Different Google Results in different locations...

[dave830]

Just had an embarrassing cold call.

I built a site to rank #1 for the keyword "Toronto Self Storage", which is Toronto Self Storage | Toronto Mini Storage Facility.

Then I found a local business, put up their info, and called them, boasting that they're on top of Google, and would they like to rent the site.

He did the search, and told me my site was on page 2, 4 spots BEHIND their current one.

I thanked him for his time and hung up... realizing I've got some things to learn still about Google.

If my site is tailored to Toronto, why is it #1 down here in Tampa, and not up there? Is it an US/Canada thing?

Is there anyway to view what their results look like?

When you guys search for Toronto Self Storage, am I on the front page?

Very vexed,
Dave

PS thanks for any insight here....

[Sleaklight]

Comes up as #1 here in Southern California. But different locations do yield different results. Not sure why the search engines do that but they do it. :\

[tony-raymondo]

google tailors their serp results based on the city the person typed them in from.

especially when you have keywords that are REGION + SERVICE

like

Pleasant Ville Auto Repair

[tony-raymondo]

Pleasant Ville rocks

[InternetMarketingIQ]

Google is using Cookies to track user behaviors and they are also using Geo Targeting. So what you see as #1 may not be what another user sees as #1 even if that user is your next door neighbor.

Welcome to the ever changing world of search.

If you want to make money... figure out how you can deliver real world traffic for clients that suits their niche, not ranking.

If you called the guy and could have shown him you had 100 targeted leads ready to buy he would have been a whole lot more interested.

[chandan_dutta]

Of course Google display different result in different place. You can use PageWash.com website and set Google TLD to see different result in different place. For example - Google.com - USA, Google.co.uk - UK

Hope it helps :-)

[whereizzi]

AFAIK, Each major region uses a different data centre for its main results. And those results are regionally-specific, getting even more so as Google focuses on local results by city.

The "city" reference comes from the data centre's results based on the IP address of the searcher... not because of keywords in the site content. So putting a lot of "Toronto" keywords in place on-site doesn't guarantee you'll rank well for every search query using that term. As you've noticed...

[jasonmorgan]

well, we got data centers down, could also be personalized search results as well.

but yes, if you had to ask this... you do have more to learn. Sorry, it's a hard truth.