Does Google's algorithm work the same in every country?
-
I can't help but feel this is a silly question! but does Google algorithm work exactly the same throughout all countries?
I run a few sites in the UK and a couple in Spain but can't help but feel that my Spanish sites are harder to rank for.
The sites that rank the best are business directories in Spain... whereas here in the UK you'd be lucky to find one on page one..
-
Cool question, the answer is already given and is NO. Google is rolling out the bigger algorithmic updates per region or per country. For example the first version(s) of the Panda update were only released for the regions speaking English. After that they deployed it to several european countries to see what the influence was there. In the end after a couple of months they deployed it worldwide.
I couldn't find it that fast but I thought there was also a video from Matt Cutts explaining that some elements of the algorithm only work for specific countries.
-
Also Google will test out new algorithms and then roll them out country by country.
-
No it does not, and here is one glimpse as to why:
"Google does indeed sometimes launch algorithms just for the English language but when possible, Google does try to launch them globally."
Hope this helps
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Country specific SEO
Hi I have a question regarding country specific SEO and what would the best approach be? I have website A which is currently ranking well in Google country A, I would now like to introduce a new website B which is only specific to users in Google country B. The only difference between the 2 websites is that website B will have different prices and products for the users in Google country B. From a development point of view we would like to only have one instance of the website which can be served to users in country A and B all that we would do is change some of the content and prices based on the user IP which means that users in country A see a different version of the website to users in country B. Is this approach fine from and organic point of view? Or would we need to have 2 separate websites and make use of Href Lang?
International SEO | | Iannaude0 -
How can I change the currency Google lists my products with in the SERP?
I.e. This product - http://www.absoluteautomation.ca/fgd400-sensaphone400-p/fgd400.htm - shows up as USD in the SERP. (In the US it just won't show a currency, if Canada it will show USD on the SERP). My pricing is all in CAD, how can I tell Google this? (It knows pricing is CAD in my Google Product Listings/Merchant Center). Thanks!
International SEO | | absoauto0 -
Blocking domestic Google's in Robots.txt
Hey, I want to block Google.co.uk from crawling a site but want Google.de to crawl it. I know how to configure the Robots.txt to block Google and other engines - is there a fix to block certain domestic crawlers? any ideas? Thanks B
International SEO | | Bush_JSM0 -
CcTLD not ranking in other country.
I'm trying to rank a .im domain in Australia and having a hard time getting any traction at all. GWT won't let me geo-target the domain for Australia. It is currently set for Isle of Man. Thinking of registering a .com.au (same domain isn't available, but I can get something close) and mirror the site completely. I'd canonical all urls on the .com.au to the corresponding .im pages - would this make a difference? Also, since the linkbuilding is being done for the .im domain - I think I'll have to start over on the .com.au domain. Thoughts, tips and insight highly appreciated mozzers!
International SEO | | bobjones0 -
Pop-up to select country. Any negative SEO effect?
Hi there! We have similar websites in different countries (it's an ecommerce site). Some times, those websites share the same language and, for example, people from Mexico end up in a page from our website in Argentina. Therefore they see our products in their language buy in a foreign currency. We would like to show them a pop-up (like a shadowbox) depending on their IP to allow them to go to their local website. There wouldn't be any redirect. Would that affect our rankings in any way? Would Googlebots see that as well? Thanks!
International SEO | | jorgediaz0 -
Use country-specific domains or stick to already strong .com domain?
We run an online store with the majority of our customers coming from 4 different European countries. The site is accessible through TLD's of all of these countries. However our .com domain currently has the most links pointing to it and the highest domain authority. Unfortunately, we are unable to tell through which TLD visitors reach our site. The niche is rather competetive, and therefore I am unsure whether it would be worth it to solely use our .com domain for the English language, and try to rank for each of the seperate languages with its own country-specific domain. **Question/discussion: **Will it be worth the costs and time to spent to build links for the country specific domains in these countries, or should we focus on making our .com domain stronger and use it for all countries? I'm aware of the benefits of ranking with a domain in the country the user is in. Note: We have major duplicate content issues at this moment, due the content being available in different languages, on a handful of domains. On each domain, users can view the site in different languages. In addition, the language indication in the url is not very clear (?lang=x) so I believe this should be improved to make it easier for search engines to tell which language is presented. If I choose to use a different language for each TLD, then the language flag in the navigation on the site will point to a different domain, so each language is hosted on 1 domain and there is no more duplicate content. However, I'm afraid this will lead to lower rankings, as the (strong) .com domain will no longer host the content in different languages.
International SEO | | 1200wd0 -
Geo Targeting for Similar Sites to Specific Countries in Google's Index
I was hoping Webmaster Tools geo targeting would prevent this - I'm seeing in select google searches several pages indexed from our Australian website. Both sites have unique TLDs: barraguard.com barraguard.com.au I've attached a screenshot as an example. The sites are both hosted here in the U.S. at our data center. Are there any other methods for preventing Google and other search engines from indexing the barraguard.com.au pages in searches that take place in the U.S.? dSzoh.jpg
International SEO | | longbeachjamie0 -
Google Webmaster Tools - International SEO Geo-Targeting site with Worldwide rankings
I have a client who already has rankings in the US & internationally. The site is broken down like this: url.com (main site with USA & International Rankings) url.com/de url.com/de-english url.com/ng url.com/au url.com/ch url.com/ch-french url.com/etc Each folder has it's own sitmap & relative content for it's respective country. I am reading in google webmaster tools > site config > settings, the option under 'Learn More': "If you don't want your site associated with any location, select Unlisted." If I want to keep my client's international rankings the way it currently is on url.com, do NOT geo target to United States? So I select unlisted, right? Would I use geo targeting on the url.com/de, url.com/de-english, url.com/ng, url.com/au and so on?
International SEO | | Francisco_Meza0