Google Search Results

When you search using Google, Google returns a mixture of results that depends on:

• How Google wants to present search results
• Where you search from
• How information is presented to Google
• How much people have paid to Google

Assuming that you have searched from Google New Zealand, your search results will look like this: (I'm using "Dunedin student accommodation" as my example search phrase.)

The three elements that you see above are:

• Google Map Search Results
• Standard Google Search Results
• Paid Google Search Results

A single Google Map search result is shown at the top of the page. Google sometimes displays one or more extra paid search results in this top position instead of the map. Google Map Search Results come from websites that have submitted their address information to Google for display on Google Maps search.

NZ.com listings are not currently submitted to Google Maps and will not appear here (yet). We expect to submit NZ.com enhanced listings to Google for inclusion in their map search at some time in the future.

Google selects the Standard Search Results based on a highly complicated and confidential method. Factors in the selection include:

• Popularity of individual web pages as measured by the numbers and importance of links to those pages
• Relevance of individual web pages as measured by the content on the page
• Website Name matching the search terms

In the example above, you can see that NZ.com has two websites that are appearing in the standard search results for "Dunedin student accommodation".

The Student Accommodation page on www.Dunedin.nz.com is the 3rd standard search result. The Dunedin area and Dunedin city Student Accommodation pages on www.accommodation.nz.com are the 5th and 6th standard search results.

Where Google presents a second result from the same website, it is indented underneath the first result. This can be seen in the first and the last search results in the example above.

Google selects the Paid Search Results based on how much money they can make from the advertisers. Advertisers bid for space and will pay different amounts depending on what terms are being searched for.

In the example above, you can see that ads are appearing that are relevant to "accommodation", "Dunedin accommodation", and "Dunedin student accommodation".

NZ.com Google Search Results

If you use the Google Search facility on NZ.com, you get different results to those shown from Google New Zealand.

The main use of this Google Search is to search the NZ.com group of websites (the www.NZ.com option). If you select the Web option, results will also be returned from other websites, and the search results will be similar to those returned from Google New Zealand.

Some differences are:

• The NZ.com Google Search does not display Google Map Search Results
• Paid Google Search Results appear in a group at the top instead of at the right hand side
• The Paid Google Search Results are filtered to exclude advertisers that conflict with the NZ.com listing service.

About NZ.com

• General information, privacy, and contact details
• Advertising with NZ.com, and the NZ.com listing service