Links from other country same language

[grobro]

Hello Mozzers,

Let's say I have a local webdesign business in Zurich, Switzerland.

I try to get good rankings in Switzerland, to get real clients.

Now I have a blog in German (Yes, we speak German in Switzerland) and get most of my links from other German Blogs. Why? Most of the Swiss sites are competitors and there aren't many Swiss blogs for this topic.

Of course I have links from Swiss Sites too. But most of my strong links are from German sites, is this a real problem?

Thanks for your answers, appreciated!

[ofw12387]

Chaotic link building looks natural, google like natural things

[RyanPurkey]

You're welcome. It'd probably be hard to find a scenario where you could compare and contrast two such links--considering all the differences that go into it, so take that last paragraph as strongly hypothetical. All the stuff above it is what would more the needle the most in localized searches.

[grobro]

That last paragraph is exactly what I was looking for, thank you very much, Ryan!

[RyanPurkey]

With more localized searches I'd focus on the Local Search Factors (http://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors) so that you have your real world presence tied closely to Zurich, then I'd also focus on getting solid social signals from the same (Google+ would be one of the best in this case).  Optimizing around mobile would also be good as trends go from desktop to mobile the more local someone gets.  Some hyper local paid campaigns within Facebook or LinkedIn probably wouldn't hurt either.

Finally you could expand your networking and link building within Switzerland either from sponsoring local charities, listing with local business directories, helping non-design blogs, and so on.

A link from a high powered Swiss site would probably be better than the same from a German site in a side-by-side comparison when ranking on something like google.ch, but at least your German links aren't hurting you. Cheers!

[grobro]

Thank you for your answer, I appreciate that!

Yeah, I know that it's a good sign in general. But if a majority of my best links are from another country, can I compete for searches in my local area. I mean, wouldn't a link with the same strength be better from a Swiss Site?

[RyanPurkey]

A diversity of links is a good thing actually, and one of the positives in search ranking factors. Often these types of links will fall under, "# Unique cblocks Linking to the Page" or "# of Unique IPs Linking to the Page" as they're from locations different than Switzerland / Zurich. See: http://moz.com/search-ranking-factors.

Have you been monitoring your user behavior via Analytics?  Do you get a higher bounce rate of traffic when the visitor's browser is set to German?  Those could be possible problems that you might want to address via translations of your page(s).  Cheers!