Delivering different content according to country
-
Hey,
I have a question regarding different content according to country (IP)-
We planing to serve mobile users using dynamic HTML serving (on the same url)
Is it possible to serve different content for different devices + different IPs (for example different content for a user from US android and someone from UK android )thanks!
-
Hello there,
First up let's deal with the international element. As John has mentioned Googlebot typically crawls from the US - as such if you're dynamically serving content based on IP (on the same URL) you're in danger of Google only being able to crawl and index your US content as it's unlikely Googlebot will ever see the content you've created for other countries.
As such I'd recommend creating distinct URLs for each country and using rel=alternate hreflang as John Barth has suggested. Just to be clear - I wouldn't recommend serving UK vs US content dynamically on the same URL.
However, from these distinct URLs it's totally fine to serve content appropriate to the device. Use the Vary-HTTP Header to indicate to Googlebot and Googlebot-Mobile that a mobile user-agent gets served a different version (in order to avoid looking like you’re cloaking). See https://developers.google.com/webmasters/smartphone-sites/details.
I hope this helps,
Hannah
-
Yes, you could do this. Googlebot almost always comes from the US (I've seen it come from Canada before), so Google will probably only see your US content, and use that in SERPs around the world. An ideal set up for this would be doing geo-based redirects to distinct URLs depending on the locations. To keep from having duplicate content, you can set up rel=alternate hreflang. With this set up, Google can find all your different international versions, and serve the right pages in international SERPs. With this set up people in the UK who search will see your UK pages.
You can also sniff out Googlebot-Mobile and serve your mobile pages to it, so that Google uses your mobile pages in their mobile SERPs.
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
-
Duplicate Page Content due to Language and Currency
Hi Folks, hoping someone can help me out please I have a site that I'd like to rank in France and the UK but I'm getting a stack of duplicate content errors due to English and French pages and GBP and EUR prices. Below is an example of how the home page is duplicated: http://www.site.com/?sl=en?sl=fr
International SEO | | Marketing_Today
http://www.site.com/?sl=fr?sl=fr
http://www.site.com
http://www.site.com/?currency=GBP?sl=fr
http://www.site.com/?currency=GBP?sl=en
http://www.site.com/?sl=fr?sl=en
http://www.site.com/?currency=EUR?sl=fr
http://www.site.com/?currency=EUR?sl=en
http://www.site.com/?currency=EUR
http://www.site.com/?sl=en¤cy=EUR
http://www.site.com/?sl=en¤cy=GBP
http://www.site.com/?sl=en
http://www.site.com/?currency=GBP
http://www.site.com/?sl=en?sl=en Each page has the following code in the that updates according to the page you are on: How do I simplify this and what's the correct approach?0 -
Help! A never before asked query about using a ccTLD but hosting in a different country
Hi Guys, I've a website that has a India specific domain ending with .org.in. The website has ALL the traffic from India (as mentioned earlier, it's a website meant only for audience from India). Currently this _.org.in_domainis hosted on a server located in India. I'm thinking of hosting this website in Singapore. Do you think that will negatively affect the current rankings of the website (i.e. changing the server location of my website from India to Singapore)?
International SEO | | seotoseo0 -
Any practical examples of ranking 1 domain in multiple countries?
Hi, I've done a fair amount of research on international SEO including here on MOZ but was hoping some fellow Mozzers might have some practical examples of how they have got 1 domain to rank in multiple countries, ideally US & UK. Im possibly looking at getting a high authority domain which ranks great on US into the UK engines. I want to keep to the 1 domain to benefit from the high authority and for logistical reasons. Thanks in advance, Andy
International SEO | | AndyMacLean0 -
Do I have duplicate content issues to be worried about?
Hey guys, We built a website http://www.cylon.com/ targeting different regions but with the same English langauage (Ireland, England and America). The content for the most part is the same set up on 3 different subfolders. http://www.cylon.com/ - Targeting United States in WMT http://www.cylon.com/ie - Targeting Ireland in WMT http://www.cylon.com/uk - Targeting UK in WMT Do I have duplicate content issues to be worried about? If so, how do I get around this issue? Also is there anyway of finding out if Google have in some way penalised these pages for having the same content on other pages trageting different Countries? I have not received any messages from Google in WMT saying there is duplicate so I'm not sure if this is an issue. Thanks Rob
International SEO | | daracreative0 -
Working with country specific domain names vs. staying with .com
I've recently inherited a client that has a country specific domain for Canada (.ca) but there is also a US branch for the company at the .com address. They have a direct competitor that operates also in the U.S. and Canada that has decided to operate entirely under the .com address and re-direct all .ca traffic to their .com address. When I compare the link analysis data for both the .ca, .com, and competitors site, I'm finding there is a huge difference between the .ca site and the competitors site, but not a huge difference between the .com site and the competitors site. For example, the domain authorities are as follows: myclient.ca (Canadian branch) - 22 myclient.com (US branch) - 46 competitor.com - 53 When I do a brand search for my client in Canada, the Canadian branch website shows up first, but the American one is second. At this point, would it be better for my client to consolidate the two branches into the .com address and focus on increasing external followed links to the .com website? Or, is there merit in continuing to create a separate inbound link strategy for the .ca site? Thanks.
International SEO | | modernmusings0 -
Rel alternate use for multi regional website with english language and same content
I have a website targeting multi language and multi regional users. For example, my main site is www.abcd.com which is in English and targeting US. I have the same content in English which is targeting UK and India with www.uk.abcd.com and www.india.abcd.com. I want to avoid content duplication and help search engines to show the right pages on the country level searches. I have researched a bit and have come to conclusion of using re alternate tag. Can someone help me with how to place the codes for the same. Many thanks Mozers!
International SEO | | HiteshBharucha0 -
Improving Search Rankings in other Countries for an existing site
Hello SEOmoz, I have a very well respected international client who ranks high in the US and for English language Google search results worldwide. However, the client's foreign language pages for specific countries do not show up on the first page of SERPs in those specific countries. The foreign nation/language pages are served on the same root domain as the main English language site it this fashion: www.client.com/france www.client.com/brazil Here are my questions: What can we do from an SEO standpoint to improve SERPs in Google.fr or other countries What is the best way to prevent duplicate content errors or prevent the wrong page from being indexed abroad. What are some best practices when using Google Webmaster tools in this regard? Thanks
International SEO | | BPIAnalytics0 -
Google search cache points to and uses content from different url
We have two sites, 1 in new zealand: ecostore.co.nz and 1 in Australia: ecostoreaustralia.com.au Both sites have been assigned with the correct country in Webmaster tools Both site use the same urls structure and content for product and category pages Both sites run off the same server in the US but have unique ip adresses. When I go to google.com.au and search for: site:ecostoreaustralia.com.au I get results which google says are from the Australian domain yet on closer inspection it is actually drawing content from the NZ website. When I view a cached page the URL bar displays the AU domain name but on the page (in the top grey box) it says: _This is Google's cache of http://www.ecostore.co.nz/pages/our-highlights. _ Here is the link to this page: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Zg_CYkqyjP4J:www.ecostoreaustralia.com.au/pages/our-highlights+&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au In the last four weeks the ranking of the AU website has dropped significantly and the NZ site now ranks first in Google AU, where before the AU site was listed first. Any idea what is going wrong here?
International SEO | | ArchMedia0