Ranking local content against English content
-
Hi SEOMoz,
If I have a site that has multiple language selection, how would it be possible for my site with localized content to rank higher than the default/English content?
For example, in Google.co.th, my site with English content (http://www.xyz.com/en-us/) ranks higher than the localized content (http://www.xyz.com/th-th/).
How is it possible for me to turn things around and ensure that for local markets like Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, China etc the localized content organically ranks higher than the default-English page?
Thanks!
Steve
-
Not in a reasonable way.
Search engines provide results based on matching content to the user's query. If a user searches for a term in English then you would need to provide that term on your page in order to rank for it. You would also need to optimize your page for that term (title, header tags, url, etc). You presumably have already done that for the English version of the site.
If a user makes a search query using an English term, they presumably understand English and are seeking a website written in English. If a result was provided in another language that would be a bad user experience, the page would definitely have a higher bounce rate, and that may cause the rankings to drop.
-
Makes sense.
Is there a way for me to ensure that even for English queries localized content would be the one ranking on local Google domains?
-
When you say it ranks higher, what exactly are you using for your search term?
If you use an English search term, then yes the English content should rank higher. If the .th domain is Thailand, then the content on the .th section of the site should be in Thai. Try performing a search using Thai and checking the rank. I am willing to bet the Thai content will rank on top. This logic applies to the other countries you list as well.
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 store (subdomain) not ranking
I have a store ( www.grocare.com ) and I made a duplicate store recently ( in.grocare.com ) for a different region. Both have different currencies and target different regions. I even targeted the new store ( in.grocare.com ) to that particular country in google search console. They both have different href lang tags to mark different regions too. Now its been a month since this has been done. But the new store is not ranking in the region. The old one is still ranking and I have to redirect the traffic from old to new based on IP.
International SEO | | grocare
I thought making a new store and targeting specifically would help with rankings. Am i doing something wrong here?0 -
Duplicate Content Regarding Translated Pages
If we have one page in English, and another that is translated into Spanish, does google consider that duplicate content? I don't know if having something in a different language makes it different or if it will get flagged. Thanks, Ruben
International SEO | | KempRugeLawGroup1 -
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 we need to update our sitemaps each time our content changes?
Dear SEO experts! We have created sites maps to get our international sub-domains indexed, however we're unsure if we have to update our sitemaps each time our content changes on our many landing pages which are translated to 17 different languages? Obviously the goal is to make it dynamic so it updates itself. I hope you can help us with some advice. Thanks a lot! Allan
International SEO | | Todoist0 -
Weird Geo Rankings - Help Please!
So I've got a site - a .com, hosted in the USA with no geo target set in webmaster tools. I'm from the UK where the site ranks no 6 for its main keyword but in the USA it's ranking no 38. That's pretty much it! I can't get my head around why this would be - the US market is the main market for the product/service so I am thinking maybe it's just more competitive but surely many of the sites ranking in the States would be in the UK too. .... it's such a difference in rank! PS, the site was no 14 in google.com until penguin 2.0 but dropped although its .co.uk ranking has remained - another thing that has left me dumb founded! The website is www.options-trading.com and the keyword is "options trading". Any ideas?!
International SEO | | marcus810 -
English directories for foreign blogs ?
Hello guys, I'm Brazilian and I'm still learning SEO stuff and Im learning a lot around your tool, blogs and texts. All my websites are from Brazil, they are in PT-BR and I see a BIG market over here around SEO since comparing to EUA, we dont have so many customization services and our market is still growing. I have been looking for a great SEO strategy and I'm seeing that blog comments (real and quality ones, even nofollow links) and great directories submissions are still good for positioning at th big G. Unfortunatelly, my country don't have so many great directories where I can get great indexed high PR links, so I would like to ask you guys if anyone knows if I send my blog to international directories I would penalize my blog. Every time I think on this subject, I think that maybe google can see this submission as a spam or a blast, even if it was sent manually. Since I read everywhere that its good to find niches related to make up great blog comments, a foreing web directory submission maybe can hurt my rank. Sorry for my bad english.
International SEO | | DanielSp1 -
Freelancer.com: Same Content on Different TLD?
Take a look at freelancer.com and freelancer.in. Both have the same content. I check for rel=canonical and freelancer.in has one to itself. Not to the .com version. Both the sites are indexed in Google as well. Do you think high authority sites like freelancer can get away with duplicate content?
International SEO | | jombay0 -
Ranking well in Google US but not showing up in UK
Hi, We are trying to position a specific site for a big sport event that will be played at the end of May. We only care about Google UK. It had no relevant content until last week. The site is a almost a year old but we just started to get links for it (all from the UK). They worked so fast: we were in page 2 of SERPs in the UK within a few days. But suddenly the site has disappeared and we're not even in top 100 anymore. However, we are ranking extremely well in the US (first page for the keywords we wanted to rank for). The site is a .com and it's hosted in Wordpress.com (with a custom URL). I understand that that can be a problem, but we have already told Google that our business is in the UK through Webmaster Tools. I guess that with time and more UK links, Google would ultimately understand that our focus is the UK audience, but unfortunately we have no time and we can't wait due to the date of the sport event. What do you think that we can do to rank well in the UK and not in the US as fast as possible? Thanks!
International SEO | | jorgediaz0
