SEO Tips For Geo Targeting

Posted in How To, Optimize And Monetize, SEO, Web Master by DB

As an SEO, I often get requests to geo target a site for specific keywords. There are many many ways to let Google know that your site is specific to a particular area/region. The following are a few of my preferred options that I use when I go about geo targeting a website.

  1. Google Webmaster tools – Google webmaster tools has an option that lets you tell Google that you would like your site to appear only in results for a particular geographic location. By far the easiest option and quite effective. Not many people know this but you can have different geographic targets for a sub domain or even a domain sub folder.
  2. Domain whois address – Yes, Google does look at your domain whois address details and determines that your website is specific to a particular country. Even if you have set your webmaster option to say otherwise. This will lead to Google giving your website a preference in the country of registration.

    Let me give you an example. I am currently participating in an SEO Contest from Busby when I am trying to rank a page on this site for the key phrase “Busby SEO Challenge”. In the official datacenter results which I believe is  the Australian datacenter, I am currently ranked Number 7 on the first page. However if you check here, which is the Indian datacenter results you will see this site on the number 1 position. Yes, that’s right Number 1. So why the difference, well my site whois address is my address in India.

  3. Web Hosting – Ensure your site is hosted in a data center of the country you are targeting. For example, if you are targeting the United Kingdom, find a web hosting plan from a hosting provider that is based in the United Kingdom or rather who has a data center in the United Kingdom.
  4. Logically partition your site for regions – Google is smart enough to catch on if you logically partition your website according to geographic region. So if you are targeting more than one country, have sub domains for each country or sub folders for each geographic region and name the sub folders and sub domain appropriately.
  5. Incoming Links – Yes, incoming links also are a factor. If the majority of your links are from say Australian sites, then Google tends to think your site is an Australian site too
  6. Address Information – Another simple but effective way is to have a valid address on your website. You can have it on all the pages or on your contact or about page.
  7. Register at Local Sites – Sign up and register your business and website on Google maps, Yahoo local, Yellow pages, local community websites and portals.

These are some of the tactics that I apply when I do SEO for my websites and clients. Follow these tips and you should start seeing some results soon enough. Keep coming back for more tips and tricks on Search Engine options and website hosting.

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2 Responses

  1. Web Design Says:
    March 3rd, 2009 at 7:47 pm

    Awesome tips. I actually didn’t know about the geo-targeting option within Google webmaster tools. Thanks and keep up the great work!

  2. sharad Says:
    July 22nd, 2011 at 12:29 am

    nice one tips:)) like it

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