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.