Using geolocation for dynamic content - what's the best practice for SEO?
-
Hello
We sell a product globally but I want to use different keywords to describe the product based on location.
For this example let’s say in USA the product is a "bathrobe" and in Canada it’s a "housecoat" (same product, just different name).
What this means… I want to show "bathrobe" content in USA (lots of global searches) and "housecoat" in Canada (less searches).
I know I can show the content using a geolocation plugin (also found a caching plugin which will get around the issue of people seeing cached versions), using JavaScript or html5.
I want a solution which enables someone in Canada searching for "bathrobe" to be able to find our site through Google search though too. I want to rank for "bathrobe" in BOTH USA and Canada.
I have read articles which say Google can read the dynamic content in JavaScript, as well as the geolocation plugin. However the plugins suggest Google crawls the content based on location too. I don’t know about JavaScript.
Another option is having two separate pages (one for “bathrobe” and one for “housecoat”) and using geolocation for the main menu (if they find the other page i.e. bathrobe page through a Canadian search, they will still see it though). This may have an SEO impact splitting the traffic though.
Any suggestions or recommendations on what to do?? What do other websites do? I’m a bit stuck.
Thank you so much!
Laura
Ps. I don’t think we have enough traffic to add subdomains or subdirectories.
-
Hello Benjamin,
This is an interesting problem. I'm going to provide my opinion, but I highly recommend studying up on International SEO, which you can do at the links below:
https://moz.com/learn/seo/international-seo
http://www.aleydasolis.com/en/I don't know what the plugin does, but if it generates a new URL (e.g. adds ?loc=ca or something like that) for the location change you'll want to use rel="alternate" hreflang="*" tags, which would look something like this:
Google recommends putting one language per page, so that would be a different URL for each version, as highlighted in red here.
**However, it sounds to me like all of this is done client-side using JavaScript, and that the URL doesn't change, only the content.** If this is the case - as long as you are serving the same content to Googlebot crawling in Canada as you are to a visitor in Canada you probably won't have any issues, as described here: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2008/06/how-google-defines-ip-delivery.html .
For the situation you described, it seems like you could put both keyword variations in the content and that would be good enough. But then you don't want to spell specialising with an S in one line and specializing with a z in the next.
Another thing to look into is whether both versions of the content appear in the code, or just one or the other. You definitely don't want to have multiple versions of the content in the source code. But you also don't want to hide both versions via JavaScript, only to load one or the other client-side. That creates even more problems.
One would think there would be a Vary: Location response header, similar to how responses are provided when content varies by user-agent or cookie: https://www.fastly.com/blog/best-practices-for-using-the-vary-header . Alas, I can't find any use cases of this and it's not a "thing". I'm not sure why this is, but maybe an International SEO Expert like Alayda Solis would know. I'll ping her into the thread if she has time.
-
Thank you. That link was helpful.
-
This is a great opportunity to test some of your ideas. It may be a good idea to create unique landing pages based on the most highly search keyword per region and target them on the corresponding geo-page. Read more about great ways to rank geo-targeted pages--and make them convert: https://moz.com/blog/scaling-geo-targeted-local-landing-pages-that-really-rank-and-convert-whiteboard-friday
However, it may be agood idea to optimize the homepage, about page, and service description pages for the products rather than the locations.And, since you're a national brand, it may be smart to try so PPC ads to geo-target your advertising and use those keywords accordingly.
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
-
Title Too Long - Seo importance
Hey; What do you think Title Too Long for Seo importance my site adress almost all page Title Too Long warning is showing http://prntscr.com/ndykgw from many sites this way, how much difference does this order make?
Local Website Optimization | | mesutcandan0 -
Call Tracking Best Practises for General SEO
Hey folks, So I'm aware of the importance of consistent citations, and the mayhem call tracking numbers have been known to cause in regards to that in that past. So just wanted some up to date clarification on these two things: Local SEO isn't strictly speaking a big deal for us as we supply a software and as such are technically global. I'm presuming consistent citations are still worth aiming for though, and will help increase general authority as well? Let me know if I'm totally wrong about that! What's the best practise set up for call tracking, given that your main NAP number you'd obviously want hardcoded somewhere, alongside showing your dynamic numbers to relevant visitors. Apologies for any ignorance, as always any help and advice is muchos appreciato.
Local Website Optimization | | Zoope1 -
How do I set up 2 businesses that work together but are ran seperately with two separate websites but similar content?
How do I set up these sites so that they will not be negatively affecting their SEO efforts? I have 2 businesses with the same owner. Business A manufactures nurse call systems and Business B installs them. They are run separately with two websites. The content is very similar because the business that installs them describes the different products on their website. These are the two sites: intercallsystems.com and nursecallny.com , My thought was on nursecallny.com when you click on the nav link "Nurse Call Systems" you would be directed to the intercell website. Would this be the best method? Thank you for your help!
Local Website Optimization | | renalynd270 -
Franchise Content Spinning
Hey Guys, Thanks for taking the time out to read my question, I appreciate it. I know Google doesn't treat all duplicate content the same, but what about this scenario. We have a garage door company franchise that services Seattle, San Diego, & Salt Lake City. It is the same brand, but each area has a different website, catering to their own county. Say I write & post a blog about "how to maintain your garage door" to the Seattle site. This is certainly useful for the other locations as well. So would I get penalized for posting the same article to San Diego & Salt Lake City without massively changing the content to avoid duplication? Or should I dedicate the extra time to revamp the content and avoid duplication? Does Google care about this type of duplication? Thanks in advance!!
Local Website Optimization | | dwayne.jones260 -
How to Handle Franchise Duplicate Content
My agency handles digital marketing for about 80 Window World stores, each with separate sites. For the most part, the content across all of these sites is the exact same, though we have slowly but surely been working through getting new, unique content up on some of the top pages over the past year. These pages include resource pages and specific product pages. I'm trying to figure out the best temporary solution as we go through this process. Previously, we have tried to keep the pages we knew were duplicates from indexing, but some pages have still managed to slip through the cracks during redesigns. Would canonicals be the route to go? (do keep in mind that there isn't necessarily one "original version," so there isn't a clear answer as to which page/site all the duplicated pages should point to) Should we just continue to use robots.txt/noindex for all duplicate pages for now? Any other recommendations? Thanks in advance!
Local Website Optimization | | TriMarkDigital0 -
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 -
How can I get a Google places 'widget' displaying on SERPS?
Hi all, My query relates to the Google Places 'Widget' (not sure what they are called exactly). If you do a search for, let's say 'Apple' you get the regular SERPs and on the right of the page they display a Google Places panel which includes map, company details & reviews. (and also a G+ panel for some businesses, where appropriate) What determines this being displayed? I had presumed a correctly formatted and optimised 'Places' page and making sure this was linked and verified. We have Google Places set up for quite a long time (and verified) but for some reason it's not being displayed. Any thoughts? On another note, a client of ours has the opposite issue - they would like to remove this panel from SERPs. I'm guessing the only way to do that would be to remove the Google Places page? Thanks in advance...
Local Website Optimization | | davidmaxwell0 -
Duplicate Theme, different Content, competing keywords?
Hello, We have 2 versions of a website. Notes: They will be the same theme, and slightly different images but the written content is different. SEO optimization is the same for both sites targeting the same the city and they will be competing for certain keywords mainly vanity keywords. So we have websites examples:
Local Website Optimization | | EVERWORLD.ENTERTAIMENT
http://mycompanytor.com http://mycompanytoronto.com How does google handle 2 websites like this, will one get penalized? Or will it treated as 2 different sites, even though the company name which is the brand shows up on the main url? Thanks for your help0