In June of last year, Google rolled out its ‘Vince’ algorithm update in the UK.
At the time of its earlier US launch, a perceived big brand bias was viewed as a cause for concern, but implementation in the UK raised some new issues.
The furore began when SEOs conducting a search at Google.co.uk found varying presences of non-UK results – something they certainly weren’t accustomed to.
Posts about the ‘broken’ UK SERPs started to crop up across the web. Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team, released a video in response to this, explaining that Google.co.uk now displays results from other TLDs (.com, .au, .nz, etc) if it deems them relevant to searchers.
Newfound search anomalies and irrelevant results continue to be reported and these point to some issues with the roll-out, or at least some kinks in the Google search algorithm that require attention. These will be fixed in time, but it appears that the foreign listings are here to stay.
This has impacted UK rankings across the board, and increased the already-fierce jostling for places at the top of the UK SERP’s. In turn, UK clients and their SEOs may have to revise their targets and SEO tactics – especially if their site has been displaced by a foreign entity.
This scenario is unsettling for both businesses and search marketers alike. While Google says it wants to provide UK users with the best possible results from across the web, there is a strong argument for generic search terms being left as they were before the Vince update.
For instance, if you point your browser over to Google.co.uk and search for the phrase ‘order dvds’ the 5th result listed on the first page is DVDEmpire – a US online store. This is damaging to UK business and it’s not right that US results are served up for generic search terms which are the lifeblood of British ecommerce.
One could also delve into issues of usability, and whether such changes benefit the searcher and align with their intent – in most instances I don’t believe they do.
However, the bottom line remains that anyone with a vested interest in UK search will be feeling the effects of these changes.
As frustrating as it is, we need to accept that Google is adapting their algorithm to align with what seems to be a longer-term strategy around brands and relevance. The most positive approach is to adapt with them. In time, these new changes may present new, unexpected search opportunities to astute search professionals. View it as a challenge – that’s what SEO’s about, after all.
"[Good SEO’s]……are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage." (Niccolo Machiavelli)
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I appreciate the concern, but the view is a little myopic as conversely results in other countries benefit a UK TLD.
It is called swings and round abouts and overall for sites like mine, a .com tld, hosted in the UK, it is a win win situation.
Sorry but I think this posting is too 'Fog in the channel, Europe cut off' focused
Posted by tim on 2010/02/02