Getting the Proper CCTLDs & Subdomains to Rank in the Proper Countries
-
We seem to be having a really difficult time getting Google to do what we want in regards to getting proper domains indexed in the proper countries. In regards to English language, we tend to see a tremendous amount of crossover between .com, .in, and .co.uk. And yes international targeting is put in place.
For example, both our .com and co.uk websites are in english and when someone enters a search query for one of our particular products, the .com website shows up to users in the UK.
The countries with the hardest time are as follows and typically find them competing primarily with .com, but others can interlope as well.
**All primarily in English: **
- Canada
- UK
- India
- Australia
Any ideas on how we can get this aligned correctly to where we can get the proper CCTLD to show up in the correct country instead of the .com?
-
Hi Greg,
At first sight, it seems to be an issue on where you are searching for that international sites. Keep in mind that Google, since over a year ago, takes your IP to localize our search. So, considering you're searching in the US for your UK site, it's possible that you're the issue there.
Also, I'd take a deep dive at:
- That international configuration, it is one of the most complicated settings in SEO,
- In GSC, for the main site (.com) how much traffic is receiving from your other target countries.
- Are properly linked every site with the others?
- Crawling issues? It could probably be an issue that Googlebot isn't able to crawl entirely all sites.
As always, when it comes to international, these resources come handy:
Hreflang generator - Aleyda Solis International SEO - Moz Learning Center The Guide to International Website Expansion: Hreflang, ccTLDs, & More! - Moz Blog The International SEO Checklist - Moz BlogBest luck.
Hope it helps.
GR
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Mixed branches / targeting countries results in the SERP
hi all, I have one hard nut to break and I would like to kindly ask you for any idea / help 🙂
Local Website Optimization | | execom99
we have web page localized to multiple languages targetting different countries.
e.g. we have: domain.com/int/ ... default in english, in search console / Internation targeting / Country with Target users in "Unlisted"
domain.com/uk/ ... english for UK, Target users in "United Kingdom"
domain.com/de/ ... german content for Germany, Target users in "Germany"
... etc. Each branch (country specific) has its own sitemap.xml covering approx 50-60% of all the pages for the specific branch and for most of these pages we have set hreflang (rel="alternate") for most important product pages. There are some issues in the sitemaps we are fixing (e.g. no returning link) so my assumption is that google may not use the sitemap, therefore, hreflang is not in use (it is part of sitemap). For example, one branch can have 150 pages submitted and 30 indexed in Sitemap detail of search console. The problem is, that when for example I search for the product name from Germany (google.de and German's IP through VPN in browser's incognito mode) I'm receiving mixed results. Our product names and technology are rather english, e.g. "cloud protection" and it is also phrase German user would search for. But in SERP he gets results from our domain.com/uk and also from our domain.com/sg which is completely wrong. Is there a way to really prevent it ?
thanks
T0 -
Ranking nationally but not locally
Hi everyone, I'm working with a client that has a strange situation. He's ranking for his target keyword on a national level but when searching locally, he's in the 100s (see attached). Any idea what could be going on here? He did have an old domain that got hacked that is redirecting to his current domain. Thanks, Tim lmSSXdT
Local Website Optimization | | TimKelsey0 -
How can my categories rank for my different branches? Tidied site up but now local rankings are worse
Dear Mozzers , I am wondering if someone could please help with some advice and assistance on the following for our Tool hire site: Basically I like to know how we can rank for our categories for our different branch locations ?. We have a branch finder page and separate branch pages but I do not know if I should have an internal link from all our branch pages to all my different categories or not or is google clever enough to know that I have x locations and x categories and I should rank all the categories in all the locations. I think my site structure is fairly straightforward and on the face of it similar to what others do who have multiple branches . For example I enclose a link to 2 of our categories - carpet cleaner hire category and a floor sander hire category carpet cleaner category - http://goo.gl/cMyS4i floor sander category - http://goo.gl/4ipUyA Heres a link to our Branch Finder - http://goo.gl/UyTQdK Heres a link to one of our Branches for example - Bristol Branch - http://goo.gl/9TXHTK And heres our link to our google plus Bristol page - google plus bristol branch page - https://goo.gl/h0IwAK . We have link from our bristol page going to the bristol google plus page and visa versa. Currently within our internal linking structure there is No direct link on the branch pages to the categories ?. Is this something we need to do or not necessary ?. - If we do it , then it may mess up or confuse the page as I someone need to get all the category links on the branch pages ? We have lots of good unique content , lots of citations for our branches and categories etc but we just don't seem to rank at all well for any of our categories in local search. For example if somene was to search for - Carpet cleaner hire "City Name " or Floor sander hire "City Name" (City name being where our branches are). We dont rank very well for most of our cities. Even without putting the city name in we dont rank to well in local search. We used to have individual pages for our categories in each of the cities we have branches with unique content on all and these did rank quite well in a few cities but never top 3 in most and we got rid of these last month (start of Oct) as I was told that google may see this as quite spammy or doorway pages if I have a carpet cleaner hire Bristol page or a floor sander hire Bristol page etc ?.. All my location landing pages now just 301 back to the appropriate category. I am wondering if getting rid of these landing pages was a good idea as by tidying things up , I've seemed to have lost my local rankings for my cities. Can someone please advise if what I did was right and what else I should look at doing ?> Could it be an internal linking issue I need to sort ? Any assistance much appreciated.
Local Website Optimization | | PeteC12
thanks
Pete0 -
SEO Client not rankings in Google
Hello, I have a client that has continued to be problematic for my team and I. They have fair to middling rankings in Yahoo and Bing, but none in Google. I realize that they are three separate search engines each with their own criteria, but this client is the only one experiencing this problem. There is no significant duplicate content that can find, same with restrictions in the robots.txt file. These seems to be no reason why all my tools say that this client has no presence at all in google, especially when the client gains most of their traffic through Google. Can anyone assist me in finding out what is going wrong? Client website for reference: http://www.volvethosp.com/ Best, BeyondIndigo
Local Website Optimization | | BeyondIndigo0 -
Why am I not ranking although my domain authority is higher than competitors with same relevancy?
So I am trying to rank the domain http://jamesriver.org for the term "Churches in Springfield, MO" Not sure why we are not ranking as well as we ought to rank. I have a few assumptions, but wanted to see what other have to say to get better input. Below are some details about the us: We have done a brand name change in the past 2 years - James River Assembly to James River Church We have two locations: Ozark, MO - which has been there for a very long time and Springfield, MO which is a newer campus We have higher domain authority than others that rank higher for the term We have a new website that was launch about 3 months ago We have a location page for each of the 2 campuses I am wondering what factors might be at play in our lesser rankings even though we are relevant to the term and have higher authority than those that are ranking much higher than us. Thanks for any help you can provide.
Local Website Optimization | | chris.oursbourn0 -
Problem ranking page with a double name and an "&"
I have a client with a double name and a & like: Jones & Jones. I and using all in one SEO on a Wordpress site. Their home page is not ranking even though I have Jones, Jones & Jones and Jones and Jones listed in the keywords. Interestingly enough other pages where I did not list the home page rank when you do a serach for "Jones & Jones" I have not had this issue with other sites but have never had a name repeated and and & in between... any advice woild be appreciate.. I just signed up for a trial of MOZ...
Local Website Optimization | | ajgar0 -
How can I rank my .co.uk using content on my .com?
Hi, We currently have a .com site ranking second for our brand term in the .co.uk SERP. This is mainly because we don't own the exact match brand term which comes from not having a clue what we were doing when we set up the company. Would it be possible to out rank this term considering we the weighing that google puts towards exact matches in the URL? N.B - There are a few updates we could do to the homepage to make the on-page optimisation better and we have not actively done any link building yet which will obviously help. competitor SERP rank 1 - MOZ PA38 DA26 Our Site SERP rank 2 - MOZ PA43 DA32 Thanks Ben
Local Website Optimization | | benjmoz0 -
Welcome to the Crawling, Indexing, and Ranking sub-forum
Hi guys,We built 2 sites for a client called Kilsaran. 1. Kilsaran.ie targeting Ireland2. Kilsaraninternational.co.uk targeting the ukThe issue is with the uk version of the site is not appearing where it used to be on the SERPs on google.co.uk when you serach for either "Kilsaran" or "Kilsaran International". The Irish version kilsaran.ie now appears first. We have set the GEO targeting for the respective Countries. The .ie site is the original site with the longer History and much more domain authority, links etc There is no manual penalty appearing So my questions is how do I get the English version to appear no.1on google.co.uk? Is it a case of building some local links? or should I implement geo ip detection?Another related question. What is the geo targeting tools function in GWT used for?ThanksRob
Local Website Optimization | | daracreative0