Has Google Changed recently?

Has anyone noticed a change recently in the way Google is positioning sites?

We used to be #1 for our main keyword across all search engines in all languages (g.com g.co.uk etc etc etc)

Now on .com we are number 3 for our keyword.

#1 is authority and we have no problem being #2 to them, but site #2 is our Main competitor - our nemesis - our arch enemy. Our links have been steady and on topic over the years. He has 10% the amount of links we have and the ones he has, we have too with the exception of a small handful of sites which list US sites only.

Anyone noticed similar goings on? Does anyone know how Google are weighing .com sites compared to .co.uk sites within the G.com searches? I guess .com are given some boost in the .com Search over .co.uk's.. is this an accurate assumption?

GG is going through an update right now. You might want to use the "Future PageRank" tool as it might show you some differences during this time (not that PR has to do with SERP positioning, but it's still cool to see what you might be). I would say hold tight until all data centers have been updated.

Tense times. I guess your right, its a bit of a waiting game. I'll just have to let the pressure of the bosses keep piling and hope we come out in a good shape... here's to hoping!

Yea, I agree. It's best not to rely too much on one source. Hopefully, you can supplement your traffic in the meantime by bumping up your Adwords campaign, or working on some optimization for Yahoo or MSN.

Yahoo! and MSN/Live still have us firmly at #1, its just G.com.

We dont use Adwords or anything, we are pure bred SERPs reliant suckers, amongst a ton of World of Mouth customers.

Just out of web traffic, we take 90% from Google (which is split almost 50/50 between .co.uk and .com)

I don't think that .coms are valued more in google.com, I do know that many .coms have suffered in google.co.uk recently, even if they were hosted in the UK.

So maybe it's your .co.uk that keeping you at #1 in google.co.uk .

I have notice a decline in .com rankings for non UK hosted sites on google.co.uk. Its a pain in the behind but ultimately better for the searchers....The big brands that I work with have been given the recommendation to host a site in the given country of the Google engine we are optimizing for....or at least buying a domain with the proper ending....co.uk, jp, ca etc....

Id like to think it was down to a few years of Graft, blood, sweat and tears, a few backlinks, a link from the Beeb and one from CNN (both unaquired by me, but placed due to the company being televised) and generally just being.. well.. great!

you may be right tho, it was the .com nemesis that happened to overtake us in the .com serps, we share the same domain name except for the suffixes/suffixs/suffixi (or whatever the plural of suffix is.)