Google Includes Location Information on Search Results?

It seems that Google selectively displays location of where content of its search results is based. A search for “get sitelinks google” via Google Spain yields a page from SEO Hong Kong. But if you look at the URL details, you’ll see extra information that’s definitely not found within the URL of the search result.

That information is a location “Región Administrativa Especial de Hong Kong de la República Popular China” which my guesswork suggests is taken from where the website is hosted or located. Does this help search engine users? It’s hard to tell for now because in my opinion, what matters most is the quality of content rather than where is the website located. Maybe unless my website has the .hk domain which used to be the riskiest domain in the world. Thank goodness it’s no longer the case as of the latest research.

Google Thinks My Page Title Sucks

Page titles are important elements to optimize for search engine results. I guess most webmasters are aware of this. The more targeted our page titles, the better. More targeted page title means it contains main keywords / phrases about the topic of the page.

It also means picking the right keywords / phrases that target visitors use when looking for information provided by the page. For example, if your target market are the Chinese locals from Hong Kong, page title should also match the language they speak and keywords they use.

In the case of this blog, I deliberately did not include the name and decided to use only the title of my blog post, just like the one below.

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Slow Loading Pages Might Get Lower Search Rankings

Early last year, I wrote about how Google AdWords Quality Score uses page load as a basis for scoring. Loading time obviously affects user experience and a slow loading web page could mean a crank web infrastructure or a poorly maintained unstable website.

Such paid search factor may also be included in evaluating pages for organic search engine results. Matt Cutts has admitted that it’s currently not in Google’s algorithms but it could well be incorporated on its test runs. Google prefers users access fast loading web pages and accomplish things faster than on slower pages.

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Google Changes Page Titles on Search Results

An interesting observation I read from Philipp Lenssen’s Blogoscoped is that it is now possible for Google to alter page title on search engine results. From the blog’s example as well as examples from Ionut Alex Chitu, the changes are affecting homepage of business websites.

For example, if you search for napoleon engineering, search engine result would show “Napoleon Engineering Services” even if the actual page title is “NES – Custom Bearing Testing & Bearing Inspection- home – ball bearing testing”

I often mention the importance of page title as a key element in optimizing websites, but with this development, shall we say the power of page title has waned now that it can easily be overridden by Google’s preferences?

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Google Thinks Michael Jackson is Ugliest Person in the World

Taking cue from Search Engine Roundtable, a search for the term ugliest person in the world yielded Michael Jackson’s photo on top of the results.

As the world grieves the loss of King of Pop, this unsuspecting search term obviously angers fans of Michael Jackson. One might ask how does a search engine decide on which photo deserves to to be displayed once such term is used as search query. I guess part of the answer lies in the explanation at Search Engine Watch posted almost three years ago.

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