Search Engine Optimization is all about getting higher on Google. A company who needs to target an international audience should ask the question – What specific Google domain am I trying to get found easier on? Google forces people to use one of its Google country specific domains for searches done in each country. How does Geographic targeting of searches and search engine optimisation work?

When you look at Google’s results on Google.com.au as compared to say Google.com for any same search phrase, you will notice that there are different results for each search. Searches on Google.com.au  shows more Australian websites as compared to the same search on the other countries Google searches.

In other words there is a bias on different country searches to each specific country.

How does the Google Geo Target bias work??? How can you work the geo targeting bias in your favor??? How do you get to the top with 1 domain name for many alternate countries, beating the bias of that countries own websites??? What is the most optimal method of marketing your companies web site? Its time for Google Geo Targeting of web sites.

How is a domain geographic targeted?

• If a domain name is country specific (ie .co.nz, .com.au, .co.uk), then it is geographical targeted to only that country
• If a website’s domain name is non country specific (ie .com, .info, .net), then by default it is geo targeted to the country that it is hosted in. ie a .com hosted in New Zealand is treated as a New Zealand website for geotargeting.
• Via Google webmaster tools, you are able to geo target a non country specific domain to any country ie geotarget a .com hosted in Au to NZ.

Can a website be geo targeted to a number of different countries?

Yes! Via Google webmaster tools, you are able to add not just the main domain.com, but also add subdomains like domain.com/ca/. You can then specifically geographical target that subdirectory to a certain country. All pages within that subdirectory are therefore geo targeted to that same country

Therefore you can have one web site that is able to compete on an even foot with the domains of each country. One web site is able to have the same country bias as each countries own websites.

How are searches geo targeted

There is a country bias on Google.com searches based on the country of the IP address that you are searching via. For example, if you are using an ISP (internet service provider) of New Zealand, then based on the IP address that you are searching from, you will be given search results biased to that country. If you are searching on Google.ca from a New Zealand IP address, then there is no ISP bias, just the country bias attached to that specific countries searches.

The problem with many domains

You have a choice to make. You can either develop a different website for numerous domains – ie domain.fr, domain.co.nz, domain.com, domain.com.au etc, or have one domain.com that is targeted to a number of countries domain.com/au, domain.com/nz, domain.com/uk etc

A number of domains means that each domain needs its own linking strategy and each web site needs different unique content so as to not have duplicate content issues. Each domain needs to be updated via its own content management system each time that updates are required.

One domain means one web site to maintain, one domain to get links for, and duplicate content between pages is not as much an issue (although you need to be careful at the same time).

I much prefer having one website.

It’s hard work with only one country specific domain

I have some country specific domains  (ie domain.co.nz) that are competitive on many different country Google’s – ie the web sites ranking high on each of Google.com from USA, Google.co.nz, Google.com.au etc.

However, in order to get high on each search, I have had to invest incredibly large amounts of effort into linking in order to beat the bias of each countries web sites. I could have just created a separate .com website and geotargeted it. However, there had already been significant linking resources put into the .co.nz web site and got it positioned well. We did not want to wait the six+ months of the Google sandbox to get a new domain ranking well for such competitive phrases.

How to create a multi country website

You need a homepage specific to each country, and a number of other pages that are for that particular country as well. Google likes websites better if they have more than one page. Each subdirectory is becoming a mini website, therefore it needs more than one website page in order to be treated as an authority “web site” in its own right. I like to have a homepage, contact page, and about us page as the minimum number of pages for each country.

Once you are into a country page, you need to see the other pages specific for that country. I like using flags to identify each country.

Placing people in pages via Geo targeting by IP address

Geo targeting by IP address helps with placing people into their own specific part of a website. But given that Google is a USA spider, you also need to let Google see all the other countries pages, and not just restrict it to USA pages. You can set a browser cookie based on Geotargeted country, or the first country specific page that is entered. But then you must allow people to change their country and see the other pages as well, overriding that initial cookie setting.

Avoiding Duplicate content

Having multiple homepages, one for each country, and creating duplicates of other pages gives rise to the duplicate content issue. With multi country websites, I work rather hard to create unique content for each page. Particularly making sure that the words around the first instance of the search phrases are unique. But also making sure that the remainder of the pages are different in a number of ways. Spinning the content like you can spin articles is one way.

If you are creating 100′s of pages per country, and duplicating this out per country, then you need intelligent formulas for opening paragraphs. I insert the country name into opening paragraphs and have numerous versions of opening paragraphs that are randomly selected for the pages.

ie

Welcome Irish visitors to our pages showcasing Auckland Hotels
Welcome British visitors to our Auckland Hotels page on Domain.com.

…

You can pick out the unique wording around the keyword “Auckland Hotels” on each version, and the added uniqueness of adding mention of the country.

Its hard work

Yes, it is tough work creating specific website pages for each country, and specifically geo targeting for Google. But its definately worth it when you factor in the reduced number of links required to rank each countries pages high.

All the best with creating websites that are geotargeted for Google country specific searches. Click to view other Search Engine Optimization Articles by SearchMasters.co.nz.