Why does Google mistakenly link websites in different countries?

[Aristotelian]

Hi everyone,

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post this problem here but please bear with me as I was approached by a close friend who is working at a company and facing a bizarre problem.

Basically, her business (let's say it is called X) is easily searchable on Google anywhere in the world and you'll search for X, it'll be the first result, you click on it and get to their page.

But, she has been receiving reports from people in Italy and Spain that when they search for her business, X, they will find it as the first entry in the Google search, but then when they hover their cursor over the link to her business, it'll show (in the preview hyperlink in the bottom left) the link to her major competitor, and clicking the link (which reads her company's name) takes any potential customer to her direct major competitor if they are trying to navigate to her site (through Google) in either Italy or Spain.

She can't seem to find a way to talk to Google about this - I thought this must have been some kind of virus at first, and she asked her current website developers to look into this but they are insisting that she ask the original website developers to look into the issue - but the original company is now defunct. I'm asking here because I don't actually think this is her website's problem - how could it be that in different countries clicking on the link to her company's website through Google could take them to her company's major competitor?

I don't normally post technical questions like this, and if this is the wrong part of the forum could a Moderator please help me by moving this to the right section? I'm stymied, and hoping someone here could help me out.

 

[XavierMace]

You're going to have to provide some specifics here. What preview link are you talking about? There's a variety of things that influence search results so it's pretty hard to say what all might be factors here.

 

[Aristotelian]

Thanks for your response, let me try again:

So I type here X in Google, and the first entry in google shows X's website. I click the link on the Google search result page, and I go to X's website.

But, reports are showing that clients who Google X in Spain or Italy show X's website as the first result in Google. But when they click the link it takes them to Y, X's major competitor in the market.

Since I last posted this I checked in with my friend, and one of her contacts says that the 'host' might be compromised. But I still don't understand how I can click a link in a search result in Google which shows X on my page, but takes me to Y's website.

It's not the same company, but imagine you search for Sony and find 'Sony USA' as your first search result in google, but when you click on that link it directs you to 'Toshiba' instead. See what I mean? Would this be a problem with Sony's website, or with Google, or...?

This is really bizarre and I cannot seem to find a resource that will help my friend understand what is going on with X's website or the way Google is interacting with it.

 

[XavierMace]

I understand what you mean, but without seeing the site in question, it's going to be hard to provide any useful info. However, if it was an issue with your site, it wouldn't be limited to certain countries/regions.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Are you sure that they're not clicking on ads? The first few links are ads? It might be possible for a competitor to buy "adwords" in the name of YOUR company, and then direct the user to THEIR site.

 

[Aristotelian]

Thanks for the responses - the issue was figured out by taking look at who had user rights to the website. Apparently someone in the past had installed a plugin that would activate (depending which country you are trying to access the site from) and re-direct you to the competitor's site. Unfortunately there does not seem to be a way to track who did it, as quite a few people who have had the permission to do something like that are now gone.

So this wasn't Google's issue - rather, someone had played around with the website itself.

 

[gamerguy2]

Lol I would bet Google is overselling advertising. Like overbooked planes they try and accommodate everyone.