Client in Scotland wants to rank for France term
-
We have a client who's head office is based in Scotland but they want to rank for France related keywords for their chalets that are in France.
They only have chalets in France and will never have chalets anywhere else.
As a business they have always used their Scotland address when the brand is mentioned and their Scotland address is used in the site footer. But as they want to rank for France related terms and nothing for Scotland, I'm wondering if I should use their France address instead or in addition across their site footer, on social media channels and across the web where possible?
-
What Hurf said is almost perfect. One correction:
"However, If they are targeting French speakers exclusively then I see a case for ruling out on a .fr domain, especially if you have a local presence over in France. " French speakers are in many other countries than France. Keep that in mind. But I don't think that pertains to you.
I think Hurf is right in that you are trying to reach all Europeans or just the UK. You want them to vacation in France in your client's chalets. If that is the case, you are fine. There is no need to include the local information of the chalets across the site to make it look like you are from France.
Are you having issues with terms in particular? Can you share some of those and the domain? We are happy to take a look!
-
Technical SEO considerations aside, first.
The answer depends (in part) on who their target audience is and where they are located. Are they targeting Parisians or Glaswegians, for example? As these are two totally different audiences with totally different expectations.
I'm guessing it's aimed at English speakers across the UK mainland, so something with mainstream appeal would be preferable to my mind. There are few peoples on earth more staunchly proud of their nationality than the Scots (and rightly so), but the current branding may be a bit of an irrelevance or source of confusion at best or a turn-off at worst - for some. Of course, the opposite applies if you are selling to Scots or selling authentic Scottish produce, but they aren't.
If they are using .scot or .scotland or some other variant (again, technical SEO considerations aside at this stage) there is some risk of confusion as people are still more familiar with the .com/.co.uk domains and you wouldn't want to lose potential clients to competitors with similar (and more memorable) domain names. (These .vanity type domain names are gaining traction though - albeit when the .co.uk variants are taken - you only need to Google any ad/media/seo agency to see a profusion of .buzz .agency .hipster - I haven't looked, but I'll wager that's out there, too!)
So, brand perception and confusion aside, we can look at technical SEO:
Is there any benefit to using a different domain suffix (user perception aside)?
- And, this may be the main thrust of your question.
No, as all TLDs are treated equally by Google. (See: http://searchengineland.com/google-explains-how-they-handle-the-new-top-level-domains-tlds-225671
So, there is no gain to be had from changing over - from Google's perspective.
However, If they are targeting French speakers exclusively then I see a case for ruling out on a .fr domain, especially if you have a local presence over in France. It goes without saying that you'd want the site presented in French first, too - but that's a given. a Google My Business listing to target local search etc would benefit, of course.
You could go as far as hosting the site in France to boost server response by a few milliseconds or so, but this is only applicable if you're actively seeking a predominately French customer base.
If you are thinking of switching domains or moving sites there are obvious logistical considerations (redirects, migration of content etc - depending on how you roll it out, so there is risk of losing some ground in the SERPS (even if you execute the migration flawlessly).
Of course, if my speculation is correct and you are targeting UK users in the main and you are gaining any kind of traction with the current site, you may be better to focus on delivering a better on-page experience - "Best places to visit in Dordogne" type articles, so you're catching prospective clients early into the buying process, broadening your site with engaging content, carrying out some content outreach exercises, promoting your brand on Social Media etc and stick with what you've got and there's no reason at all why you can't rank very well for any term you wish - you just need to but the work in to get the rewards. Just persevere, produce great content, keep your target audience in mind and you can beat the best - and you'll never be short of Scottish customers.
Bonne chance!
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
-
Categories for Google My Business pages - do they need to match terms on website?
I have a chiropractor client with three locations. Because the Chiropractor category is very competitive, whomever originally set-up their GMB pages elected to use the category "Pain Control Clinic" for two locations, and "Medical Center" for the third location. They rank badly for these categories. Their website does not contain many signals for pain control or medical center; it is very much chiropractor focused. Is this something Google takes into consideration when deciding how to rank GMB pages?
Local Listings | | Marce5210 -
Help - my boss wants me to duplicate websites for local SEO targeting
my boss is insisting that I duplicate a site that is ranking well and then roll it out across the UK on new domain names beginning with targeted city names in the domain name. I will then be going through each duplicate site changing the location keywords to the target city location Along with images etc. what effect will this have? Do you have any advice on the best way to tackle this? thanks
Local Listings | | platinumhouse0 -
Strange Ranking Results
Hi Any ideas why doing a search for 'Family Portrait Photographer' from my location on the Isle Of Wight (after deleting cache/history) etc results in a load of results relating to Cardiff Wales (local serps and main listings)? I am close to cities like Southjampton & Portsmouth as well as few other all much neaer than cardiff ! All Best
Local Listings | | Dan-Lawrence
Dan0 -
Rank English Terms in Swiss Google Google.ch
Happy New Year! I have a .com site that does well on Google.co.uk. But we would like to rank on Google.ch (switzerland) for English terms. There is a large expat community, living in Switzerland that would benefit from our services. Any ideas how I can improve organic SEO on the Google.ch SE? Many thanks! PM me for website. Otherwise I'll get lots of spam to my client 🙂
Local Listings | | SolveWebMedia0 -
Home Page not Ranking on Local Community Sites
I am helping out with a couple of community sites and am seeing the same problem on both. They are small non-commercial local websites. One has 5 or 6 relevant links to the home page, and the title tag and content have been optimised for the name of the group and the location (and in any case the phrase is completely non-competitive). The other one has few links and isn't optimised. Both sites are fairly new. Both sites have the same problem in that when you search for the name of the group, it is not the home page that comes up but another page. My experience is mainly in the more competitive commercial arena, so I thought that these community sites would be simple! Can anyone point me in the right direction as to why this might be? No spammy links on either. These are community sites that are not particularly well maintained, but the phrases I am searching for are non-competitive. I have checked that the home pages are not no-indexed. Any tips much appreciated!
Local Listings | | Wagada0 -
Actions to take when client is missing local SEO usernames and passwords
Hello, I'm doing an SEO analysis for a company and they told me that they do not have their local SEO usernames and passwords that they have already done. They did about 20 local directories and switched business models and needs to correct them without the usernames and passwords. I do not specialize in local SEO, and I would simply start from scratch, but what else can I tell them about doing a good job rebuilding with a new business model without the 20 usernames and passwords. Thanks, Bob
Local Listings | | BobGW0 -
Brand term for local showing wrong knowledge graph
It was discovered that when you search our brand and our city "alaska airlines seattle" that the brand knowledge graph shows a building at the University of Washington that is named after us as part of a sponsorship deal. This seems logical that it would do that since the building is branded Alaska Airlines and it is in Seattle. The problem is information listed would confuse customers that call the number posted and instead of our customer service they are getting the University. I admit I am not too familiar with local SEO so any help is greatly appreciated. r6GlDj9 wMZQnRB
Local Listings | | Shawn_Huber0 -
My website is not ranking on google.
My website is not ranking on google. I use a SEO company and it has been more than 2 years and there has not been any improvement. I would like some pointers. My website is http://www.myperfectsmilesdentistry.com. Any help is appreciated
Local Listings | | ragster0