Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : SEO / SEM Discussions : So, you have different SERPs result in different datacenter?

[Zafar Ahmed]

I received this issue via an E-mail from a guy regarding different datacenters and different SERPs result. So, the question goes like

“it looks like google shows different results depending on where the user is from. Even when using the same google.com link and entering keyword in English”

Nice question, Infact I had this same issue with my results as well, I used a proxy to determine what result I’m getting from different datacenter and been using different tools to find that out, I was getting different results on Google.com than from Google.ca even after using those tools and a proxy.

Interesting? You might have heard of this “google use different results on different datacenters and different locations” – Yes, this is partly true. However, there are people completely confused about their results in different datacenters. In my assumption this could be due to (you can call this a change or a new thing in Google’s algorithm) google not only want localized ‘better results’, they are making it harder for their results to be abused.

There are few tricks to avoid this to happen:

1.log out of your gmail, any google accounts.

2.Stop using proxy everytime.

3.Use google Webmaster Account to set the geo targeted location for your website

Also, here is how to use SERPs result from USA:

For example, if you are searching for “widget”

input
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&g...t2&btnG=Search

?hl=en - tells you the results to be in English (interface only, not the results!)
&gl=us - sets google Local results for usA

&q=widget+widget2 - this is your widget phrase, (adds a plus sign instead of free space in between widget 1 and widget 2 keywords)

&btnG=Search - confirms you clicked on google Search button

You should be able to see your SERPs:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&g...et&btnG=Search – for USA
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&g...et&btnG=Search - for UK

Furthermore, I found out people outside USA using Google.com shows a different set of result than people from USA using Google.com, please stop saying “Google.com” is the main datacenter used in the world. I hate to hear that, just because you see your keyword ranked top ten does not means it is the same for everyone.

I recently received a comment from an SEO saying “Your keyword “SEO Guru” is ranked different on a US datacenter and showing a different result of Pakistan datacentre”, my reply would be I suspect this to be beyond the “geographic boundaries”, it takes a lot of factor – you can’t get first page on every datacenters, unless you have some really strong trust with Google and your website is 5+ old, also – please remember “Competition is greater in the US” than in other datacenters.

Any idea? Any questions? Please discuss here.

regards,
Zafar Ahmed

[dawhb]

Very useful information. I can add that having different search results in different regions is very useful and localizes web search. It is nonsense to search on "dedicated servers" in Google and to get the same results in Top 100 no matter if you are in Canada, Norway or Taiwan...

[Zafar Ahmed]

Originally Posted by dawhb

Very useful information. I can add that having different search results in different regions is very useful and localizes web search. It is nonsense to search on "dedicated servers" in Google and to get the same results in Top 100 no matter if you are in Canada, Norway or Taiwan...

Yes, I agree. Many SEO's have started doing geographical SEO and focusing on generic keywords.

[Melnel]

Zafar -- While I do understand that different people in different locations may see different results, this has nothing whatever to do with the factors you mentioned, but is largely dependent on:

The location you are searching from. Different locations are normally served by different data centers which may be in different states of update. You may even have your search handled by a distant DC if network load requires.

Google.com and Google.co.uk (for instance) actually have different databases. The differences may be minor but its pretty easy to see by comparing the number of results received from one or the other.

BTW if you want to see your results from Google.co.uk just type that into the address bar instead of Google.com.

As for the idea that competition is greater at US DCs that is simply B*******T. The ranking competition for any search on any DC is dependent only on the contents of the database in that DC and the optimization (or lack thereof) of the pages in that database.

[calvynlee]

I search certain keyword in different extension of the domain, will give me different result

such as google.com and google.com.my
I am using US proxy to access google.com when i need different search result

[MrCat]

“it looks like google shows different results depending on where the user is from. Even when using the same google.com link and entering keyword in English”

Wouldn't be surporised about this. The datacenter in your area would show up different results based on Google's algo.

I am using US proxy to access google.com when i need different search result

Whenever I am logged in to Gmail and use the search box there, it would give me the .com serp - no need to use for proxies