Ranking well in Google US but not showing up in UK
-
Hi,
We are trying to position a specific site for a big sport event that will be played at the end of May. We only care about Google UK. It had no relevant content until last week.
The site is a almost a year old but we just started to get links for it (all from the UK). They worked so fast: we were in page 2 of SERPs in the UK within a few days. But suddenly the site has disappeared and we're not even in top 100 anymore. However, we are ranking extremely well in the US (first page for the keywords we wanted to rank for).
The site is a .com and it's hosted in Wordpress.com (with a custom URL). I understand that that can be a problem, but we have already told Google that our business is in the UK through Webmaster Tools.
I guess that with time and more UK links, Google would ultimately understand that our focus is the UK audience, but unfortunately we have no time and we can't wait due to the date of the sport event.
What do you think that we can do to rank well in the UK and not in the US as fast as possible?
Thanks!
-
Thanks!
-
Gone are the days when new site (even few months old) used to achieve high ranks. I suggest to use Google Ads, banner ads and other form of paid marketing if you want such quick results
-
Sounds like a google dance for me. You started building links quickly in the UK. Now big G reconsiders where you belong in the UK Serps. It may take some time. Unfortunately your event is already taking place in may.
All the best for your project
-
Indeed we are ranking very well in the US but not in the UK! Actually I wasn't right: the site is a few months old but we just started to get links for it.
-
The answer to your question is in your question itself. Your site is new and new sites don't rank so fast in Google. As far as site's earlier ranking in UK is concerned, i have always seen it to be temporary and vanishes soon. I believe you will witness the same condition in US rankings shortly.
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
-
International SEO - UK & US
Hi! I'm currently working with a brand that is well established in the UK and is looking to expand it's reach in US. The UK site has a solid link profile and I think that creating a sub-folder for the US site is by far the best solution. My only concern is that the UK site uses a .co.uk domain. Would it therefore be counter-productive to use a subfolder that looks like this: www.example.co.uk/us In an ideal world I would advise the brand to acquire a location neutral domain (e.g. www.example.com) however the [brandname].com isn't available and options are otherwise very limited! Steps would be taken to ensure all other technical bases are covered (hreflang tags etc) but I'm struggling to find any further insight on this issue. Any feedback from the community would be greatly appreciated! Many thanks, Harrison
International SEO | | harrycox0 -
Geolocation issue: Google not displaying the correct url in the SERP's
Hello, Im running a multi-country domain with this structure: domain.com/ar/
International SEO | | EstebanCervi
domain.com/mx/
domain.com/cl/
etc I also have: domain.com/int/ for x-default
domain.com/category/ does a 301 redirect through IP geo-location to the correspondent url, example if your IP is from Mexico, then you got redirected to domain.com/mx/category/ hreflang is correct. webmaster tool geo-location is correct. Example of the issue Im facing right now: When users from Chile do a keyword search in Google Chile, the domain ranks well but the URL that appears in the SERP is the /mx/ version, or the /int/ version or any other country version. Other times is the /cl/ version. The same happens for all the users / countries / keywords. I need to understand what Im doing wrong, because Google is not displaying in the SERP's the correct URL version for the country of the user who is doing the search. Thank you so much! I will appreciate your ideas. PS: I think I should try to change the 301 to a 302 redirect, or completely remove those redirects. Any ideas? Suggestions? Thanks!0 -
CDN and the Google ranking?
Does anyone have any experience on the change in the rankings (positive or negative) after a site implemented a content delivery network (CDN) like Akamai or Level 3?
International SEO | | IvanIrishRecruiter1 -
Google Webmaster Tools - Geographic target - Time till change
One of my clients is targeting UK customers. They have UK IP address. I then noticed that they had their Geographic target set to "Target users in: United States". I advised them to change this. Anyone know: How this could have been set, the client says they didn't do it? How long will it take for Google to see this has been changed? Thanks in advance. Justin
International SEO | | GrouchyKids0 -
.Com to .co.uk?
I'm out ranked by people with FAR less links for Google in the UK and I think its purely down to the fact I'm using a .com rather than a .co.uk. I'm based in the UK but there's other aspects of my business that I want to target internationally although my main hub needs to be UK. I set my geo-targeting for my .com and it didn't help. Tried doing mydomain.com/mainkeyword-uk. Its picked up on this and I'm in top 10....but would obviously prefer number 1 especially due to the nature of my business. Worried about doing a 301 redirect from .com to .co.uk because of loosing even a little bit of link juice. I've already put so much effort into the .com. I get so many different answers to this so I'm confused....some people (particularly people on here at SEOmoz) say switch to the .co.uk and others just say keep the .com and that you can rank without the country level domain. If I keep the .com and link build from country specific domains to mydomain.com/mainkeyword-uk (which ranks well) as well as build page authority for overall site......would that be fine or will I just absolutely have no chance in heck with ranking competitively in the UK if I don't do the .co.uk? Trying to pick the path of least resistance and best possible returns here. If you do absolutely recommend the 301....whats the best possible way to do this to preserve page authority? How long will it take for Google to transfer to the new site? I've heard horror stories in forums of people doing 301's and dropping off the Google planet and never recuperating. Not a pro so any help would be appreciated. x
International SEO | | cmjolley0 -
International Hub site: .uk vs domain vs subdomain
Financial company with 2 sites: 1- Mybrand.com for the US market.
International SEO | | FXDD
2- global.mybrand.com is the hub for international with selection for 10 languages: drop-down allows selecting between mybrand.jp, mybrand.fr, etc Now we have the opportunity to redesign the site from zero and I am exploring to get rid of the subdomain for the global site What would be your preference to use as the international hub? a) mybrand.co.uk: I have to use lawyers to get the URL from squatter b) mybrandGlobal.com : URL easy to get, and can be geo targeted using google webmaster tools. Cons: It might not rank as well as .co.uk in the UK, which is our biggest market c) global.mybrand.com-- pros: keep using it because it is aged and has some authority. Google might now see subdomains as part of TLD, thus making it a valid way to separate international from US .. Cons: SEO best practices advice to avoid subdomains because it might not pass full link value across domains. There is not really different content the subdomain, it is just the hub for international Thanks in advance for the help0 -
Does hosting content for one country in another country negatively affect its SEO ranking?
Hi, my content is primarily for Australian audiences, however due to a general lack of competitive hosting infrastructure, I tend to host a lot of content in the US. A 2007 article I read implied that it's not a good idea - does anyone have a definitive 2011 answer? Cheers, Jez
International SEO | | jez0000 -
Domain strategy for UK and USA
Hi Everyone, We have example.org.uk with 20K inbound links. We want to target the US as well as the UK. I would be interested to hear what approaches are best for SEO. For example is it better to keep our current domain and have subdirectories for USA for example. Or would it be better to register example.org and then use subdirectories. Or is it better to use different domains for each country? Any help with this much appreciated. Cheers
International SEO | | MarkChambers0