Small question about geo targeting
-
I have geo targeted my domain for my country in Google's Webmaster Tool. Does it mean that I have blocked visitors from other countries.
-
Thanks @Hannah @Moosa @Mark @Martijn @Deb for replying. I think that it is just a hint for google but it doesn't mean that it is going to block you from other countries. More than just a selection in the web master tool I think google will directly analyze your website and decide for which country your website is more "relevant" and of more "value to visitors".
-
Whilst one would hope that Google pay attention to geo-targeting via Webmaster Tools, in my experience it makes no material difference to rankings - either in your desired target or elsewhere.
There's been some debate as to whether or not it only influences 'Pages from the UK' (or whatever your chosen target) - however I've not seen proof it actually influences that either.
In short, if you geo-target via webmaster tools you're not blocking visitors via any other locations.
That said - it is worth noting (as I've alluded to above) geo-targeting via Webmaster tools isn't particularly effective in terms of actually establishing a geographic target for your website. As such if you're serious about establishing a geographic target this might not be the best way.
-
Thanks Mark for the Google words and your insight about it but I am still not convinced with the ground realities...
Setting up a Geo target in Google webmaster cannot block you on other areas (this make no sense to me!). There is a strong possibility that US websites may not rank higher in UK search results but the website will be completely blocked (i don’t agree)
I have a website that has a preferred location as UAE and I can literally access that website from all regions... and on some general keywords it is ranking well in US although that is not my exact location...
-
of course not .. it means you are giving a strong hint to Google that your preferred country is for say is "India". So chances are that you will rank better in Google.co.in and searches made from that country ..
-
Hi Amit,
No, by enabling the country you target in Google Webmaster Tools you give Google a better idea on which language and which country you are targetting with your Web site. This
could
help you in the rankings for the specific region you're targeting. Google Webmaster Tools gave an even better explanation about Geotargeting which could be found here.Hope this helps!
-
Moosa, I don't think you're right.
If you have a bingo site, and you geotarget it to the UK, it makes sense that your site shouldn't show up very highly in US based results, because online bingo for money is allowed in the UK whereas in the US it's not. That's part of the reason they have the geotargeting tool - to focus your site on the country where it's relevant and not on other countries it isn't relevant.
Google writes here - Geotargeting settings. You can use the geotargeting tool in Webmaster Tools to indicate to Google that your site is targeted at a specific country. Do this only if your site has a gTLD (generic top-level domain name). However, don’t use this tool if your site targets more than a single country. For example, it would make sense to set a target of Canada for a site about restaurants in Montreal; but it would not make sense to set the same target for a site that targets French speakers in France, Canada, and Mali.
Here's more info:
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=62399
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=182192
-
If you are going to select any particular region, you will never block from all other locations.. in my opinion, if you are going to select a targeted country this will help you with ranking better in that particular location but you will still be appearing in all regions and ranking for the organic terms accordingly.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
href lang questions - please help
Hi I have a few questions about href lang implementation and I was hoping for some guidance / opinions. An international website is using mostly a folder structure, but for some locations it might have standalone sub-domains. Some folders are there to target locations and languages, with others just targeting languages. See the list below: domain.com/es-mx [Language: Spanish - Location: Mexico]
International SEO | | MarkCanning
domain.com/pt-br [Language: Portuguese - Location: Brazil]
domain.com/ja-jp [Language: Japanese - Location: Japan]
domain.com/en-jp [Language: English - Location: Japan]
domain.com/fr-ca [Language: French - Location: Canada]
domain.com/en-ca [Language: English - Location: Canada]
domain.com/en-ie [Language: English - Location: Ireland]
domain.com/ar [Language: Arabic]
domain.com/ph [Language: Tagalog]
domain.com/it [Language: Italian]
domain.com/tr [Language: Turkish]
domain.com/kr [Language: Korean]
domain.com/fr [Language: French]
domain.com/ru [Language: Russian]
domain.com/vn [Language: Vietnamese] domain.in/en [Language: English - Location Indian]
domain.in/hi [Language: Hindi - Location Indian] My questions are: Is href lang sitemap equally as good as the href lang meta tag in terms of effectiveness. I know that the sitemap is easier to maintain and upkeep but i don't know which one is better as google recommends both. How do you mix your listings when some are targeting language and country and others are just targeting language speakers (not tied to any specific country). So take for example in the list above: there would be a general site for french speakers and then one for french speakers in Canada. Thanks for your advise in advance.0 -
Targeting/Optimising for US English in addition to British English (hreflang tags)
Hi, I wonder if anyone can help? We have an e-commerce website based in the UK. We sell to customers worldwide. After the UK, the US is our second biggest market. We are English language only (written in British English), we do not have any geo-targeted language versions of our website. However, we are successful in selling to customers around the world on a regular basis. We have developers working on a new site due to launch in Winter 2021. This will include a properly managed site migration from our .net to a .com domain and associated redirects etc. Management are keen to increase sales / conversions to the US before the new site launches. They have requested that we create a US optimised version of the site. Maintaining broadly the same content, but dynamically replacing keywords: Example (clothing is not really what we sell): Replacing references to “trainers” with “sneakers”
International SEO | | IronBeetle
Replacing references ‘jumpers with “sweaters”
Replacing UK phone number with a US phone number It seems the wrong time to implement a major overhaul of URL structure, considering the planned migration from .net to .com in the not too distant future. For example I’m not keen to move British English content on to https://www.example.com/en-gb Would this be a viable solution: 1. hreflang non-us visitors directed to the existing URL structure (including en-gb customers): https://www.example.com/
2. hreflang US Language version of the site: https://www.example.com/en-us/ As the UK is our biggest market It is really important that we don’t negatively affect sales. We have extremely good visibility in SERPS for a wide range of high value/well converting keywords. In terms of hreflang tags would something like this work? Do we need need to make reference to en-gb being on https://www.example.com/ ? This seems a bit of a ‘half-way-house’. I recognise that there are also issues around the URL structure, which is optimised for British English/international English keywords rather than US English e.g. https://www.example.com/clothing/trainers Vs. https://example.com/clothing/sneakers Any advice / insight / guidance would be welcome. Thanks.0 -
Using .ag for agriculture site with global targeting
Would using .ag with a short punchy domain like farm.ag, that was targeting a global audience be a wise decision? Versus say an 11 character descriptive ".com". Is there any benefit to using a ".ag" if the site is for agriculture? Note, this is a heavy content site so SEO important, with plans to serve different languages later.
International SEO | | mag7770 -
Can you target the same site with multiple country HREFlang entries?
Hi, I have a question regarding the country targeting aspect of HREFLANG. Can the same site be targeted with multiple country HREFlang entries? Example: A global company has an English South African site (geotargeted in webmaster tools to South Africa), with a hreflang entry targeted to "en-za", to signify English language and South Africa as the country. Could you add entries to the same site to target other English speaking South African countries? Entries would look something like this: (cd = Congo, a completely random example) etc... Since you can only geo-target a site to one country in WMT would this be a viable option? Thanks in advance for any help! Vince
International SEO | | SimonByrneIFS0 -
Targeting International Markets on the Web
Hello Moz community, I have a popular news website that we are looking to target multiple countries (all English first). So I know (1) a hosting provided (ip address) in that country and (2) a target extension (.co.uk) will help us. Am I missing anything else that can help when targeting international markets? What I'm struggling with is the duplicate content. I can't copy the content over to the extension because of the bad practice of duplicate content. Is it possible to have the same content on both websites and let Google know that it lives at the .com extension? If so, would those websites containing duplicate content still rank? And we would want to target different languages later (for example Spanish). This would be different content because it is in a different language, correct? Thanks for your help Moz community! Cole
International SEO | | ColeLusby0 -
Help targeting the USA in Search
I believe I've properly targeted, and told Google that our website absoluteautomation.com is aimed at US residents, while the .ca domain targets Canadian. However our .com domain routinely appears above our .ca when searching in Canada (actually on a physical computer in Canada) on google.ca. I'm hoping I can fix this both to improve Canadian search results, and I'm assuming that whatever is making .com appear so well in Canada is hurting it on the US side. Any ideas?
International SEO | | absoauto0 -
Geographic Target set up in Google webmaster tool
Hi, When i launched my web site 3 months ago ( I'm am very new to SEO) I have set up the geographical target section in Google webmaster tool for US. Now, I'm thinking to change it to some other geo target to see if i can get more traffic. However, recently few of my prompted keywords got really well in Google US ranking. Here are my Questions: if i will change the geo settings in webmaster tool will effect the ranking i already managed to achieve in US? In the list of all the countries in Google webmaster tools what does is mean "unlisted"? Can i select more than one country to target and if I can how? Thanks!! Raviv
International SEO | | Indiatravelz0 -
Google Webmaster Tools - Geographic target - Time till change
One of my clients is targeting UK customers. They have UK IP address. I then noticed that they had their Geographic target set to "Target users in: United States". I advised them to change this. Anyone know: How this could have been set, the client says they didn't do it? How long will it take for Google to see this has been changed? Thanks in advance. Justin
International SEO | | GrouchyKids0