Is Google Mad at Joomla ?
This came up at the London Affiliate Conference and I thought I would share it :
Do a quick search of Joomla in www.google.co.uk
or maybe Google.co.nz
The question I asked was what did Joomla do wrong 
:
US results :
Can you answer the question? Really what did Joomla do?
Dave
David Whitehouse 476 days ago
Maybe they flicked a switch giving local domains more relevance?
Joe 476 days ago
http://www.seotraining.org.uk/blogIf my memories serve me correctly, I think it has been like that for over a year…
Johnny 476 days ago
http://www.topsearch.co.ukThis local thing again – knock knock on the doors of the local TLD names…
Steve 476 days ago
http://ostraining.comDavid Whitehouse is probably right. Exactly the same thing happens with Drupal.
drupal.geek.nz comes up first in New Zealand and drupal.org.ul comes up first in the UK.
Steve 476 days ago
http://ostraining.comIn fact, looking at this more, almost every regional Google site is showing this now. WordPress doesn’t get his as much as Joomla and Drupal, but there are still plenty of countries in which wordpress.org isn’t the first result.
Sam Daams 476 days ago
http://twitter.com/samdaamsBesides not securing those domains you mean? Set country to US in WMT?
Noted they do also have spots 3/4/5 in UK and NZ with .org URLs.
Yannick Gaultier 476 days ago
Is this wrong?
This seems to match Joomla! organization pretty well. Joomla.org does not provide any content for per-country communities, and “delegates” this to other entities, usually users groups, which use the name by permission (with probably a few exceptions).
These communities, for instance, provide localized version and most users never see joomla.org in their “joomla-life”.
I never had the feeling Joomla.org/Open source matters had a goal to manage the global community from a central point, and it shows in the network of websites, each independantly “run and operated”, but Steve may comment more on that.
Rgds
Steve 476 days ago
http://ostraining.comThat’s true and might be part of the explanation.
Joomla relies on local communities to take the lead with sites like joomla.fr and joomla.it. Drupal is the same and you’ll find lots of sites like drupal.com.au and drupal.be. WordPress is somewhat more centralized with nl.wordpress.org and es.wordpress.org etc.
Still, even WP.org is getting pushed out.
I asked this about this on Twitter and the replies actually said that Google has been giving local domains preference for quite some time already.
Geir Ellefsen 475 days ago
http://edgyseo.com/It’s the same in Google.no. Funny thing is that Matt Cutts has shared Joomla.org (in my Google+ circles):
http://edgyseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/joomla-norway.png (screenshot)
Nicola 475 days ago
http://www.cooknote.co.ukI did notice this the other day and wonder what was going on… It is really weird?
Max Holloway 475 days ago
http://www.miravueskinclinic.com/CC TLD’s always get massive preference over any other kind.
Google isn’t mad, Joomla just has really bad SEO! …. or maybe just slipped up by not buying up those vital domains.
Clifton Flack (@cliftonflack) 475 days ago
http://www.cliftonflack.comMaybe Google just listened to users and now understand that Joomla sucks
Seriously though, if your going to spread your power over local TLD’s, make sure you do it right. Is there any reason why a user in UK needs to see 2 results (aside from having to click twice, or waste time working out which would be the best click!) Google is just diluting the display like Joomla is diluting the user search experience.
Clifton Flack (@cliftonflack) 475 days ago
http://www.cliftonflack.comAnd a sub-thought… take a look at the sites, the co-uk looks like a poor excuse of a website clearly targeting some local SEO power…..and the nz just a poor version of .org
Perhaps Google is penalizing for what would clearly be a devalued onsite experience….(incuding a back click to then choose the real joomla.org
Fadi 475 days ago
http://www.itoctopus.comI don’t think that they’re mad at Joomla, but the search results (especially the top ones) differ from one country to another in Google. Local tlds have a weight that is taken into consideration when ordering search results.
Yannick Gaultier 475 days ago
OK, yet I still don’t see what the problem is. If you do the same experiment replacing joomla with cocacola, mercedes, or most likely any international brand, you get the exact same (expected) result. So in which way is there a problem with Joomla here?
Unless ofc you assume that joomla.fr, joomla.co.uk, joomla.de,etc are NOT Joomla – which is incorrect.
Rgds
Sam Daams 474 days ago
http://twitter.com/samdaamsThe fact that each of those sites states in the footer that they are not affiliated with joomla should be a giveaway that they indeed are NOT joomla.
The way I look at it, if Dave asks a question like this, the answer can’t be quite as simple as ‘they didn’t buy the local TLDs’ though. The question is also not ‘why are these local TLDs ranking tops, but “what did joomla do wrong?”‘, which implies Dave knows they did something wrong, and will tell us shortly…
Yannick Gaultier 474 days ago
Hi Sam,
And yet, they ARE Joomla. In the business world, what you say might make sense but not in a decentralized project (project, not company) such as Joomla! The “not affiliated” marks is legal wording you have to print if you use a domain name with ‘joomla’ in it. You get authorization to do that from opensourcematters.org, the trademark holder.
To put it an other way, Dave, and most of the people who commented here, seem to assume that joomla.org is the representative body for Joomla, the authoritative one, so to speak. It is not. It’s one of the Joomla! project sites, while of course being the largest and most prominent. If there is one such authoritative body, that’s opensourcematters.org, the non-profit holding Joomla! project IP rights, but even that is not true, as OSM only handle legal and financial matters, not the technical side of thinkgs, or community management.
Most (some may slip through) of those sites have resquested authorizations to operate (from opensourcematters.org), and provide the official localized version of Joomla for a language. They indeed are the per countries arms of the Joomla! project.
I did understand Daves’s question the same as you, that is joomla.org did something wrong because they should be ahead of “local” sites. Knowing a bit of the project, I disagree with that statement, so indeed it’ll be interesting to see what the exact issue Dave is considering here.
Cheers
Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions and thoughts about the Joomla! project, I’m not speaking on behalf of the project. While of course, you’d have a hard time finding someone actually speaking for the project, due to its decentralized nature
Steve 475 days ago
http://ostraining.com@Yannick It makes sense in some cases. Drupal.be tops out Drupal.org in Belgium simply because it has more relevant info in that language. The same with Joomla.gr in Greece. That’s probably not true in Australia, the UK and other places and is a Google fail.
@Max I’d probably give the organizations a break on not picking up the regional domain names. I don’t think of any them ever though their projects would become as popular as they did. Now that they are there’s little to no chance that any of them will be buying domains. Joomla, Drupal and WordPress all operate on shoestring budgets with better things to spend their money on.