By Bill Slawski, on November 13th, 2008While you can search at google.com just about anywhere in the world, you can also access Google at a number of different country specific addresses, such as google.co.uk, www.google.fr, www.google.co.in.
Chances are, if you search at one of the country specific Google address, the results you see may be biased towards pages associated with that country. But, when you search at Google.com, the search engine may also try to send you results that might be appropriate for the country you are located within, or a country that you prefer to see results from.
In an Official Google Blog post from July of this year, Technologies behind Google ranking, we were told that, “The same query typed in multiple countries may deserve completely different results.”
So, for example, a seach for the query [football] should provide different results in the US, the UK, and Australia, because the term refers to completely different sports.
A patent granted to Google this week describes some ways that the search engine might try to associate web pages with country locations, and searchers with preferred countries, as well as a method that could take that information to bias search results based upon the preferred country of a searcher.
A preferred country might include the country of the searcher as well as other countries that searcher might find acceptable, such as showing search results from the United States to people located in Canada.
The patent was originally filed in 2003, and it is possible that if the method described in this patent has been used by Google, that it may have evolved over time, or have been replaced by newer techniques.
System and method for providing preferred country biasing of search results
Invented by Vineet Gupta, Ben Gomes, John Lamping, Mizuki McGrath, Amit Singhal, and Simon Tong
Assigned to Google
US Patent 7,451,130
Granted November 11, 2008
Filed June 27, 2003
Abstract
A system and method for providing preferred country ordering of search results is described. A search query describing potentially retrievable information provided in a plurality of search result countries is received. A search is executed by evaluating the search query against information characteristics maintained in a searchable data repository.
At least one preferred country applicable to search results generated is dynamically determined responsive to the executed search. At least some of the search results are ordered in consideration of the at least one preferred country.
How Google May Associate Countries with Search Results
In one part of the patent, we’re told how Google might determine which countries are associated with each search result by looking at:
- A country top level domain (tld) for the domain a page is on – it could be assumed that the page is associated with that country. The example the patent gives is of the URL www.whsmith.co.uk, which is assumed to be either located in or associated with the United Kingdom.
- The address of the domain registrar for the site might be examined to infer the country of business.
- The country where the IP address might be located for the Web server from which the search result was obtained, from the page, or from other pages on the same site.
- Information from anchor text of the links pointing to the page and text near those links, and the countries linking to the page are located.
- Information from anchor text of links pointing from the page and text near those links, and the countries where those links are pointed towards are located.
- A combination of the above methods.
- Other techniques that might be helpful.
How Results are Biased Towards Preferred Countries for Search Queries
This process includes a “country biaser” which determines one or more preferred countries for each search query – so someone located in Canada might have Canada and the United States as preferred countries, and Australia might be considered a neutral or less preferred country.
Pages listed in search results could be promoted or demoted based upon their standing as a preferred country for a searcher, or based upon a numerical score assigned to each search result.
Toolbar data could be one way to determine a country bias for a searcher, with a view of a log file associated with that toolbar which counts the countries of the web sites which a searcher might visit. The toolbar might identify sites that have a worldwide appeal, and not consider those sites assigned to a particular country.
Other information could also be used to determine a searcher’s preferred country, such as the location of the searcher based upon their IP address.
Conclusion
The patent does go into a lot of detail on a few different ways that search results might be reranked on the basis of a searcher’s preferred country, and on the country associated with each search result, and those details are worth looking through the patent more carefully for, if you’re interested in finding out more about how that could happen.
The patent doesn’t provide a lot of other details on how it might determine what the preferred country of a searcher might be, though it was interesting to see it mention the use of log files from the Google toolbar to be one possible source of information for making that decision. The information that Google collects for personalized search results probably is useful, also.
The patent does mention that some sites might be considered to have a “world wide appeal” and not be considered to be assigned to a particular country, but it doesn’t tell us how a site might reach that status.
[tags]Google, Google patents, search rankings, search results, search engines[/tags]
Well, there are also language meta tags that describe the language of the website. That Google certainly could use for determining the origin of the site.
I understand this is so-called localization.
Does it apply for search on Google.com, not country specific
Google like google.co.jp?
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Thanks for the informative article. I have also seen that the location of the webhost as well as the incoming links (country) matters a lot in country specific rankings. For example, my website ranks very well in google.com, but perorms miserably in google.co.in – even though the website is about SEO in India.
This is pretty true and i discovered it some month ago when by mistake i started looking for my keywords by using different Google websites located in different countries. In the end i decided to care about the states and that’s why i used Google webmaster tools. Over there there is an option where you can target your preffered readers.
Hi Bill
This is really interesting for us non-US search folk. We’re generally far more affected by this than others. I think in this case I’m going to head over and read the full doc.
For what it’s worth – in my experience Google has a lot more difficulty with assessing country in some of their other EN locales such as .ie, .co.uk etc. I’ve seen some truly mystical results on those locales [read horrendous].
One other idea I’ve always had was that the number of relevant results Google might have from any given locale might affect what is displayed for any given query. This manifests itself primarily in the “Web Results” Vs “Results From …” – sometimes you’ll get country-related results in both, other times from two or more different countries.
I presume you made it to PubCon again? Hopefully all is well with you Stateside
Rgds
Richard
Hi Web Design Beach,
Thanks. That’s a very good question. There are ways of indicating what language a site is using, or indicating a preferred language in Google, and in your browser, but I’m not sure that those play a role in determining what country a site is from, or a searcher.
Google was granted another patent last week dealing specifically with reranking search results based upon preferred language, so it seems like Google treats them independently of each other.
Hi suzukikenichi,
Good point – this is a question of localization. The patent doesn’t note the existence of Google at different top level domains (tlds), and they do specifically mention the concept of localization, so I believe it is geared towards the google.com URL. I’m making an assumption, but I would guess that maybe there is an automatic bias towards the country that the Google tld includes when searching at a site like google.co.jp since the use of a country specific version of Google indicates a preference for results from that country.
HI SEO Training Mumbai,
I agree with you, and the patent does mention that those are factors that they may look at – the location of the web host or web server, and the location of sites where incoming links are from. I’ve felt that might be happening after working with some sites for other countries, so it’s good to get some confirmation from a Google patent on the subject.
Hi online utilities,
Excellent point about the ability to use Google Webmaster Tools to look at results from different countries. Definitely worth checking out.
Hi Richard,
Good to see you.
That’s definitely something to think about. I think the number of relevant results does make a difference in what we see when looking at something like this. Google does try to provide a decent number of results to searchers, and if that means displaying results from different countries, then they will. Under this approach, we wouldn’t see more or less results, but rather the ones from preferred countries might be boosted, and the ones from countries that aren’t preferred might be demoted.
So a site from another country that is very relevant might be demoted, but not enough to rank lower than a site that is much less relevant, but from a preferred country and boosted.
Google also discusses alternative preferred countries in this patent, and it’s quite possible that many English speaking countries that are in close proximity to each other are treated very similarly. The patent uses Canada and the US as examples, but they possibly could have used .ie and .uk as examples, too.
I believe that this has been going on for quite some time. Here in South Africa most searchers are going through “Google.co.za” as opposed to Google.com. Unless you actually notice this and click on the “take me to Google.com” link you pretty much always end up with localised results.
So that confirms that Google offer you localised results (well kind of).
In the webmaster tools if you are setting a geo-location for a website you will automatically be set according to your domain extension. For us the .co.za websites are automatically geo-located to South Africa and for a few of our other clients that are based in Mautritius are set in the .mu area.
This is great for local e-commerce as local suppliers are more likely to be able to ship at much lower rates. However information is rarely limited to borders. I guess as with all other services from Google (and the other search engines) it will just take time to refine.
[...] Last week, Google was granted patents describing how they could change the order of pages in search results based upon the preferred language of a searcher, or by what appeared to be their preferred country for results. Both patents were filed roughly about the same time, back in 2003, and both show ways of personalizing search results for searchers based upon some information that could make the results they see more meaningful to them. [...]
Hi Robert,
I believe that this has been happening for quite a while, too. I do like seeing something from the search engines, like a patent, that may provide some insights into their approach, though.
As you note, information is rarely limited to political boundaries, online and offline as well. I live fairly close to the borders of two other states (within a couple of miles), yet very rarely hear news or see advertisements from those states. Because of that, I’m not sure that localization is always positive. I do think that is an issue that Google might consider at some point.
Thanks I had never even thought about this before. Cheers.
Hi Jon,
You’re welcome. When we put up sites on the Web, we do create the possibility of having an international audience. It’s interesting seeing how search engines might address that idea.
[...] 7,451,130 System and method for providing preferred country biasing of search results (Google, Inc.) – Analysis – Changing Google Rankings in Different Countries for Different Searchers, November 11, 2008 [...]
Hi Bill,
Today I pointed to this post in a meeting to discuss localization best practices. I realized today that this is the third time I’ve referenced this post professionally. I just wanted to say thanks for writing such an informative post.
Hi David,
I’ll point to a blog post every so often in a meeting or email to a client to illustrate a point, and I appreciate when someone has written something that makes it easier to communicate with a client. Thank you very much for sharing your use of this post with me. It’s much appreciated.
William, agreed. It’s always great to find good information online that supports an idea or theory that can be shared with a client or even colleague. Somehow confirmation by a third party seems to validate the point you are trying to make that little bit better.
Great minds and all that. Then again fools and all that
Hi Robert,
That kind of confirmation can be nice, especially when it’s something like “how will Google treat xxx,” and there’s a post over at the Official Google Webmaster blog on that topic exactly.
The wisdom of
crowdsfoolser, ouch. crowds?We are B2C company, located in Mexico, targetting USA, Canada and Mexico. Our primary market used to be the USA, however Canadian customers have become the most important for us now. Our Internet sales have dropped significantly compared to other business units.
We offer a wide variety of products. Unfortunately, the SEO results for related keywords are very good in Google.com (top 1 and 2 positions), however for some keywords in Google.ca we don´t even end up on the first page, let-alone above the fold on the first page! The difference is huge.
We will launch a new website soon, developed by an external party, with a CMS updated to the latest standards. We will have full control over content, metadata etc.
The question for us is now how we should optimize our website (.com) for Google.ca?
Hi Tom,
Sorry to hear about the slow down, but it’s good to hear that you’re working on steps to try to focus more upon your shifting audience.
It’s good to hear that you’re still doing well in the .com version of Google.
Do you think that if you rank well in the .ca version of Google, that it would drive more traffic from Canada? What percentage of people in Canada who search Google use the .ca version rather than the .com?
My post above provides some ideas on how to try to make Google see your site as one preferred by people from a specific country, but I wonder if some other steps might help you become more visible in the .ca version of Google. More links to and from your site from Canadian sites might be one step that could help. Hosting your site in Canada might be an indication to the search engine that your site is relevant to the .ca version.
Does your site contain references to locations in Canada? Do you have physical locations in Canada, which are mentioned prominently on the site? Does the site include ways to pay in Canadian currency, shipping information for Canada, and other indications that the site provides goods or services for Canadians? If so, could it make that more prominent? If not, making more references to Canada might be helpful.
[...] Changing Google Rankings — Based on Different Countries for Different Searchers [...]
With so many factors to consider in SEO, using relevant but crucial tidbits like in these primers is one way to incrementally improve your search ranking easily and painlessly. Obviously everyone cannot change their domain name, server location, languages and links all at once, but those things that can be optimized, should be, if ranking in the search engines is important for your site.
Hi Vijay,
Good points. Making massive amounts of changes can be harmful to the traffic that you do receive, but making informed and controlled changes, with a more educated idea of the potential impacts that those changes may have can be helpful.