How to optimize for different google seach center (google.de, google.ch) ?

[sunvary]

We all use Deutsch language and (.com) domains for the sites.

I ranked well in google.com ,but not so well in google.de , google.ch , my competitors  ranked much better  in google.de,google.ch.

I checked most of their outbound-links, but get few information.

Links from (.DE) domains or links from sites located in German help  the rank for special google seach center ? (google.de, google.ch) .

Or some other factors  i missed? please help.

[Aleyda]

Hi there,

In order to increase your rankings in German speaking search results it's recommended that you:

• Use the rel="alternate" hreflang="de" tag, as specified here by Google in order to inform them that this content is in German and targeted to these users.
• Build links from specific German speaking websites, from blogs, communities, forums, news sites, etc. specially those hosted in German IPs and with German  (.DE) or Swiss (.CH) ccTLDs
• Since I understand that you're using a .com domain to rank for all of the German speaking countries with the same content, both Germany and Switzerland and not specifically targeted to a specific country (so your site is language, not country targeted) in this case you're not able to geotarget it in Google Webmaster Tools which would be also an additional possibility if you had for example, a specific German version targeting Germany with: yourdomain.com/de/ or targeting to Switzerland with: yourdomain.com/ch/, nonetheless, if at some point you are, is important that you also know of this setting. Moreover, if you switch towards a country targeted domain structure, instead of using a generic domain such .com the best is to switch over a .de targeting Germany and .ch targeting Switzerland.

These additional signals should help!

[Martijn_Scheijbeler]

Hi Yiqing,

You're right about getting links from domains like, .de and .ch, they will increase the authority within the German market. As I would imagine, but we never know for sure, Google will give more weight to the Zeitung, when you're a German site then the BBC as the Zeitung is a way more popular news source in Germany then the BBC is.

As I'm not sure about which site we're talking but I would also suggest taking a look at the HREF Lang tag. As this help article from Google: support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=189077 already suggest it's used by Google to determine which language is used for what countries.

Lately the're have been written a couple of great blog posts around the topic of internationalization, I would at least recommend to read:

• http://www.stateofsearch.com/audience-industry-international-seo-research/

Hope this helps a bit!

[Antony_Towle]

If you are using multiple language sites, make sure you set your geographic target in webmaster tools. Also make sure your content is well written for the local language and if possible i think it could help to have a local contact address in that country displayed somewhere throughout the website.

Hope this helps slightly

James