I took him up on his offer to prove it. Sure enough when he Googled the phrase in question, his hotel came up at #4.  However I had noticed the PC he was using was logged into Google at that point in time, probably somebody had logged in to collect their Gmail. When I logged the computer out of Google and searched again, the hotel was nowhere to be found in the Google listing.

The point I am making is this: In order to establish your true Google position it is first necessary to log out of Google. Otherwise Google will factor in websites that you have previously viewed into the results.

Here is a simple example for the search phrase “hotel Ireland”. This initial result was obtained while I was logged into my Google account. Notice that www.hodsonbayhotel.com is returned at #2. I had visited their hotel website a few weeks ago while logged into Google & the search engine had remembered this.

I carried out this search while logged into my Gmail account. Please note that www.hodsonbayhotel.com is returned at position #2

Now , Lets Google again but this time while logged out of my Google account. You can see that this time www.hodsonbayhotel.com is not returned in these results. This is the true position.

The true position obtained by logging out of my Google account. www.hodsonbayhotel.com is no longer in the results

To discuss your SEO project please email Alex O’Connor or go to www.digact.com

Most website owners are unaware of the fact that Google displays different results to searchers in different countries. Sometimes these may be minor differences while on other occasions these differences can make the difference between a website being found or the website being “invisible”.

This is because Google is in the business of providing the most relevant search engine result for each individual user. In this context Google attaches tremendous importance to the searchers physical location as determined by their IP Address.

So next time your SEO consultant tells you that you are #1 for a particular phrase….ask them for what countries.

Here is an example chosen at random. For the sake of simplicity I have not used proxy servers to disguise my IP address but rather just visited two country specific versions of Google, Google.ie & Google.co.uk. The phrase I have selected for this demonstration is “holiday Ireland”. For the record about 40,500 unique UK users searched for “holiday Ireland” in the month of September.

The first image is the result using Google.ie. In this case www.discoverireland.ie is in #1 position and www.dreamireland.com is #3

Google Search Results for Irish user

In the second case (Google.co.uk) you will see that www.discoverireland.com has been displaced at #1 by www.discoverireland.com/gb, www.discoverireland.ie has slipped to #3 while www.dreamireland.com has disappeared off the radar (Actually it’s now on the second page….but how many of the 40,500 searchers continued on to the second page? )

Google search results for UK user

I suppose the point I am trying to make is that when website owners are commissioning search engine optimisation projects they need to be quite specific on the geographic markets that they are targeting because when it comes to SEO, one size definately does not fit all.

If you are considering optimising you website for Google, then please email Alex O’Connor or click here to return to our Search Engine Optimisation page.