Geo-targeting
-
Hi all,
If I had a global domain but with local country pages on it, i.e.
What's the best way to ensure that the relevant country gets the relevant pages. I.e. the /uk/ pages show in the UK, /usa/ pages in the USA, /au/ pages in Australia. etc. etc.
Is this a Google Webmaster tools setting?
Thanks!
-
Hi Matt,
Thanks for your reply - this very aptly timed blog was written on the subject yesterday: http://moz.com/blog/hreflang-behaviour-insights.
-
Actually what you're looking for is called hreflang.
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en
You set the default (for most of our clients that's US) and then you tell Google which pages to serve using which languages.
If you're doing this in a CMS where you'll need to set every page in a template, set it up like this:
" hreflang="x-default" />
" hreflang="en-au" />
" hreflang="en" />The request_URI section adds whichever URL the user is on, ie. your /about or /contact pages. Add this code (with your info) into the header section of your HTML template for all pages and you're good to go.
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
-
Wrong target content in the SERP regarding language
Hi Guys! I'm currently under an SEO issue and need some advices about it. My problem is that, Google doesn't show the good pages in the SERPs regarding the languages. In fact, I translated some content in Italian, German, French etc ... When someone use the branding name of the project to find it by google, if this guy is French, German, or something else, Google shows the English version in the results. I of course would like google showing the German version for a German guy in the SERP ... I already made properly my hreflang tags. Some tips to fix it? Thanks a lot in advance! And hope everybody had a merry christmas!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SEOBubble0 -
B2B site targeting 20,000 companies with 20,000 dedicated "target company pages" on own website.
An energy company I'm working with has decided to target 20,000 odd companies on their own b2b website, by producing a new dedicated page per target company on their website - each page including unique copy and a sales proposition (20,000 odd new pages to optimize! Yikes!). I've never come across such an approach before... what might be the SEO pitfalls (other than that's a helluva number of pages to optimize!). Any thoughts would be very welcome.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | McTaggart0 -
Best way to target multiple geographic locations
Hello Mozzers! If you are a service provider wanting to target geographic locations outside of the region where you're physically located, what's the best approach? For example, I have a service provider whose main market is not where they're located - they're based in Devon UK, yet main markets are London, Birmingham, Newcastle, Edinburgh. They have clients in all these cities, so I could definitely provide content relevant to each city - perhaps a page for each city detailing work and services (and possibly listing clients). However, does the lack of a physical presence (and local phone number) in these cities make such city pages virtually impossible to rank these days? Does Google require a physical presence/phone number? Thanks in advance, Luke
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | McTaggart0 -
Targeting local areas without creating landing pages for each town
I have a large ecommerce website which is structured very much for SEO as it existed a few years ago. With a landing page for every product/town nationwide (its a lot of pages). Then along came Panda... I began shrinking the site in Feb last year in an effort to tackle duplicate content. We had initially used a template only changing product/town name. My first change was to reduce the amount of pages in half by merging the top two categories, as they are semantically similar enough to not need their own pages. This worked a treat, traffic didn't drop at all and the remaining pages are bringing in the desired search terms for both these products. Next I have rewritten the content for every product to ensure they are now as individual as possible. However with 46 products and each of those generating a product/area page we still have a heap of duplicate content. Now i want to reduce the town pages, I have already started writing content for my most important areas, again, to make these pages as individual as possible. The problem i have is that nobody can write enough unique content to target every town in the UK via an individual page (times by 46 products), so i want to reduce these too. QUESTION: If I have a single page for "croydon", will mentioning other local surrounding areas on this page, such as Mitcham, be enough to rank this page for both towns? I have approx 25 Google local place/map listings and grwoing, and am working from these areas outwards. I want to bring the site right down to about 150 main area pages to tackle all the duplicate content, but obviously don't want to lose my traffic for so many areas at once. Any examples of big sites that have reduced in size since Panda would be great. I have a headache... Thanks community.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Silkstream0 -
Geo targeting - same language, different countries
We are in serps in US google, but not in the UK, Australia. Also we have non-english translations of the website - these options works very well. Are there any logic options to make uk.domain.com? We can add United Kingdom in the description and texts. Can this do though in www.google.co.uk ? Same with AU. Website content fits all countries.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bele0 -
Website layout for a new website [Over 50 Pages & targeting Long Tail Keywords]
Hey everyone, We are designing a new website with over 50 pages and I have a question regarding the layout. Should I target my long tail keywords via blog pages? It will be easier to manage and list and link out to similar articles related to my long tail keywords using a word press blog. For this example - lets suppose the website is www.orange.com and we sells 'Oranges' Am I going about this in the right way? Main Section: Main Section 1 : Home Page - Keyword Targeted - Orange Main Section 2 : Important Conversion page - 'Buy oranges' Long Tail Keyword (LTK) 1: www.orange.com/blog/LTK1 Subsection(SS): www.orange.com/blog/LTK1/SS1 www.orange.com/blog/LTK1/SS1a www.orange.com/blog/LTK1/SS1b Long Tail Keyword (LTK) 2: www.orange.com/blog/LTK2 Long Tail Keyword (LTK) 3: www.orange.com/blog/LTK3 Subsection(SS): www.orange.com/blog/LTK1/SS3 www.orange.com/blog/LTK1/SS3a www.orange.com/blog/LTK1/SS3b All these long tail pages and sub sections under them are built specifically for hosting content that targets these specific long tail keywords. Most of my traffic will come initially via the sub section pages - and it is important for me to rank well for these terms initially. _E.g. if someone searches for the keyword 'SS3b' on Google - my corresponding page www.orange.com/blog/LTK1/SS3b should rank well on the results page. _ For ranking purposes - will using this blog/category structure hurt or benefit me? Instead do you think I should build static pages? Also, we are targeting more than 50 long tail keywords - and building quality content for each of these keywords - and I assume that we will be doing this continuously. So in the long term term which is more beneficial? Do you have any suggestions on if I am going about this the right way? Apologies for using these random terms - oranges, LKT, SS etc in this example. However, I hope that the question is clear. Looking forward to some interesting answers on this! Please feel free to share your thoughts.. Thank you! Natasha
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Natashadogres0 -
Any resources for targeting sites towards long-tail keywords or broad match traffic?
I've been looking around, but haven't had much luck finding info or case-studies on targeting long-tail keywords or broad match traffic. So, for example, trying to target a site about used toyotas. (Not my term, but provides a decent example) Theres more motivated traffic searching "2002 Toyota Camry" than "Used Toyotas". While Used Toyotas make more sense for a site theme from a visitor perspective, I would rather have an article on my site rank for the easier keyword of say Blue 2002 Toyota Camry. I make more money from long tail keywords than Used Toyotas. Any thoughts or references about increasing those rankings would be appreciated. Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MeanGiant0 -
Get-targeted homepage for users vs crawlers
Hello there! This is my first post here on SEOmoz. I'll get right into it then... My website is housingblock.com, and the homepage runs entirely off of geo-targeting the user's IP address to display the most relevant results immediately to them. Can potentially save them a search or three. That works great. However, when crawlers frequent the site, they are obviously being geo-targeted for their IP address, too. Google has come to the site via several different IP addresses, resulting in several different locations being displayed for it on the homepage (Mountain View, CA or Clearwater, MI are a couple). Now, this poses an issue because I'm worried that crawlers will not be able to properly index the homepage because the location, and ultimately all the content, keeps changing. And/or, we will be indexed for a specific location when we are in fact a national website (I do not want to have my homepage indexed/ranked under Mountain View, CA, or even worse, Clearwater, MI [no offence to any Clearwaterians out there]). Of course, my initial instinct is to create a separate landing page for the crawlers, but for obvious reasons, I am not going to do that (I did at one point, but quickly reverted back because I figured that was definitely not the route to go, long-term). Any ideas on the best way to approach this, while maintaining the geo-targeted approach for my users? I mean, isn't that what we're supposed to do? Give our users the most relevant content in the least amount of time? Seems that in doing so, I am improperly ranking my website in the eyes of the search engines. Thanks everybody! Marc
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | THB0