Google.ie returning more and more UK based results, why?

[Secrets]

I have discovered the most infuriating issue with Google Search for Irish users and it seems to be getting increasingly worse in the last 2 years or so. This is not only frustrating as a business owner (in fact it could bring a business to its knees) but it is rage inducing as a consumer.
Google knows the location where I am searching from and I'm using google.ie yet I still get just a small number of Irish websites usually followed by eBay and Amazon results then a never ending list of websites that are based in the United Kingdom. Now, I know the one thing that we all have in common is the use of the English language, however what we don't have in common is shipping costs. In order to slightly increase the number of Irish based companies I need to add in the phrase 'Ireland' to my search (on google.ie in Ireland) and this makes only a small difference. In fact, oftentimes Google seems to throw in the odd American or Australian site just to really wind me up.
It's completely absurd that Google rarely returns results for .ie websites or irish based websites when searching in Ireland. Many UK companies don't ship to Ireland (including many of the eBay and Amazon results). This is killing Irish businesses who have the products and cheaper or free shipping and many how are working damn hard on their SEO are still being passed up for companies that have nothing to do with our economy.... Why oh why is this happening.

[ennovators]

Hi,

I'm not sure how advanced your SEO knowledge is but geotargeting on the Google Search Console in combination with the hreflang tag could be the solution for your specific site to appear in right search results.

I'd suggest to read through the following links to get an idea of what it is:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/62399?hl=en

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en

Hope this helps for now

[Secrets]

Thanks Mirko,

Yup, I have this done on my site

It seems to be on a general scale that Google chooses to ignore Irish sites even .ie sites over UK and US results. Very frustrating for Irish businesses and buyers. We've only a population of 4m and it would be nice to have the Irish online economy to work a little better!