Ranking UK company in Google.com
-
Hi all,
I have a UK client with a .com domain, hosted on a US server, but the physical business premises is based in the UK. Their product is a really great product and available for export to the US.
I want to rank them higher in the US, more specifically Google.com.
I've helped them rank very well organically in the UK (google.co.uk) for some great terms, however they rank almost nowhere in google.com (gl=us) for the same terms, for example:
In Google.co.uk they rank #3 for the key-phrase.
In Google.com they rank #90 for the same key-phrase.I've got them some great US focused links with PR coverage including MSN Cars, nydailynews.com etc.
I just wondered if there was any one "golden ticket" for boosting US rankings? I've read that a physical business premises located in the US helps a lot. Can anyone confirm this and if so, would a rented PO box in the US help?
The site has great social signals too, growing twitter following and many FB likes/shares etc.
Any other tips/advice?
Thanks in advance,
Cheers,
Woody -
If you are still looking for a business address to sound like a US company, try US Global Mail - www.usglobalmail.com - cheaper and better service than ECM.
-
Make a US section of the site and target that subfolder for US rankings. That subfolder should have a US address if you can make that happen and be geotargeted for the US. Or you could create a second site, keep them hosted differently and not interlinked. Might actually be a good idea if you want US customers to feel you are a US company and not that they are hiring a UK company to do work in the US which makes companies a bit leery sometimes.
-
Yep, that's a useful post, thanks
I was planning to continue building US links anyway but just wondered if there was anything else, any fellow SEO's, in the same position, found to work well?
Cheers
-
Well, then, ignore what I said. It did sound like you had a .com and a .co.uk. Google likes to keep sites in a given country.
I would suggest you look at this Moz post
http://moz.com/community/q/what-is-the-best-way-to-rank-well-on-both-google-co-uk-google-com
-
Hi CleverPhD
Thanks for taking the time to answer, and I'll certainly look into Earth Class Mail
Perhaps I've mislead you or you have interpreted my questions incorrectly, but there's not two domains, just one.
It's an international business, with HQ located in the UK. Unfortunately it's only physical location is in the UK but it's products are available internationally. You order from through the website, the product is built in the UK and then exported to the US (or any other country).
If I set the Geographic Target to US in GWT wont we lose rankings in google.co.uk? Which is by far our biggest market, (only because we rank so well in google.co.uk), the potential is in the US.
Just seems strange that the en-us keywords are identical to en-gb keywords, so why are we so far behind on google.com?
Any other ideas?
Cheers
Woody -
Basic level, you should go into Google Webmaster Tools and make sure that your Geographic Target is set for the US on the .com. Otherwise, all Google has to go on is your UK physical address. You may also want to set the UK domain to the UK geographic location in GWT.
Another question, is the US site just a duplicate of the UK site as far as content? It may be that Google sees both, but since the UK site is the original then it focuses on the UK site.
I would agree that a US address (and not a PO box) would help and you can get an actual virtual street address by using services such as Earth Class Mail. https://www.earthclassmail.com/ They have various street addresses you can use, they then scan everything in and you can login and see your mail. If you need something ultimately delivered they can forward that too. It is a pretty cool service and we have been using it for over a year. I work for a virtual company (we have folks all over the US) and we use this and it is great as we used to have to forward mail and it would take forever. Now we can login online and access it almost immediately.
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
-
Which will rank higher: Non-mobile friendly site in native language vs. mobile friendly global site in English?
Hi, we are currently implementing a mobile site, e.g. m.company.com. The global mobile site will only be available in English. We have local subsites of the desktop site, e.g. company.com/fr. The local subsites are not mobile friendly. If a user does a search for a brand term in France, **which site will rank higher in SERPs? **If it will be the global site, is there anything we can do (other than making them mobile friendly) to make the local sites rank higher? Would it be the mobile-friendly site, even though it is only in English, because the local site would be penalized for not being mobile friendly? Or would it be the local site, because Google will give priority to the fact that it's in French, which matches the language of the person searching?
International SEO | | jennifer.new0 -
Google Analytics - whats best way to set up to track users on geotargeted sub folders & tlds ?
Hi ive got a client site just about to launch into 2 new territories (German Germany & Turkish Turkey) The existing/main site is in English & targets English keyword usage globally via domain.com and is not geotargeted in anyway. Analytics is set up for this on domain.com and tracking accurately and GWT is set up too. Now we have added a Turkish language site via a subfolder (domain.com/tr/) & the German site (domsain.com/de/) BUT this German subfolder will be domain mapped to a TLD (domain.de) eventually.. So what's best way to configure/set up Google Analytics to track users so can view the international sub-sites as individual sites etc ? (& GWT for that matter) ? Also after doing this i will be setting up in Moz Anlytics as separate campaigns so how do you set up so only draws in the Analytics data specific to these sub-folders ? All Best Dan
International SEO | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Shall I automatically redirect international visitors from www.domain.com to e.g. www.domain.com/es? What is best SEO practice?
We have chosen the one domain approach with our international site having different language versions in subdirectory of main domain:
International SEO | | lcourse
www.domain.com/es
www.domain.com/it
etc. What is SEO-wise best practice for implementing international index pages. I see following options: entering www.domain.com will display without redirection the index page in language of user (e.g based on IP or browser) in www.domain.com
Example: www.booking.com entering www.domain.com will always show English index page.
Additionally one may display a message in the header if IP from other country with link to other language version.
Example: www.apple.com entering www.domain.com will always redirect automatically to country specific subdirectory based on IP
Example: www.samsung.com Any thoughts/suggestions on what may be best solution from a SEO perspective? For a user I believe options 1) & 3) are preferable.0 -
Weird Geo Rankings - Help Please!
So I've got a site - a .com, hosted in the USA with no geo target set in webmaster tools. I'm from the UK where the site ranks no 6 for its main keyword but in the USA it's ranking no 38. That's pretty much it! I can't get my head around why this would be - the US market is the main market for the product/service so I am thinking maybe it's just more competitive but surely many of the sites ranking in the States would be in the UK too. .... it's such a difference in rank! PS, the site was no 14 in google.com until penguin 2.0 but dropped although its .co.uk ranking has remained - another thing that has left me dumb founded! The website is www.options-trading.com and the keyword is "options trading". Any ideas?!
International SEO | | marcus810 -
What is the best way to rank well on both Google.co.uk & Google.com?
I am working on a website that is primarily a UK based software company but is now expanding into the US. The website is a .com site and is not geo-targeted to any specific location. Currently the site ranks well on Google.co.uk for a number of the focus keywords. We are now targeting Google.com as well to increase visibility in the USA. The site is ranking number 1 for one of the focus terms on Google.co.uk but no where to be seen on Google.com but on another term the site ranks 3rd in both Google.co.uk and .com. There are a number of other terms that rank on the first page in Google.co.uk and on the 3rd or 4th page in Google.com. The server is located in Germany and I do not want to geotarget the site to the US as I am concerned this would have a negative impact on the .co.uk ranking. The site currently has a mix of .com and .co.uk links pointing back to the site, in actual fact possibly more links actually come from US sites already. My original plan was to just focus on building links back to the target pages from US sites rather than creating a US folder on the site and geotargeting that section of the site in WMT and having to build page authority for a completely new page with no existing backlinks. But now that I have a number 1 ranking on .co.uk and the same term not ranking at all in .com as well as a postion 3 ranking for a term in both .co.uk and .com I am slightly confused as to the best options. Any help, advice, opinions would be greatly appreciated.
International SEO | | PaulSimms0 -
CDN and the Google ranking?
Does anyone have any experience on the change in the rankings (positive or negative) after a site implemented a content delivery network (CDN) like Akamai or Level 3?
International SEO | | IvanIrishRecruiter1 -
.com or .ca for my Canadian website that is the question...
I have a US based company that is expanding to Canada, would it matter if I have a .com or .ca for my website?
International SEO | | BCA0 -
How to improve SERP rankings in other countries?
We have a .com website in English targeting global visitors. We have good rankings on Google USA for our targeted keywords But we do not rank well in APAC e.g. Sigapore and Australia. What could we do to get ranked in these countries? We received a recommendation to sign up for .sg and .au domains and replicate our Website for Singapore and Australia. But wouldn’t it contribute to duplicate content Issue? We are in software industry and do not have locale specific content. Please advise.
International SEO | | Amjath0