Why are .com sites ranking highly in UK SERPs?

For a followup post about this video, please see: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/more-about-generic-tlds-in-say-uk-results/

guavarian from the UK asks:

"Why are the UK SERPS still really poor with irrelevant non UK sites (US/Aus/NZ) ranking very high Google.co.uk since early June?"

This video is part of a "Grab Bag" series in which Matt Cutts, head of Google's webspam team, answers questions from users. We're not currently taking new video questions, so your best bet for getting an answer about webmaster-related search issues is to head to our help forum: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters?hl=en

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• google
• uk
• .com
• grab bag

[SimonWharton]

No Matt, you've missed the point here. The problem isn't to do with domain suffix. The problem is that we are getting irrelevant sites from the English speaking world polluting the UK SERPs. For example, Manchester in the UK is quite a long way from Manchester NH yet we get Manchester NH results ranking VERY prominently in local search for Manchester UK related terms

[woodsandhillsplc]

Im sorry but that was a joke.

Matt, you read the question out differently to how it was, then basically answered it as if it was a completely different question!!!

The gripes of the UK web industry has nothing to do with .coms !! No one has at any point said it has!! It was not in the question, and it was not in any of the hundreds of blogposts that have surrounded the issue.

Very disappointed.

[seosnatch]

Sometimes I wish I could find more information like this, very much appreciated.

[dailyforman]

.com domain is 3 times cheaper than .co.uk and you still set to target users from UK using webmaster tools, so why pay 3 times more?...

[beniboza]

Completely avoids answering the question!!!

[ddrmegamixer]

I think whats more important is not giving me a list of dodgy websites that have fly by downloads or install asking sites which I don't click on as I have WOT and AVG and it happens a lot of the time if these two apps can spot it then why cant you.

[da64498]

I'm sorry, but this smacks completely of Google trying to provide an answer to question they don't want to answer. The number of blog posts and twitters @ Matt, there is no way on earth he misunderstood the question or missed what the actual problem is. They are obviously testing something out using UK SERPs as the test bed and for some reason, whatever that might be, don't want to tell the community what it is, which is completely up to them. Matt, don't insult us with such junk please.

[jackprince1983]

I'm with you on that ... but If we just ignore the "localization" via IP or the chosen URL for Google. Then the results for the other Manchester are maybe more important to the engine as the Manchester (UK) results are. Like I said its just a guess ... as google tries always tries to provide the result that most likely is suitable for the most users. And if the non UK sites managing the SEO (via content etc.) better there up in the list.

[Conceptskatemedia]

Can someone answer my question. Why is every moaning that this video was recorded a while ago? There is no problem with that at all.

[richardtvaughan]

The reason it's not answering the question is because this is a very old vid. Matt has a shaved head at the moment.

[StalkerB]

Yeah, totally not what the question was asking Matt.

Gotta chip in on this one as it effects my everyday use of Google so I'd like to see this question answered properly please.