Google.ie hammmering - any advice or opinions?

[frankp]

Been meaning to look into this in more depth, but haven't had a chance till now.

Basically my site websitedesigncork.com was doing well for the search term 'web design cork' - it got from being a new site nowhere to be found to position 4/5 on Google for the term.

It's dropped down a bit now due to neglect on my part.

But while it's dropped down in Google generally a few places, it's really dropped down in Google.ie.

Pretty much any other variant of Google it's still on the first/second page but in Google.ie it's fourth or fifth page.

At first I thought this might be because Google was having trouble identifying the site as being in Ireland or pertaining to Ireland, but this does not appear to be the case. An IP lookup shows the server to be in Ireland and I've set the geographic target to Ireland in Webmaster tools.

So, could this simply be because Google has decided that in Google.ie there are other more deserving local sites for the phrase 'web design cork'.

And if so, is it not odd that the site does so much better in Google.com and other variants despite competing with the same sites?

As in, I at first expected that the rankings in Google.com would follow suit, but it's been a long time now and Google.com remains unaffected.

Thanks for any feedback on this issue.
Cheers,
Frank

 

[link8r]

Hi Frank,

A few things to consider that make this deeper and maybe give you more to consider. Firstly, most people in Ireland search under Google.ie (PFW) or Google.ie (PFIreland). These have different results from Google.com(NCR) which also for some reason doesn't return US results either. Very people know how to search with NCR, so I don't know very many non-technical people who use it.

You don't seem to have a penalty - so that's good. I'm doing a quick check using this search. This search checks for you site. A pentalty can usually be detected if your site isn't number 1. This check shows you have at least 74 pages or so indexed, again I haven't gone into detail.

A very rough, blunt check suggests about 39 domains are linking to you - thats not a lot. I did have the number 2 spot a few years back but we decided to close our Cork offering about a year ago - so I do know what I'm talking about. We're on page 2 now (having no cork address anymore). Funny thing is, Cork used to be our biggest visitor number from Google - but we didn't get 1 enquiry until we had a cork office, which just became too much overhead being based in Limerick.

Toolbar PageRank is a load of foobar but yours is low @ 3/10. You also have very little content on your home page. Worse still is just how little content you have. We're number 4/5 in ireland on just "website design Ireland". We have over 200 pages. And growing.

BTW - you suggest you offer SEO. I hate to be difficult but in fairness, I dont see a good understanding of SEO on your site or your clients. Yes I know, we're all busy, too busy to concentrate on our own sites. We didn't offer SEO until we hit page 1 for "Search Engine Optimisation" and "SEO". It's fluid enough. We also have #1/#2 for "Software outsourcing" and (literally) thousands more. In face we have probably have more than 10k across 100 domains. Just saying...

 

[Redfly]

The Google Honeymoon Period - Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

Google 'Honeymoon' period - experiences please

Also have a look for QDF (query deserves freshness) and QDD (query deserves diversity).
What you are experiencing is completely normal.

 

[frankp]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for taking the time, but I didn't think that it was a honeymoon period issue because of the timescales involved - perhaps I was wrong, I'll look into it in more depth.

If it were an initial leg up in Google would you not expect Google.com to follow suit with the fall in ranking?

This has not been the case, I had an initial bumpy ride followed by a fairly steady rank from 25/05/08 to 27/11/08 and at that point a fall on Google.ie

I fully expected a similar fall in Google.com but so far it hasn't occurred. That's what has me curious about this.

Let me know if these timescales change your opinion of the issue.

Thanks,
Frank

 

[link8r]

How old is the site/domain combination

 

[frankp]

Brand new site/domain in Jan08.

I'd be surprised if it had a bearing on this though, overall I would expect my site to perform slightly *better* in Google.ie than in Google.com, not the other way around - and age of site and domain I would not expect to impact one and not the other.

That's why initially I thought this might be a geographic issue with Google, but if it is I can't identify the exact issue.

I realise that SEO is an art which involves science, and I may well be able to resolve this issue through general improvements which I'm aware are needed. This just struck me as such a specific behaviour that I thought I might be missing something obvious here.

Thanks for your time and help,
Best,
Frank

 

[link8r]

Then it just got those positions because it's new. Google does that to new sites. That area (cork web design) is going to be very competitive in 2009 - as it will be across Ireland.

 

[frankp]

I don't think that's it myself, but thanks for your help.

Are you @primaryposition on Twitter? If so, hi again!

 

[link8r]

Yip, thats me.

 

[paul]

I don't have much time, so this is short.

Could be the honeymoon thing
Do you have a sitemap ?
Also get yourself a robots.txt file !

 

[RedCardinal]

Curious that no one has considered backlinks.
Google may determine how 'Irish' you are based on local links.
So if your links primarily come from outside Ireland that might explain why you'd rank better in .com

Just thought it might be a possibility here.

 

[frankp]

That's certainly the most plausible hypothesis I've heard or come up with so far!

Tomorrow I'll be looking into it to see if there's such a bias that it might skew it.

Thanks for the suggestion

 

[hummer]

To be Frank, Frank, there is no content on the site that is worthy to be indexed. Firstly, take off Search Engine Optimisation as you clearly dont have those skills, and also web design is questionable...

Simple things like the 5 reasons to hire me, should be text, not graphical so google can read it..

 

[frankp]

Thanks for your input Hummer.

I don't think you've quite addressed the question, but I appreciate your time nonetheless.

 

[hummer]

I think its most likely the new site boost that google gives. I have a couple of new sites hitting high google positions now, but I know they will drop to there natural position soon.



I've given you a link on my web site, i dont maintain it anymore, but should help

www paintworkzstudio .co.uk

Also for Web Design in Ireland check out Web Design Cork

 

[hummer]

The other issue re .com and .ie is the competition would be much greater on the google.ie than .com. How many people would search for web design cork on .com. Most of the searches would be on .ie hence why there would be more competiton..

Thanks for your input Hummer.

I don't think you've quite addressed the question, but I appreciate your time nonetheless.

 

[raul]

Frank,
Just a quick note before I'm going to sleep...

I think that could be the problem - If I'm wrong...sorry but you're missing the KEYWORDS tag in your code .

Regards,
Raul.

 

[frankp]

I'm not definitively ruling anything out, but in my experience to date the timescales and behaviour of the site don't match the usual behaviour of a boost for a new site.

Not sure about your .ie search traffic point - I'd need to think it out some more, but again, my experience with other sites wouldn't stack up here.

I do think RedCardinal may have a point and I am currently experimenting to see if by increasing Irish links to the site I can rectify the disparity.

Raul thanks for your reply, I don't think keywords have much of an impact these days, and it wouldn't explain the difference between .ie and .com - but thanks for taking the time to look at the site.

Thanks to everyone for replying. I will post again if I discover anything concrete.

 

[frankp]

Update

Thanks to everyone who responded to this thread.

Just a quick update to say I added a couple of links from Irish sites before getting distracted off to a client project and noticed today that Google.ie has fallen back in line with Google.com and the other country variations.

It remains to be seen whether this will stick, I half expect to see a bit of bouncing around again over the next few days / weeks.

Just thought those who were giving input would be interested in the update.