on google UK (web results). Please advice what should we do to imnprove our rankings in web results. Also, if our target market is UK where should we be on top on pages from UK or web.
Please advice.
Regards,
By http://www.bdrlondon.com on Feb 27, 2010 | Reply
Alan – if you build relevant natural links to your site from other UK sites you will see improvements. Also make sure your site has no onsite technical obstructions.
Jay – I am really annoyed that smart traffic treated you in such a way it goves reputable SEO firms a bad name. You cannot guarantee anything in SEO. The only thing your SEO company should guarantee you is excellent service!
By James on Jun 29, 2010 | Reply
Interesting article – I wonder does this still apply and can the same be said of Yahoo and Bing?
By Peter Cullen on Jun 30, 2010 | Reply
@Jame, Ii would same the same applies for Yahoo and Bing, but I’d say the differences are a bit more pronounced. Have you done any research your self on this area?