Why do SERP Results ( Rankings ) differ from country to country ?

[pyxle]

Hi, I have been doing seo for this client based in Sri lanka for almost 8 months now. Since we started SEO we had set up geographic target setting to UK through google webmaster tools.

At the moment Site is completely ranking higher on google uk & other countries except Sri Lanka . On Google.lk site doesn't even come within 1st 5 pages for keywords which are ranked on1st page in other countries ?

What do you think about this ? How does it happen ?

[Keszi]

Hey Pyxle,

There are a lot of Google Databases all over the world. Depending on your browser location your query will differ depending on which Google Database you are connected to (Giving different results).

Google does test-test-test on each database, so there are a lot of factors that could differ from database to database.

I hope this helped,

Istvan

[AndyMacLean]

You said you set up targeting for the UK so why are you concerned that it doesnt rank on Google.lk?

If you want to geo-target a website for a particular countries search results you'll find lots of good blog posts about how to do it right here on SEOMOZ. Aside from that heres a few pointers:

• You really need the country specific TLD or at worst a country neutral one e.g. .net. If you want to target the uk then you will do much better having a co.uk TLD. If you DO have a co.uk TLD this is the main reason why you dont rank in Google.lk.

• Ensure the website content is written in the language of the country you want to target.

• Try and attract links from country specific tlds e.g. if you want to target google.lk search results try and get links from .lk websites e.g. website.lk

[pyxle]

Could you be kind enough to name few major factors that affect database data differentiation. ?

How do we get over with ?

[Keszi]

Sorry I do not have much. Basically I believe Google is running all kind of different tests on each database, collecting data then using it on major updates.

One possible way to check rankings for different databases is to connect through Proxy Servers, but I am not a big IT guy, so maybe someone else can answer you how to do that.

Istvan