hopefully this isn't a stupid question but...
is there a difference between google.com and google.ie ?
i am doing some research on wedding planning sites. If I type in
the keyword phrase "wedding planning" into google.ie ( which comes
up by default even if I type in google.com) I see a number of irish based
sites in the top ten of the organic listings. Is this because they are
hosted in ireland and/or are .ie sites. I am assuming that someone, say
in the us, using google.com would see something different.

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That will be normal. Even when you try to get ranking on google, .com or .ie will show you a different rank.
For instance I am on page 4 on .com based on a certain search phrase, while on .ie I am on second page.

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louie, thanks for the reply. How do you check your .com ranking,
are you using a ranking report tool or are you able to get google.com
on your browser. I am running the latest versions of IE and firefox
and both of them default to .ie even if I type in google.com

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You can always click on the link "Go to Google.com"

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Country level indices (google.ie, google.co.uk) give a slight bias to websites from that geographic area.

Searches on google.ie with the 'pages from Ireland' option selected will only return sites that use the ccTLD (.ie) or whose server IP resolves to the country (Ireland).

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GoogleRankings.com - Check Google™ page ranking

but you need an API key to access it

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"wedding planning" as in a person who plans weddings, advice on how to plan your own wedding or a wedding planner application?

The "Go to Google.com" no longer seems to be available on the
latest versions of Internet explorer and firefox.

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jobs in ireland | Search Engine marketing Ireland

To access G.com results you can use a proxy like this one: Google

I think "slight bias" is under estimating things. Clearly if you are an Irish
based web site targetting local customers probably the most important
issue for getting high ranking on your targetted keywords is to be hosted
by an irish host ( at least this seems to be the case for google ).

for example....
if I type in "wedding planning" into google www. weddingsireland.com
lists as second in the organic search list. Clearly the main reason for this
is that it is hosted in Ireland and that me, as the searcher, is based in
Ireland. If I do the same search in msn.com and yahoo.com weddingsireland is nowhere to be seen.

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