International SEO - How do I show correct SERP results in the UK and US?
-
Hi, Moz community.
I hope you’re all OK and keeping busy during this difficult period. I have a few questions about international SEO, specifically when it comes to ranking pages in the UK and the US simultaneously. We currently have 2 websites set-up which are aimed towards their respective countries. We have a ‘.com’ and a ‘.com/us’.
If anybody could help with the issues below, I would be very grateful. Thank you all.
Issues
-
When looking in US Google search with a VPN, the title tag for our UK page appears in the SERP e.g. I will see:
-
UK [Product Name] | [Brand]
-
When checking the Google cache, the UK page version also appears
-
This can cause a problem especially when I am creating title tags and meta descriptions that are unique from the UK versions
-
However, when clicking through from the SERP link to the actual page, the US page appears as it should do. I find this very bizarre that it seems to show you the US page when you click through, but you see the UK version in the SERP when looking in the overall search results.
Current Set-Up
-
Our UK and US page content is often very similar across our “.com” and “.com/us” websites and our US pages are canonicalised to their UK page versions to remove potential penalisation
-
We have also added herflang to our UK and US pages
Query
- How do I show our US SERP as opposed to the UK version in US Google search?
My Theories/ Answers
-
US page versions have to be completely unique with content related to US search intent and be indexed separately - therefore no longer canonicalised to UK version
-
Ensure hreflang is enabled to point Google to correct local page versions
-
Ensure local backlinks point to localised pages
If anyone can help, it will be much appreciated. Many thanks all.
-
-
Same to you! Happy to help!
-
Thank you for taking the time to help me with all of my questions Kate. It is refreshing to know that experienced SEO marketers like yourself are happy to help others build their knowledge.
I hope you have a good weekend!
-
Yeah, that is actually what hreflang was intended to be. Just to differentiate content pages that had the same content just translated, even if in just dialect. Alas it is also used to show geo-targeting, but I try to not be mad about it
Change as much as needed to make the target market user comfortable. There is no hard and fast rule.
-
Thanks again Kate. This makes sense to me now and it seems to be a nice, easy method. I just have one final question when it comes to differentiating content between UK and US pages.
If we have a page that is relatively similar in terms of content, but the language has been amended to match the local dialect, will this remove the duplication issue if hreflang is in place?
Say, for example, there are 5 key features about a product on a page, and 3 of them are suited to both the US and UK markets. Is it enough to add localised spellings to each description, or would the entire paragraph have to be re-written from scratch to create 2 unique copies?
I see that some competitors re-write their content entirely which makes sense if they're appealing to differing local user intent but some only alter the spellings and their price points where needed. What are your thoughts on this?
Thanks
Katarina -
If the page is https://www.example.com/us/product/ then the hreflang on that page should be:
If it is on https://www.example.com/product/ then it is actually the same
The other two lines are not needed. x-default is for your homepage when there is no target and you are asking users to set their target. If you visit https://www.ikea.com/ in an incognito window, you'll see what I mean.
And general en is not needed here. You are using hreflang for helping the SEs understand the difference in the content across countries that use the same language. As much as I hate it for that purpose, they do use this as a signal. General "en" is if you had a business that didn't geo-target and rather just had translations. One page in English, one in Spanish, etc. But no localization.
-
Hi Kate!
Thanks for your response, I really appreciate the help. What you say makes a lot of sense. The reason we are opting for US and UK sites is that we offer different package and pricing information to each market so it was important to have a distinction between the two.
One thing that is very new to me, however, is the use of hreflang. Here is a sample of what we currently have on our UK and US pages:
I wasn't sure whether we needed to only include the emboldened line of code on US pages. Are the other 3 lines necessary? The same layout appears on our UK pages also.
Thanks in advance!
-
Hi Katarina!
Your theories are right but let me explain a little more.
-
US page versions have to be completely unique with content related to US search intent and be indexed separately - therefore no longer canonicalised to UK version.
If you are going to create a US and UK version of your page, there needs to be a reason why. If there is no reason why other than "someone told us we should," then only do one page. If there is a reason like differing product information then the pages need to be distinct from each other. -
Ensure hreflang is enabled to point Google to correct local page versions
This is blended with what you said above. If you use a canonical and hreflang, the engines will get confused. You are telling them with the canonical that they are the same page. Then the hreflang tells them that the pages are different because of localization. You can't have both. Remove the canonical and make sure the hreflang is right. -
Ensure local backlinks point to localised pages.
Yes!
-
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
-
Weird SEO Problem - No Longer Ranking in Some Areas
Hi Everyone, I’ve got a weird SEO issue that I hope you’ll be able to help with. I’ve broken it down in to the key points below: Impressions for our primary and secondary keywords dropped dramatically on 02.10.17. Impressions have only dropped on non geographical keywords. “UK” variants are still ranking well. Investigation shows we’re not ranking outside of London at all for primary and secondary keywords. Primary and secondary keywords are still ranking well in London, the city where we’re based We’ve looked at our competition who do rank for the primary keyword both in and outside London. We noticed we have our “postaladdress” in our schema. The competition don’t have their address in their schema. We updated our schema 2 weeks ago and now use the Yoast schema which is the same as our competitors use. Approx 1 week after removing the schema we started showing up for primary and secondary keyword again, but very low - fluctuating between page 15 and page 24. It’s been 2 weeks now and no improvement. AHREFS and google webmaster, both incorrectly detail that we rank top 5. Which is true to a degree, but only in London. Thank you in advance!
Local Website Optimization | | rswhtn0 -
Best SEO Option for Multi-site Set-up
Hi Guys, We have a Business to Business Software Website. We are Global business but mainly operate in Ireland, UK and USA. I would like your input on best practice for domain set-up for best SEO results in local markets. Currently we have: example.com (no market specified) and now we are creating: example.com/ie (Ireland) example.com/uk (united kingdom) example.com/us (united states) My question is mainly based on the example.com/us website - should we create example.com/us for the US market OR just use example.com for the US the market? If the decision is example.com/us should we build links to the directory or the main .com website. To summarize there is two questions: 1. Advise on domain set-up 2. Which site to build links to if example.com/us is the decision. Thank you in advance, Glen.
Local Website Optimization | | DigitalCRO0 -
Multiple My Business pages affecting local SEO?
Hey Moz! We have a situation with a dentist firm with multiple doctors at the same address. They have two locations for their dental offices, and each of the dentists operate at both offices. The issue: Each doctor insists on having their own by business page for each location and i'm afraid this is hurting their local SEO. We've been tracking keywords by week and we've seen some big fluctuations in ratings and i'm looking into why this is happening. The office in location 1 has it's own Google My Business page and the three dentists have their own my business page set up at the exact same address. The office in location 2 has it's own Google My Business page as well and the three dentists have their own my business page there also. This leads the two addresses of the main offices having multiple My Business pages at the same address competing against eachother since they are all are registered with similar names and specialties. Could this be hurting our local SEO? Thanks! -Z
Local Website Optimization | | zacgarrison_700 -
Looking for SEO advice
Hi, I have a website that has been built with SEO in mind from the beginning but it's failing to rank at all. We have checked everything and found nothing we see that would be negatively affected the SEO value. The link is http://www.fancydoorsedmonton.com/ Any insight on anything you may find would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Local Website Optimization | | Web3Marketing870 -
Company sells home appliances and commercial appliances. What is the best way to differentiate the two on our site for the best user experience/SEO?
Should we structure it starting at the homepage with the user selecting for home or for business, that way they have to make a selection before moving further OR should we somehow differentiate in the navigation using the top menu tabs, dropdowns, etc?
Local Website Optimization | | dkeipper1 -
Which is the best, ".xx" or ".com.xx" in general and for SEO?
Hi, I'm working for a digital marketing agency and have traffic from different countries. We are planning to make different websites for each country. What is the best SEO practice to choose the domain between ".xx" or ".com.xx" from Spain, Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru?
Local Website Optimization | | NachoRetta
I think that the ccTLD is better always, for example ".es" better than ".com.es"0 -
Schema training/resources for local SEO?
I am currently in the process of apply schema for dozens of clients (many are large retailers). Although I am not a developer, I do know the basics of schematic markup & structured data. I do work with a development team and I'm trying to provide them with schema application best practices. Obviously there are many good articles/blog posts out there about schema. However I'm looking for a more substantial training course, webinar or resource website about schema application. Does anybody have any good recommendations?
Local Website Optimization | | RosemaryB0 -
Local Area SEO - Directions Page and Multiple Use of Direction pages
Hello, We are looking to focus on multiple local areas and it has been suggested one way to mention lots of different locations on pages without doing lists or using grey SEO practices is to create directions pages. We are trying this with a client who has 2 business at the same address. The layout is:- Introduction - 2-3 sentences Directions by Car Park Parking info Directions by Public Transports Closing - 3-4 sentences - using clients keywords The hope is the having locations/areas and the clients keywords on the same page will capture some of the local areas with the clients keywords. I have some questions:- 1. If we use the same directions text and just change the opening and closing paragraphs on the different website will this be enough to not have a duplicate content issue. 2. Are the directions pages the best way to capture keywords and local area/locations on the same page. 3. Is there anything I am missing or could do instead? Looking forward to everyone's input....
Local Website Optimization | | JohnW-UK0