.

Today I was perusing Google for a site that compares the overdraft fees of different banks. I just assumed that Google would know that I only want results for US banks, since I’d rather not convert my money in to pounds (and flying 12 hours to see a banker in person seems inefficient).

The search that raised the red flag for me was a search for “compare bank overdraft rates“.  Here’s what my results looked like:

compare bank overdraft rates

Why would Google assume that me, a guy in San Diego, would want to see results within the UK?

To be sure that Google knew I was in the US, I did search for “wells fargo” and I was given a result for a bank just down the street from me.  Hence, Google knows where I am.

Has anyone else seen this behavior before?

Nessy the Magical SEO Tool skeptic

I’ve due to attend a meeting today at 1pm with BusinessOnline, which as I was told, has an “SEO tool that predicts what would happen if you change certain things on your site”.

I stared blankly back at the person that presented the information to me, and finally blurted out: “Niiiiiice.  I’ll be at the meeting”.  I probably sounded as skeptical as I feel.

Maybe I should give them the benefit of the doubt since I haven’t seen the presentation yet, but here’s my first thought:

How can an SEO tool realistically predict what changes on your site will do?

Can it predict, simultaneously, what will be happening on your competitors’ sites?

Can it predict, simultaneously, what algorithmic changes will happen to Google in the interim?

Needless to say, I’ll be updating this post later after the meeting.  Nessy, you coming to this one?

UPDATE: I retract my previous skepticism of BusinessOnline.  They knew their shit, and for the most part, I think they will add value to our company.  The “magical tools” that were mentioned to me were simply a case of the Telephone Game and some bad information that got passed along.  They’ve got tools, but tools that appear to do manage unweildy websites and the site’s SEO data.