Client in Scotland wants to rank for France term
-
We have a client who's head office is based in Scotland but they want to rank for France related keywords for their chalets that are in France.
They only have chalets in France and will never have chalets anywhere else.
As a business they have always used their Scotland address when the brand is mentioned and their Scotland address is used in the site footer. But as they want to rank for France related terms and nothing for Scotland, I'm wondering if I should use their France address instead or in addition across their site footer, on social media channels and across the web where possible?
-
What Hurf said is almost perfect. One correction:
"However, If they are targeting French speakers exclusively then I see a case for ruling out on a .fr domain, especially if you have a local presence over in France. " French speakers are in many other countries than France. Keep that in mind. But I don't think that pertains to you.
I think Hurf is right in that you are trying to reach all Europeans or just the UK. You want them to vacation in France in your client's chalets. If that is the case, you are fine. There is no need to include the local information of the chalets across the site to make it look like you are from France.
Are you having issues with terms in particular? Can you share some of those and the domain? We are happy to take a look!
-
Technical SEO considerations aside, first.
The answer depends (in part) on who their target audience is and where they are located. Are they targeting Parisians or Glaswegians, for example? As these are two totally different audiences with totally different expectations.
I'm guessing it's aimed at English speakers across the UK mainland, so something with mainstream appeal would be preferable to my mind. There are few peoples on earth more staunchly proud of their nationality than the Scots (and rightly so), but the current branding may be a bit of an irrelevance or source of confusion at best or a turn-off at worst - for some. Of course, the opposite applies if you are selling to Scots or selling authentic Scottish produce, but they aren't.
If they are using .scot or .scotland or some other variant (again, technical SEO considerations aside at this stage) there is some risk of confusion as people are still more familiar with the .com/.co.uk domains and you wouldn't want to lose potential clients to competitors with similar (and more memorable) domain names. (These .vanity type domain names are gaining traction though - albeit when the .co.uk variants are taken - you only need to Google any ad/media/seo agency to see a profusion of .buzz .agency .hipster - I haven't looked, but I'll wager that's out there, too!)
So, brand perception and confusion aside, we can look at technical SEO:
Is there any benefit to using a different domain suffix (user perception aside)?
- And, this may be the main thrust of your question.
No, as all TLDs are treated equally by Google. (See: http://searchengineland.com/google-explains-how-they-handle-the-new-top-level-domains-tlds-225671
So, there is no gain to be had from changing over - from Google's perspective.
However, If they are targeting French speakers exclusively then I see a case for ruling out on a .fr domain, especially if you have a local presence over in France. It goes without saying that you'd want the site presented in French first, too - but that's a given. a Google My Business listing to target local search etc would benefit, of course.
You could go as far as hosting the site in France to boost server response by a few milliseconds or so, but this is only applicable if you're actively seeking a predominately French customer base.
If you are thinking of switching domains or moving sites there are obvious logistical considerations (redirects, migration of content etc - depending on how you roll it out, so there is risk of losing some ground in the SERPS (even if you execute the migration flawlessly).
Of course, if my speculation is correct and you are targeting UK users in the main and you are gaining any kind of traction with the current site, you may be better to focus on delivering a better on-page experience - "Best places to visit in Dordogne" type articles, so you're catching prospective clients early into the buying process, broadening your site with engaging content, carrying out some content outreach exercises, promoting your brand on Social Media etc and stick with what you've got and there's no reason at all why you can't rank very well for any term you wish - you just need to but the work in to get the rewards. Just persevere, produce great content, keep your target audience in mind and you can beat the best - and you'll never be short of Scottish customers.
Bonne chance!
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
-
Which one of these URL's will rank the best?
Hello! Curious on the community's thoughts on linking best practices for the following hypothetical scenario: I own a site called landscaping.com and want to rank for the term "landscapers houston". I have a link on the top title bar linking to landscaping.com/landscapers-near-me with an interactive map with clickable links leading to different metro areas. What should be my link from that page to the Houston page? 1. landscaping.com/landscapers-near-me/landscapers-houston 2. landscaping.com/landscapers-near-me/houston 3. landscaping.com/landscapers-houston 4. landscaping.com/houston The main question is whether to include the parent page or not. i have 2 conflicting thoughts. 1. short URL's are better so dont include it 2. include it because that is the page that links out to it and it helps Google understand the site flow. Thanks, Ryan
Local Listings | | RyanMeighan0 -
Categories for Google My Business pages - do they need to match terms on website?
I have a chiropractor client with three locations. Because the Chiropractor category is very competitive, whomever originally set-up their GMB pages elected to use the category "Pain Control Clinic" for two locations, and "Medical Center" for the third location. They rank badly for these categories. Their website does not contain many signals for pain control or medical center; it is very much chiropractor focused. Is this something Google takes into consideration when deciding how to rank GMB pages?
Local Listings | | Marce5210 -
Why is my local page is ranking better than yellow pages for that particular search?
My search query is "façadier bastogne" in google.be which in English would translate as "plasterer" and bastogne being the local city I am targeting. I can't seem to understand why my site peintre-plafonneur-facadier-bastogne.be/fr would rank higher than our local directory "Pages d'or" (Yellow Pages) which has a high DA and almost always ranks first for similar searches as "peintre bastogne" (painter)? Not to mention my site was created by Pages d'Or. How did they manage to rank this so high whereas if you look at it you'll see that they have not made any SEO work on it whatsoever. Could anyone help me understand this or tell me which way to look in order to get that information? I really need this as I am paying a lot to this directory for my site and was planning to launch my own WordPress website.
Local Listings | | Thomaspdt1 -
How to get 1st page rankings in the local cleaning niche.
Hi guys, I'm trying to learn how to market my carpet cleaning website in Google but without much success. I'm reading marketing forums for over 6 months still can't achieve 1st page rankings. What I'm missing? Can you please check the site and tell me what to improve to get good rankings in Google UK? There are some competitors which are doing very well, for example competitor1, competitor2 but I can't figure out what they have which I don't? I'm not very experienced in marketing but hope someone here will guide me how rank my cleaning website on 1st page.
Local Listings | | badit340 -
Ranking opportunity if we omit county in citations
I am looking to rank highly in local search for Birkenhead but have not currently filled in the county on Google + so Moz local is not picking the county up. I am wondering whether I should continue and keep the county off there as there is a potential problem: on our website we are listed as being based in the Wirral and we are also based in a county called Merseyside so have two different possible citations. We are ranking well for the term Wirral and do not want to effect this. I am thinking of building citations without Wirral or Merseyside and was wondering if anyone can advise? The address that I have in the citation would be - business name, building number, Birkenhead then Wirral or Merseyside and post code. I am currently using business name, building number, Birkenhead and post code and we want to rank highly for Birkenhead. Could anyone advise me here? The Wirral is a peninsular as can be seen on Wilipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Borough_of_Wirral
Local Listings | | SEM_at_Lees0 -
Google Local Listing Ranking/Traffic Metrics in the Google Search Console?
A client of mine asked me if it was possible to see local listing data (ranking/traffic stats) in the Google Search Console for a URL. I figured the Google Search Console only shows organic metrics not 3-pack/local listing performance. However I could be mistaken. Does the Google Search Console report this?
Local Listings | | RosemaryB0 -
How to rank same business page in different locations?
Hello all, First of all thanks for answering my previous queries. Now, I have one more query and I am hoping to get best possible answers from you guys. Query: I have one business which is located in one city only and I have a verified listing there (I am ranking good in that city). However, I want to rank the same business page in couple of other cities as well. What should I do considering that I cannot create a new listing for other cities because I have my office in single location only? Looking forward to answers. Brian
Local Listings | | BrianBotts.0 -
Duplicate Websites - Only one ranking
Hello Everyone, I have a client that has 2 website, that have the same content, with he same phone numbers and contact details. However, there are a few different that we want to do for both. 1. mywebsitevan.com ( Has Google Places (and they don't want to lose this listing, as it is a main reason why they are surviving. not rank organically mywebsitevancouver.com
Local Listings | | EVERWORLD.ENTERTAIMENT
- ranked organically No Google Place listings. This is the actual branding of the company What is the best way to make this work with google, so that we have both websites, and without losing the google places listings. Do add any tags? Rel=? Thanks for your help.0