Subdirectories geo-targetting: Tagretting a language to a single country affects in other countries?
-
Hi all,
We have enabled a plugin which translated our site to subdirectories. We are going to geo target certain language sites to their countires. Like Portuguese site website.com/it/ will be targetted to rank in Portugal. I wonder what to do with language sites where the same langauge is spoken in multiple countries. For example, if we target english site website.com to US; will it effects the ranking in other english countires like UK, Australia, Canada, etc....?
Thanks
-
Few warnings to start with:
1. Automated translation is a horrible user experience. I highly recommend you wait on translation until you are in a financial place to get human translators.
2. Geo-targeting country=language is a false association. For languages like English, Spanish, French, and Portugese, there are multiple countries that use that language as their primary language.
I recommend using HREFLANG markup to tell search engines that there are different language versions of your content. That is all that is necessary here. https://moz.com/learn/seo/hreflang-tag
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
-
HREFLANG for multiple country/language combinations
We have a site setup with English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. We offer these languages for every European country (over 30). Thus, there are 150 + different URL combinations, as we use the /country/language/ subdirectory path. Should I list out every combination in hreflang?Or should I simply choose the most applicable combinations (/de/de and fr/fr, etc.)? If we go the latter path, should I block google bot from crawling the atypical combinations? Best, Sam
Algorithm Updates | | JohnnyECCO0 -
Do keyword target landing pages increase rankings?
Let's say we create landing pages for targeted keywords in our niche. So like we have landing pages optimised for 80% of the top keywords with decent search volume. If these pages started ranking at first page or around; will this scenario improves the ranking of website? Right now, only few of our top pages are ranking good. Planning to create more of such.
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Keyword Targeting - How to Properly Target Two Similar Terms?
Hi all, So I have a question about "best practices" when you have two unique, but highly similar keywords you are targeting. Let's use the examples of "raincoats for women," which gets 9,900 searches a month, and "rain jackets for women," which gets 4,400. I am in the process of selecting keywords for my client's "keyword portfolio" and need to come up with a strategy when faced with two similar keywords that use different terminology. I'm well aware that there should only be one page for "women's raincoats" but there is no doubt in my mind that Google will give preferential treatment to whichever version of the keyword (raincoats/rain jackets) I include in my title tag, meta description, content, etc. I know that the modern philosophy is that Google is sophisticated enough to understand that the two words are essentially synonymous. That said, would you A) only pick "raincoats for women" for your client's keyword portfolio and focus exclusively on that term in your optimizations? b) pick both terms and try to strike an even balance between both in your optimizations? c) pick both terms and only optimize for "raincoats for women" and hope that "rain jackets for women" gets some peripheral benefit from your optimizations via Google's understanding of synonyms? Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | FPD_NYC0 -
International foreign language SEO questions
I'm looking to add some foreign language pages to a website and have a lot of international SEO questions. I think the overall question is can you do SEO yourself if you are a native English speaker for a language you don't speak (like Chinese)? 1. How do you go about doing keyword research for a foreign language? What tools are available? 2. How do you know what search engines you should optimize for in a different country? And where can you find the technical SEO requirements for each? I'm wondering things like title tag length for Baidu. Or is the Title length different for Yahoo Japan vs. US? Do you write titles and meta tags in Chinese/Japanese for respective countries? Etc.
Algorithm Updates | | IrvCo_Interactive0 -
Transfering newly created targeted landing pages on an existing domain to a new domain
Hi - Hope someone can help me with this please I have a question regarding if its possible or advisable to create and host targeted landing pages and a blog on an existing domain, and then move these pages only to a brand new domain? The existing site has good authority and is established. Due to tight timescales in delivery I suggested creating specific landing pages and installing a blog to build authority and trust over time to target completely new keywords. Also the new pages will be helped by the existing domain authority. I've just found out client may want a whole new site, complete with new branding etc and completely new domain in time. Has anyone experienced migrating specific pages and a blog across to a completely new domain and leaving the existing site as it was. I have a whole host of concerns over this, but the main one is that I will be building relationships and content to landing pages and the blog, aswell as linking out etc and then these URL's will have a re-direct on them, going to a completely new domain.
Algorithm Updates | | McCannSEO
Also, the existing domain could lose any authority gained as although I wont only be targeting these pages, these will be the main ones being optimised and this will look unnatural. Do I? A./ Create blog and new landing pages on existing domain eg - www.testing.com/blog
www.testing.com/new-landing-pages, and then migrate these across to a brand new domain. or B./ Create the new landing pages and blog and leave them on the existing domain - period? Concerns here;
Client wants to re-vamp and have a new style and these pages will not necessarily be supported by the existing site, there is no guarantee that we are even allowed to create new pages, let alone internal linking. or C./ Bite the bullet and simply suggest a brand new domain to start with and explain the timescales and its either complete new domain or work on existing one. If anybody else has any other ideas I would really appreciate them. The client is re-branding and the company who host the existing domain, might not want to support the new pages and blog. I was hoping to provide a short term and long term solution as a brand new domain will take time to build up, especially as they are also brand new keywords we are targeting. However, I dont want the existing domain to be hit with any penalties or flag anything un-natural to Google. Many thanks in advance for any advice.. Tracey0 -
Loss of 1,000 links has negatively affecting rankings
Hey there, One of the clients we're working with has lost about 1,000 or so backlinks over the last two or three months - mainly old article and directory links - and it has massively affected the site's search rankings. The site was ranking for pretty much all of its keywords in prominent positions on Google (mostly first page) but has now seen positions dive to 50, 90 and even outside of the top 100. Is there any immediate action we can put into place to help restore our rankings?
Algorithm Updates | | Webrevolve0 -
How much posting product links to Social Media affect your ranking? Any use ?
Google has Google Plus. Facebook has partnership with Bing. How much social media affect your ranking ?
Algorithm Updates | | rahijain0 -
Local Vs. National Targeting - Pointless?
Hi, I have a client, in Maryland, that wants to rank on the first page for "yoga teacher training". But to my understanding Google (don't know about Yahoo! & Bing at the moment) is prioritizing local listings first based on the user's IP (or preferred city if using a logged in Google Account). Am I right about the priority of local listings? Is that a common occurrence now? Is it possible for my client to rank for yoga teacher training for someone searching in New York, for example, or is this a huge chalenge? Thanks for any advice!! Kindly, Michael
Algorithm Updates | | netex720