Q and A: What determines whether local results or AdWords get top listings on the search engines?
Dear Kalena...
Why do local results sometimes get top listing, and other times adwords? Is there any way to predict this?
Toronto Baskets and Gifts
Kalena's Answer:
Dear Toronto
As search engine technology becomes more sophisticated and engines get better at predicting what users are searching for, the way results are structured becomes more and more complex.
These days, there are a large range of factors that influence the ranking of search results. They can include:
- searcher IP address location
- geographic qualifiers in search query
- language used in search query
- site IP address location (where it's hosted)
- site TLD extension (e.g. site.com or site.com.au)
- search preferences chosen by user (e.g. language or region)
- location of search site chosen by user (e.g. google.com.au vs google.com)
- user's advanced search preferences
- user's search history (if using Google Toolbar or My Google)
As for AdWords results, they are influenced by:
- site IP address location (where it's hosted)
- advertiser's location targeting preferences
- advertiser's language targeting preferences
- language of advertisement
- click-through rate of ad itself
- advertiser's maximum campaign click-through budget
- advertiser's maximum keyword click-through budget
Whether organic search results or paid results like AdWords appear depend on all these factors in combination with each other. So a searcher in another country from yours could see completely different search results when conducting the same search query on Google.com
Sometimes where a search query is more obscure, there won't be any related AdWords ads appearing because nobody is willing to pay for clicks on those queries. At other times, the search query is so common that hundreds of sponsored PPC ads appear next to the organic listings. Sound complex? Yep, it is!
Why do local results sometimes get top listing, and other times adwords? Is there any way to predict this?
Toronto Baskets and Gifts
Kalena's Answer:
Dear Toronto
As search engine technology becomes more sophisticated and engines get better at predicting what users are searching for, the way results are structured becomes more and more complex.
These days, there are a large range of factors that influence the ranking of search results. They can include:
- searcher IP address location
- geographic qualifiers in search query
- language used in search query
- site IP address location (where it's hosted)
- site TLD extension (e.g. site.com or site.com.au)
- search preferences chosen by user (e.g. language or region)
- location of search site chosen by user (e.g. google.com.au vs google.com)
- user's advanced search preferences
- user's search history (if using Google Toolbar or My Google)
As for AdWords results, they are influenced by:
- site IP address location (where it's hosted)
- advertiser's location targeting preferences
- advertiser's language targeting preferences
- language of advertisement
- click-through rate of ad itself
- advertiser's maximum campaign click-through budget
- advertiser's maximum keyword click-through budget
Whether organic search results or paid results like AdWords appear depend on all these factors in combination with each other. So a searcher in another country from yours could see completely different search results when conducting the same search query on Google.com
Sometimes where a search query is more obscure, there won't be any related AdWords ads appearing because nobody is willing to pay for clicks on those queries. At other times, the search query is so common that hundreds of sponsored PPC ads appear next to the organic listings. Sound complex? Yep, it is!
3 Comments:
Some clarity has been brought to my situation with this. Thank you very much. Very informative.
I spent a few hours tinkering with my adwords campaign to see if I could remedy the problem.
During December I always maintained 1st, 2nd, or 3rd position on adwords, and I always appeared above the organic listings. However, after switching my ads to the next season, My ad no longer appears above the organic listings, but only off to the side. When I pause my campaign, ads using the same keywords appear above the organic listing. So I jack my bid up, but instead of going on top of the organic listings, I am placed on the right of the page, and those who were just on top of the organic listings, are placed beneath me on the right side of the page.
From you list the only thing I can think of is that my site is hosted somewhere in the US, and I'm in Canada. But I've changed my settings to be region specific. Why would it change suddenly now and how can I stop google from punishing me?
When I pause my campaign, ads using the same keywords appear above the organic listing.
So what is your question John?
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