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
-
How to rank for local keywords (cities) when you don't have brick and mortar stores
Hi folks, We have developed a site that connect local consumers with local businesses (brick and mortar). The keywords that consumers search for are e.g. "plumber san diego" or "hairdresser" + "local area" and so on...good old fashioned local searches. Sometimes even without the location added in the search. But how do we BEST optimize our site to get the most organic traffic from these local searches? We don't have brick and mortar stores or offices but our service is of high value and will save consumers lots of money and even help the local businesses when in need of extra customers. Thanks in advance for all your input. Have a nice day. Chris
Local Listings | | Henrik_Kruse1 -
How do I rank inside the knowledge panel in the "people also search for" section?
Hello fellow Mozzers, In Google's knowledge panel there is a section at the bottom that says "people also search for" and a list of competitors is displayed. I'm hoping to get some information I can use to get my client listed there on top of the local organic results. The more SERP presence, the better. Attached image should provide clarity to those who are confused. I suspect I know the answer to this question, but since I can't find a source to verify my beliefs, I'm crowdsourcing. Thanks in advance! NhoihY1
Local Listings | | brettmandoes0 -
Which Rank Trackers Include Local 3-pack Rankings?
Granted the Local 3-pack is heavily influenced by the distance between the user and the business, when you actually include the city name in the search, the local 3 pack result doesn't center the map at the city in the search and not the user's location so it is much more consistent despite the searcher's location. So my personal opinion is that it is worth tracking local 3-pack when you use a keyword such as "Home Inspection Seattle Wa" With that said, which rank tracking services includes the local 3-pack in their tracking results, other than of course Bright Local?
Local Listings | | JCCMoz0 -
How to Rank in Places Across Range Keywords
Having some success in Google Places but would like to rank across the range of phrases that we work with. To give you an example where LOCATIOn is the city we are based in: office partitions LOCATION
Local Listings | | GrouchyKids
Position 1 Local Results office refurbishment LOCATION
Position 29 Local Results office fit out LOCATION
Not present office partitioning LOCATION
Position 3 Local Results suspended ceilings LOCATION
NA What can I do to achieve results across the range of phrases? Am I missing something fundamental like not including something in Google Places? Justin How to Rank in Places Across Range Keywords LOCATION0 -
Top Local Organic Rankings, But Nowhere to be found on Google Snack Pack
I've been working with a local gym for a while now. We successfully got the gym to beat out all its competitor and now it consistently ranks in the 3rd or 4th result for all major local industry keywords. For example "gym in [city]". The only thing above us is Yelp and other directory sites. The problem I am running into is we do well organically, but when it comes to Google Snack Pack we aren't in the top three or even 10. You have to go deep into the next pages of the map to find our business. I did find that we use to be categorized as health club in Google My Business, but I changed that three months ago. Some more additional info, the site when I got the account moved to a different url. So many directories and sites that linked to us in the past link to the old url. The old url is 301 redirected to our current url. I haven't found much info about this topic and am looking for any experience or insight?
Local Listings | | JasonKhoo0 -
Removing phone number from GMB = lower rankings?
Hey, all! I have a client who needs for people to see her website before they call her, or else she spends 15 min explaining what's already on the site. Her Google My Business rankings are excellent for a lot of keywords (yay!), so people are seeing the number big and bold and just picking up the phone. I called GMB support to ask if removing the phone number would affect rankings, and they said "I don't think so". If this weren't a HUGE deal to the client, I wouldn't take the chance, but she feels that she's losing business by being on these calls when legitimate prospects try to call and get voice mail. So... any experience with removing phone numbers from GMB, or any other creative solutions to the quandary? Thanks so much for reading! ~ Scott UPDATE: Well, we went ahead and tried it anyway, and our GMB listins on the 7-pack nosedived! STRONGLY recommend against this, at least with the current algorithm!! The phone number is back now. 🙂
Local Listings | | measurableROI0 -
How is a competitor franchise ranking all for all 3 Local results with unclaimed G+ pages in a search for the national corporation?
My company is an individual franchise of a national corporation - every franchise is operates as [National Corporate Brand Name] + a chosen descriptor such as "Premiere" or the names of the owners such as "Smith Jones". A logged-out Google search for just the national brand name returns the corporate website first, followed by the website of a competing local franchise and 3 Local listings for their offices. These listings are all unclaimed and unverified on Google+ and have no reviews or posts. The corporate Twitter is next, followed by my franchise's website. The corporate Facebook is the last result on the page. How can this competing franchise rank for all 3 Local listings with unclaimed pages? My company operates several more offices than the competitor in the same area and I regularly post to their G+ pages which I verified several months ago. Is it because the competitor's website just holds significantly more weight in Google than our own? A search for the brand name + the town where our offices are in does usually return our Local listing pages, but that limits our reach to those specific towns. Anyone have any insight on this?
Local Listings | | WGW0 -
How can I manually build local citations for a client?
Note: I am not interested in paying for services to build citations for me. I am managing building a client's citations. On many sites I am asked to create an account and verify my information. I have tried to create accounts using my client's email address and specified password so that they can manage their citations down the road should their NAP change. However, many sites require further verification such as security questions or a phone code. It isn't practical or effective to ask a client to confirm and verify all of these accounts. What is the most effective way to manually build local citations for a client? How can I get around the issue of email and phone verification?
Local Listings | | BlairKuhnen0