I'm working my way up the SERPS for google searches in the UK, I'm now appearing on the first page for my keywords. But I don't come within the first 1,000 of google worldwide searches. Why could this be? My pages are highly targeted and SEO'd. I've been linkbuilding for months and have got loads of inbounds. I am listed, as a search on 'Wizmo Magic', the company name bring it right to the top. I also can't see any problems in Google Webmaster tools.
All of the major search engines give a great deal of weight to geo-location in their ranking methods. This means that your site will naturally rank better in your site's "local" version of these search engines, although its unusual for the difference in the global search to be as wide as you're seeing. I would expect the results to be closer over time.
If it's any consolation, I have a co.uk site that I got to no 1 on google UK after a few months and could never find it anywhere in google.com I'd given up completely, and stopped even checking, but just noticed a few days ago (and several months on) that it is now also no 1 in google.com for the same keyword For some reason I think they like a co.uk site to prove itself before it is allowed in the .com results!
Thanks guys, you understand my situation! I thought I was completely alone on this one! Yes, it's a .co.uk and it's hosted in London, UK.
Your problem, almost certainly, is the .co.uk domain, you will struggle to break into the top slots globally with a local domain, if its not too late to go with a .com I would do it, it will make all the difference to your global rankings. The hosting location dosent matter at all, the domain does.
To be honest, I started with a .com and changed to .co.uk as it's a mailorder company and I'm targetting UK customers. It's just I reckon many won't bother hitting the 'UK Results' option when searching Google. It was also on a server in USA, now it's in the UK. Primarily I wanted Google to know it's a UK site and include it in UK results, but I'd also like to compete in worldwide results.
I totally agree with this. UK domain will do better in the UK rather worldwide. COM domain will go global on searches better.
Then maybe you should use the .com as your primary domain and redirect the co.uk to it, then you can use the .co.uk for all your advertising in the UK so your customers feel comfortable, and the .com for global promotion and search engine rankings.
good idea, jm currently forwarding the .com url. what if i parked the .com so it points to my site like the .co.uk? how would google see this? would it see it rank the site twice?