Geographic Target set up in Google webmaster tool
-
Hi,
When i launched my web site 3 months ago ( I'm am very new to SEO) I have set up the geographical target section in Google webmaster tool for US.
Now, I'm thinking to change it to some other geo target to see if i can get more traffic. However, recently few of my prompted keywords got really well in Google US ranking.
Here are my Questions:
-
if i will change the geo settings in webmaster tool will effect the ranking i already managed to achieve in US?
-
In the list of all the countries in Google webmaster tools what does is mean "unlisted"?
-
Can i select more than one country to target and if I can how?
Thanks!!
Raviv
-
-
Hey Gianluca,
Thanks so much for your answer!! Hopefully i will make through this technical process in one piece:)
For sure I will have some more questions on the way.
PS your webinar about content curation was great
Thanks.
Raviv
-
_1) if i will change the geo settings in webmaster tool will effect the ranking i already managed to achieve in US? _
Yes, but that can be avoided (see answer to question 3)
_2) In the list of all the countries in Google webmaster tools what does is mean "unlisted"? _
"Unlisted" is what you have to choose if you want that your site is not targeting any country specifically. More about that here.
- Can i select more than one country to target and if I can how?
Yes you can... for instance, in your specific case, you have your domain - which I suppose is a generic domain name, not a country level one - targeting US and is starting ranking well for a set of keywords. But you would like to open your chance also globally.
Well, even though it is usually the contrary what happens, you can create a subfolder for the "global market" in English, create a GWT profile for that subfolder and, finally, geotarget it in Setting as "Unlisted".
Then, as the US content and "Global" subfolder's content will probably duplicated because both are in English, you should have to implement the rel="alternate" hreflang="x-X", as it is described here by Google itself.
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
-
Which Google does a .ie website get shown in?
Hi all, I am working on a .ie website and I was under the understanding that if you have a regional domain, like .ie you will limited to being shown in a search engine like google.ie When I go to International Targeting in Google SEarch Console it says the site is associated with: Ireland Am I limiting my ability to rank well in worldwide Google searches with this domain and if so, how can I counter this? Many thanks.
International SEO | | Bee1590 -
Google Webmaster showing error for [hreflang='x-default']
Hi There! Using [hreflang='x-default'] tag to target language specific countries on our site but Google Webmaster showing errors even implementation made as per Google guideline but one thing is not clear and we are not sure, this is the reason behind it. Error is showing up only on those pages where 'Google Parameters' are used. For example : https://www.sitegeek.com/a2hosting?grank=open 'grank=' is defined as a 'Google Parameters' and on the above page 'hreflang' tags are : Also, on page https://www.sitegeek.com/a2hosting [without Google Parameters] same above 'hreflang' tags are taken. But, There is no error on second page URL where no 'Google Parameters' in URL. Therefore, error showing on first URL where 'Google Parameters' are taken. Is this the issue or not? suggest how to remove? -- Rajiv S9vhl3T
International SEO | | gamesecure0 -
How To Rank A UK Website On Google.com (US)
Hi, I've done some research on this but couldn't find any definitive answer I can trust! We have a client who resides in the UK. They have '.com' domain, hosted on a UK server, using UK spelling. Their business objective for this year is to expand in the USA, including the opening of a warehouse over there. They are wanting us to rank their website on both Google.co.uk and Google.com (North America); besides changing the geolocation settings in GWT's, and building links from .com websites is there anything else we can do to increase their visibility on Google.com? Many thanks in advance, appreciated!
International SEO | | Webpresence
Lee.0 -
Google Analytics & Webmaster Tools Filtering
I've just set up a client who uses internationalization on Google Webmaster tools and Google Analytics. For easier management they opted to use subfolders rather than subdomains or cctlds. So I set up a Google Analytic Property, with one Unfiltered profile, and another 3 profiles filtered per language. With the main language English being exclude anything starting /fr/ /de/ as it resides on root. The filters seem to work fine; however after linking this to the Google Webmaster Account to be able to access Search Engine Optimization I do not seem to get any language filtered data. I was wondering if someone had any idea or possible solution to this problem. As I would expect to at least have the Landing Pages if not exactly the keywords filtered by the same criteria that the rest of the data is being filtered. I know there's also an option to create a separate webmaster tools account, however this way I still cannot filter just the English; and I cannot link it to all the separate profiles.
International SEO | | jonmifsud0 -
Cant find good information on webmaster tools geographic target and have some questions about it.
Going through our webmaster tools setting I noticed someone had checked Target Users and selected United States. Most of our business is in the US but we still do some internationally. If I uncheck it will I lose rankings in the US?
International SEO | | EcommerceSite0 -
Google Indexing Part two
Hi Everybody, I am trying to understand how does Google works, so I ve been reading and researching a lot. But I am still having a problem that I cannot solve. My website is in several languages, but its main language is Catalan. so if you get into my webite: "www.vallnord.com" the default language will be catalan. but if someone using Google.es in Spanish I would like the spanish version of the web to be the main result not the catalan. unfortunately this does not work like this. For a search query like "Esqui Andorra" the catalan version is on the 1st page and the spanish (www.vallnord.com/es) is on the 4th page. Does anybody know why is this happening or how can I solve it? Regards.
International SEO | | SilbertAd0 -
My blog not appear in google today
hi i have a small blog on ( blogger/blogspot ) with more than 5k/day visitors it was doing well in google through 9 months and was appear in more than 2000 keywords but ,today when check google i found my blog not appear in any keyword !!!!! when i put my blog URL in google i found it ,but when i searched for any post title it not appear !!! i not changed any thing ,so it is a penalty from google ? and why ? thanks penalty
International SEO | | activeacts0 -
Google Webmaster Tools - International SEO Geo-Targeting site with Worldwide rankings
I have a client who already has rankings in the US & internationally. The site is broken down like this: url.com (main site with USA & International Rankings) url.com/de url.com/de-english url.com/ng url.com/au url.com/ch url.com/ch-french url.com/etc Each folder has it's own sitmap & relative content for it's respective country. I am reading in google webmaster tools > site config > settings, the option under 'Learn More': "If you don't want your site associated with any location, select Unlisted." If I want to keep my client's international rankings the way it currently is on url.com, do NOT geo target to United States? So I select unlisted, right? Would I use geo targeting on the url.com/de, url.com/de-english, url.com/ng, url.com/au and so on?
International SEO | | Francisco_Meza0