Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Here at Distilled I think it's fair to say we've also adopted a TAGFEE approach.

I think it's really good to keep in mind when building relationships with clients and I know our Exec team (Will, Duncan, Tom and Rob) also work hard to make sure that Distilled are a 'TAGFEE' company (we often talk internally about making Distilled 'the best place for the best people to work').

Outside the office? Well I think a TAGFEE human being is the kind of person I'd like to know and I'm guessing most would agree

Hi Keith,

In my experience Google mainly crawls from the US.

You're quite right, GeoIP redirection can cause major issues with indexation - as if you're redirecting everything from the US to the .com googlebot can't see the .co.uk site.

As such, I'm not a fan. Rather than implementing a hard redirect I prefer Amazon's approach. If you visit the amazon.com site from a UK IP you get a javascript overlay that invites you to visit the .co.uk version of the site instead - they let the user decide which site to view rather than actually redirecting them.

This is a nice solution as it ensures that the search bots can crawl both versions of the site, and rankings aren't endangered.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hello there,

I'd definitely encourage you to think about how you might go about getting some higher quality links to add in to the mix.

Guest posting (as Donnie suggested) would definitely be something that I'd encourage you to engage in, plus I really like your ideas for getting links from government / universities etc.

Something similar could also be applied if you were providing services for companies with websites.

Other opportunities might include:

Press release opportunities (either local or national).

• Do you have an interesting story to tell about a particular project you are working on? Are people in your company doing something for charity? Obviously it will need to be a genuinely good story in order to get coverage - but local press are often easier to engage with than national.

'Linkbait' Content

• Can you create some content to garner links? Perhaps something environment-related around window recycling or decreased heating bills? Or something around home improvement?

Competitions

• Could you run a competition to give something away? Doesn't necessarily have to be a full set of windows

Sponsorship

• Are there any local events that you could sponsor? This sort of thing can often result in both links from event websites, plus links from local press / other sites which cover the event.

Speaking at local events

- Similar benefits to sponsorship (see above).

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Keith,

If I were you I'd stick with the .com - I've not seen any evidence to suggest that using a .co.uk makes any difference to UK rankings. I don't think you'll see any major issues with CTR either.

I'm assuming that you're not having any US v UK  issues right now E.G. - you're ranking better in the US than the UK, receiving more US than UK traffic etc. However if this is the case you could implement geo-targeting via webmaster tools, claim a Places listing (if you haven't already) etc to send some more signals about where you're located.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Sara,

Where you host really isn't considered a major ranking factor - there are many UK sites which are hosted in the US and they don't have issues with ranking.

I'm assuming you're not suffering with poor loading speeds - if you are - go ahead and change your hosting but I wouldn't worry too much about whether that's UK or US

You've not said whether your domain is a .co.uk or a generic (e.g. a .com / .net etc). If you do have a generic domain I'd recommend that you geo-target via Google Webmaster Tools - see http://www.seo-chicks.com/1463/geotargeting-on-the-same-domain-using-xml-sitemaps.html

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Dan - great shout on using a proper translator rather than Google translate

Hi Neil,

Ranking for a person's name in the US with a 'name.co.uk' is possible - for example I think if you do a search for 'Jane Copland' in the US you'll see janecopland.co.uk ranking 1st.

Do you know how well or otherwise the site is ranking in the US right now?

Essentially the ability to rank will likely be impacted by how common or otherwise the person's name is and how strong their site is.

In terms of actions from you I wouldn't be inclined to change hosting as that's unlikely to have an impact on it's own - however if as you say you're looking to change the hosting in any case then moving it the US probably wouldn't hurt. I'd also encourage you to build links to this domain to strengthen the site.

I guess I'm saying it's not necessarily impossible, but in an ideal world you'd get some sort of generic domain (.com / .net etc).

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Philip,

The short answer is yes - it can do. As Google crawl from the US, if they're redirecting US traffic it may mean that their site doesn't get crawled. If Google can't crawl... well, you get the picture.

As such this sort of redirect isn't something I'd readily recommend. That said, as long as Google can still crawl the 'live' version of their site they should be ok.

Nevertheless, typically in a case like this I'd recommend either:

1. Redirecting to some sort of international choice page (where all links are crawl-able). Cheap Flights do this pretty well - for example if you visit cheapflights.com from a UK IP - they push you to this page: http://www.cheapflights.com/workers/profile-select.aspx?sref=CFUK&redirect=GeoIP&geoip=GB&cfref=CFUS&spt=Home&rp=/

or

2. Using IP detection to show a javascript overlay with appropriate messaging - in this case I'd probably display a message to international visitors which said something like -

"It looks like you're visiting from (XX country). Unfortunately we're not able to ship to you just yet, however our (XX country) site is being developed right now. Click here and we'll email you once our new store opens."

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hello there,

I'd suggest that employing redirects is unlikely to result in the .com.au site ranking instead of the .co.uk version - essentially all you're doing is pushing any Australian visitors who come to you over to the Australian version of the site.

In order to try get the appropriate versions of the site ranking you might try implementing rel-alternate-hreflang annotations in your sitemaps - see http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2620865

I'd also recommend including things like local bricks and mortar addresses, local telephone numbers, displaying local currency etc to help the search engines understand which locations you're trying to target.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Matthew,

The hreflang tag which SEOBrent mentioned below may help here - if your content is duplicate.

In terms of implementation you need to place the tag on all versions of the page -

So on http://yourdomain.com/us/page-whatever you'd need:

http://yourdomain.com/uk/page-whatever; /> http://yourdomain.com/us/page-whatever/>

And on http://yourdomain.com/uk/page-whatever - you'd need:

http://yourdomain.com/us/page-whatever; /> https://plus.google.com/u/0/115984868678744352358/posts/9zA3a96XahN

Please also note, you need to pick one canonical version - I've picked the US as I've assumed you get more US traffic - obviously if you get more UK traffic then that should probably be the canonical version. See here - http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=5299f52953459957&hl=en&fid=5299f529534599570004b9a18f1d46fe

Re your GEO-IP redirect - this isn't an approach I favour - as Google normally crawl from a US IP it can cause indexation problems. As such I prefer something like cheapflights.com implement - if you visit cheapflights.com from a UK IP you are pushed to this international choice page - http://www.cheapflights.com/workers/profile-select.aspx?sref=CFUK&redirect=GeoIP&geoip=GB&cfref=CFUS&spt=Home&rp=/

This allows user to select the appropriate site, and allows both versions to be crawled.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Edward,

I'm really not a fan of GeoIP detection - not because of cloaking - broadly speaking you're fine on that front.

That said I have seen sites that have clearly tripped some sort of cloaking filter and been penalised as a result; they were using GeoIP to deliver either US or UK content on the same page - rather than pushing to .com or .com/uk. But that's kind of off-topic

The potential issue of redirecting people based on GeoIP is that if you don't make your whole site crawlable for the search bots, they'll typically only be able to access and therefore crawl / index the US content (Google mostly crawls from a US IP).

As you can well imagine - if only your US content is accessible to the bots, then that's the only content that ever stands a chance of ranking.

Just an aside - I also don't like it from a UX perspective; just because I'm in the US right now doesn't necessarily mean I'd like to see US content.

As such I prefer to use GeoIP detection, then let the user decide which content they'd like to view. Cheapflights handle this pretty well - if you visit cheapflights.com from the UK you get pushed to this international choice page - http://www.cheapflights.com/workers/profile-select.aspx?sref=CFUK&redirect=GeoIP&geoip=GB&cfref=CFUS&spt=Home&rp=/ - you can then decide which content you'd like to see. Plus the bots can crawl both versions easily.

Hope this helps

Hannah

Hi Robert,

Whilst what you're proposing could be considered cloaking, my understanding is that the search engines don't see this as manipulative and you should be fine.

However it's impossible to offer any guarantees - implementing this could cause you problems.

For what it's worth I really don't advocate the use of IP redirects - they can cause problems with indexation for example if you inadvertently end up redirecting GoogleBot (which normally crawls from the US) you can render any non-US content invisible. Furthermore I don't think it's necessarily great for users either.

For example, they may just be away in US, but actually want to see UK content. There are also various pecularities which make IP detection less reliable (for example if you're using WiFi with a major train network in the UK you actually come via a German IP).

Rather than doing a hard redirect I prefer Amazon's approach - if you visit Amazon.com from a UK IP you'll see a message which says: "Shopping from the UK? Visit Amazon.co.uk.". That way the user gets to decide for themselves which content they'd rather see.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Paul,

In the UK people are pretty comfortable with either a .co.uk or a .com - and likewise I've not seen any evidence to suggest that the search engines favour .co.uk sites.

As .com is stronger I'd be inclined to go with that

Hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Ralph,

Using an IP redirect to serve country-specific content to the user is fine (i.e. it isn't considered to be cloaking as your intent isn't manipulative). However, there are issues with doing so - as you've highlighted - you're also redirecting the bots so have seen the UK site suffer.

Because of these issues I don't normally recommend the IP redirect approach. I also think that it can be bad for users too - just because someone is in the UK right now - doesn't necessarily mean that they want to see UK content - e.g. they may just be here temporarily on holiday / on business etc.

Personally I would prefer the javascript overlay (your option two) which allows users to pick the relevant country rather than implementing a hard redirect. This will also allow the bots to index both versions of your site.

I do understand the ecommerce team's concerns over this increasing bounce rate - but I'd suggest that if it's implemented well - check out amazon.co.uk from the US - this shouldn't cause you problems with bounce rate.

Likewise I understand their concerns re US / UK customers seeing the wrong content and therefore exposing the price differences - however, again I'd suggest that it's probably more important to have both versions of the site indexed.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Nick,

I think I'd echo what Alan said. Just because your manual penalty has been revoked doesn't mean you're not still suffering from an algorithmic one. As such I'd probably be inclined not to 301 the whole site.

Assuming your second site is topically similar you might consider reaching out directly to those high quality sites that are linking to you and asking them if they'd be willing to link to your other site instead.

Similarly you might consider moving the link worthy content to your second site and (assuming all the links to your content are 'good') just 301 those pages.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Dan,

uk.com is the domain - but your site is effectively sitting on a subdomain - i.e. yourdomain.uk.com

As such I'd expect that technically speaking you could geo-target something like yourdomain.uk.com/fr/ via webmaster tools, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Partially because I don't think it will actually work - overall you're giving off a really mixed signal, but also from a user experience perspective - I don't think French users will want to transact with a uk.com site - it just looks like a site for people in the UK.

Thanks

Hannah

Hi Kate,

In my experience you may have problems with getting your sites to rank in their respective locales. I've also seen sites like this treated as duplicate content (even though they shouldn't be really).

There's a couple of things that I'd recommend that you do:

• Target the sites via webmaster tools to US / UK as appropriate see - http://www.seo-chicks.com/1463/geotargeting-on-the-same-domain-using-xml-sitemaps.html

• Take steps to ensure you're targeting the right keywords (there are plenty of differences between US and UK English)

• Implement rel-alternate hreflang see - http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/new-markup-for-multilingual-content.html

• Include local signals - e.g. local telephone numbers, bricks and mortar addresses etc to help the search engines understand which locales you're targeting

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hello there

Whilst these links are followed (or at least some of them are - it depends on how you're sharing your content) my view would be that they aren't particularly valuable in terms of improving your rankings.

This is for a couple of reasons:

1. It's too easy to manipulate. If these links really 'counted' all you'd need to do is post hundreds (or thousands, or millions) of times to dominate the SERPs. This is not the sort of activity that Google wishes to reward.

2. These are links from specific properties (which Google own). Whilst these links are followed, you've no clue how their handled by the algorithm. Despite being followed, they may not actually be 'counted'. Moreover it's really easy for Google to switch this off i.e. - they could very easily decide to make all of these links no-follow.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Matteo,

I think it's generally accepted that IP redirection in this scenario isn't considered cloaking by the search engines.

However I have previously seen sites seemingly penalised (possibly because they're tripping some sort of cloaking filter) but in my experience this more commonly happens when different content is shown on the same URL based on IP detection, rather than redirecting to an alternative page.

Cloaking issues aside, you rightly point out that the redirect can cause indexation problems (as the bots may only see your US content) - as such this isn't a solution which I'm keen to recommend.

If you really need to implement something like this, you could try doing what cheapflights.com do. If you visit cheapflights.com from a UK IP they redirect you to this international choice page -

http://www.cheapflights.com/workers/profile-select.aspx?sref=CFUK&redirect=GeoIP&geoip=GB&cfref=CFUS&spt=Home&rp=/:

However, my preference would be to either -

a) Don't do any IP redirection, but upweight the links to the international sites so that there is a clear route for users to find the right version of the site.

b) Use IP detection to show a JavaScript overlay suggesting UK users might want to visit the UK site - but don't actually redirect them.

I hope this helps

Hannah

Hi Guido,

This sort of issue isn't unusual unfortunately - however, just so you know I suspect that your location is affecting the results you're seeing - as when I search Google.com from here in the UK I'm seeing your English content ranking. However, when I search Google.es I'm seeing your Catalan content ranking so either way there are a few issues.

I suspect (although I can't be 100% sure) - that part of the issue is the Catalan vs Spanish content - as they do also speak Catalan in parts of Spain - it may be that Google is struggling to figure out which is the best content to display. There are two things that you can do:

1. Set up geo-targeting via webmaster tools (if you haven't already done so) - there's a good guide here: http://www.seo-chicks.com/1463/geotargeting-on-the-same-domain-using-xml-sitemaps.html

NB - you can only do this if you are targeting specific countries - not languages. If for example you want to attract UK and US English visitors then do not implement this.

2. Implement hreflang if your content is duplicate (i.e. it's the same content but in different languages):

In terms of implementation you need to place the tag on all versions of the page -

So on http://yourdomain.com/page-whatever you'd need:

So on http://yourdomain.com/page-whatever you'd need:

http://yourdomain.com/en/page-whatever; />

http://yourdomain.com/es/page-whatever; />

Like the rel="alternate" tag you need to put the canonical tag on every page of your .ie site pointing to the relevant page on your .co.uk site. You should also put the canonical tag on the .co.uk site pointing to itself - e.g.:

So on http://yourdomain.co.uk/page-whatever you'd need:

http://yourdomain.ie/page-whatever; />

http://yourdomain.ie/page-whatever - you'd need:

http://yourdomain.ie/page-whatever; />

Hey Lewis,

If they'd used your infographic without credit or attributed credit elsewhere then you'd absolutely be within your rights to ask for attribution. However in this instance as they've given you the appropriate credit there's nothing you can do (whether the link is no-followed or not).

Whilst clearly a followed link would be great I'd strongly advise that you don't pursue this aggressively. You've not said whether or not they routinely no-follow all outbound links on the site but this may just be their policy. Moreover you really don't want to end up upsetting or alienating what could be a great contact in the future.

This is still definitely a win

Hi Christine,

Apologies for the delayed response

Ranking in the UK with a .com shouldn't be an issue; there are many sites which use a .com and rank perfectly well in the UK. As such I don't think you should be considering going down the .co.uk route.

You mention that you've geo-targeted via webmaster tools which is great, but there are some other things I'd also recommend that you do (if you're not already). These aren't ranking factors per se, however they will help the search engines to better understand the location that you're targeting.

1. Include a UK bricks and mortar address

2. Include a UK phone number

3. Claim / create your business Google Places

4. Ensure prices are in £s

I'd also be happy to take a closer look if you'd like to share your domain and the keyword which you're looking to target.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hey,

It really depends on what you're looking to do - are you wanting to actively trade via those other ccTLDs?

For example - with your .co.uk; do you have the ability to offer your product in the UK? If so, then it's absolutely fine to set up as a separate site.

However, if you're just going to replicate your current site you will need to do a little work to avoid that content being seen as duplicate.

You can geo-target via webmaster tools see - http://www.seo-chicks.com/1463/geotargeting-on-the-same-domain-using-xml-sitemaps.html

You can also implement rel-alternate hreflang via your sitemaps see - http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/multilingual-and-multinational-site.html

As Fidelityim says - I'd also recommend you including other signals e.g.

• Local phone numbers
• Local bricks and mortar addresses
• Local currency

This helps the search engines understand where you're trying to target.

Please note, that whilst this activity will help in terms of geo-targeting your content in order to actually rank in these countries you'll likely need to do some link building for each of these sites too.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Danielle,

There was a hangout with Pierre Far which might be helpful to you - https://plus.google.com/115984868678744352358/posts/9zA3a96XahN

There he speaks pretty extensively about how to implement this.

I guess it's important to note that this tag is designed for use when you have duplicate content - e.g. the same content in English for say UK / US / Australia etc and/or translated content e.g. English content, French content etc.

My understanding is that if your content isn't duplicate - i.e. you have unique content for each market then the use of this tag isn't appropriate.

I'm also not sure if this will help your less established international sites in real terms - I'm guessing that the issue might be that they lack the raw link strength to rank as opposed to it being a geo-targeting issue.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hello there,

In an ideal world I would recommend (wherever possible) that completely different content is created for UK / US / Canadian markets.

I recommend this mainly because there are a lot of differences in consumer behaviour. Although we all speak English, the English we speak, the way we search, the messaging we respond to etc is different.

Obviously the option to create separate content isn't open to everyone (budgets, resources, etc). As such, if you can't stretch to creating separate content for each market I'd probably go with the rel=alternate hreflang implementation.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Whilst one would hope that Google pay attention to geo-targeting via Webmaster Tools, in my experience it makes no material difference to rankings - either in your desired target or elsewhere.

There's been some debate as to whether or not it only influences 'Pages from the UK' (or whatever your chosen target) - however I've not seen proof it actually influences that either.

In short, if you geo-target via webmaster tools you're not blocking visitors via any other locations.

That said - it is worth noting (as I've alluded to above) geo-targeting via Webmaster tools isn't particularly effective in terms of actually establishing a geographic target for your website. As such if you're serious about establishing a geographic target this might not be the best way.

Sorry! Misunderstood you

Yes, you could launch a .com.au but even if you have created Australian content I'd probably still be inclined to implement rel-alternate-hreflang annotations in your sitemaps; as the content will still likely be very similar.

The only issue with this is that your new domain won't have much in the way of link equity so it still might not rank without some link building effort on your part.

A further alternative would be to get yourself a generic domain like a .com and split into subfolders - /uk and /au. You'd then only have one site to build links to rather than two...

However the process of migrating from your .co.uk to your .com (and the potential to lose rankings whilst the search engines figure out what you're doing) might make this option unattractive.

I guess I'm saying launching the .com.au is probably quicker, cleaner and less risky but be aware you'll probably need to do some link building too.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Jose,

Are you talking about doing an IP redirect to country-specific URLs? Or changing the content displayed based on the user's IP?

If so, I don't really like either of those options - automatically redirecting a user based on IP can cause issues in terms of indexation as Google crawl via a US IP, and if you're not careful US content is all they'll be able to see.

Similarly if you're talking about dynamically delivering page content based on IP - again you're likely to have indexation problems as Google may only be able to crawl and index US content; plus (more importantly) I've seen sites penalised in the past for doing this sort of thing.

If you want to direct visitors to the most appropriate content I quite like the approach that Cheap Flights use - if you visit cheapflights.com from a UK IP you're pushed to this page - http://www.cheapflights.com/workers/profile-select.aspx?sref=CFUK&redirect=GeoIP&geoip=GB&cfref=CFUS&spt=Home&rp=/

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Google don't look at Bing for their results

About a year ago Google complained that Bing were copying their results - http://searchengineland.com/google-bing-is-cheating-copying-our-search-results-62914 - but really that's an aside.

That said, in an ideal world I would also still recommend (wherever possible) that completely different content is created for UK and US markets.

Partially to dodge the duplicate content bullet (although with href lang it looks like this isn't going to be so much of an issue any more); but mainly because there are a lot of differences between UK and US consumers. Although we both speak English, the English we speak, the way we search, the messaging we respond to is different.

Obviously the option to create separate content isn't open to everyone (budgets, resources, etc). As such, if you can't stretch to creating separate content for each market I'd probably go with the hreflang implementation.

However it is important to note that all that really deals with is the duplicate content - if your pages aren't strong enough then they still won't rank, so you'll need to think about building links to these pages too.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hey Rob,

In short, no - this set up shouldn't cause you problems from a duplicate content perspective. The search engines (broadly speaking) understand that content intended for different geographic locations shouldn't be considered duplicate.

Are you having issues in terms of Google ranking the correct content in each location? (I.E. - does your Irish content rank on google.ie?).

If not, you might consider implementing hreflang - see this post by Aleyda for further information.

Thanks

Hannah

Hi Erick,

First up, it may be worth you reading this to see if there's anything else you can do legally: http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/2014/11/10/when-a-ripoff-report-strikes-your-business-follow-these-steps

You asked if it might be possible to get one of your own interior pages to outrank the Ripoff Report page. The answer is yes, it might be possible, but I suspect it's unlikely. Ripoff Report is a strong domain, and your own site probably isn't strong enough to knock Ripoff Report from the 1st page. Moreover, for a search query like '[brand name] reviews' Google will want to show results from a variety of sites, not just your own. I recognise this is potentially bad for your company, but from a user's perspective it's a better search experience.

If you feel like it's actively damaging your business you might consider hiring a company to help. There are a bunch of agencies who offer reputation management on the Moz recommended companies list here.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

It's perfectly possible to get a .com ranking well in the UK - there are lots of sites that use a .com and rank just fine.

However if time is of the essence (and when is it not?) and you have the .co.uk domain then switching now and building further links to the .co.uk is probably a good option for you

Hello there,

Automating title tags and meta descriptions as you've described above shouldn't cause you any problems.The meta keywords tag is redundant (Google don't use it) so I wouldn't bother populating it.

You might like to review these resources for further guidance on title tags and meta descriptions before you go ahead and implement.

Regarding your second question about content, I'd strongly recommend that you don't automate as described above. Having the same content (but just changing the location) is likely to be considered duplicate content by the search engines. I'd strongly recommend that you write unique copy for each page.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hey Dan,

The challenges with international sites are many and varied. The 'best' international strategy really depends on your resources

Here's how I see the advantages / disadvantages of each approach:

Subfolders - ranking may be 'easier' as domain authority is consolidated, but URLs are ugly

The sub-folder approach is often utilised where there's insufficient resource to market and maintain separate international ccTLDs (e.g. .co.uk, .com, .fr etc). The advantage with the subfolder approach is that you're consolidating domain authority - so the links to /en-uk/ (NB do use en-uk NOT en-gb incidentally) pass authority to /en-us/ and vice versa.

You're building one strong site, rather than trying to build two, three (or more) strong sites. However, as you've identified URLs get long and a bit ugly.

ccTLDs - Arguably nicer for users, but might not rank

Conversely, whilst ccTLDs (.co.uk, .com, .fr etc) are nicer from a user's perspective, you may struggle to rank if you're not able to spend sufficient time and resource on marketing and building links to these domains.

If you have the time and resources, I'd probably go down the ccTLD route, but if you don't, then the subfolder route is probably best.

IP redirects

In terms of the IP sniffers etc - be careful

Googlebot typical crawls from the US, and as such is likely to be redirected by your sniffer too. Essentially you're in danger of making any non-US versions invisible as far as Google are concerned. For that reason rather than doing a hard redirect I prefer Amazon's approach - if you visit Amazon.com from a UK IP you'll see a message which says: "Shopping from the UK? Visit Amazon.co.uk.".

That way users get the nudge to direct them to the right site and the bots can still crawl and index all of your content.