How to optimize for different google seach center (google.de, google.ch) ?
-
We all use Deutsch language and (.com) domains for the sites.
I ranked well in google.com ,but not so well in google.de , google.ch , my competitors ranked much better in google.de,google.ch.
I checked most of their outbound-links, but get few information.
Links from (.DE) domains or links from sites located in German help the rank for special google seach center ? (google.de, google.ch) .
Or some other factors i missed? please help.
-
Hi there,
In order to increase your rankings in German speaking search results it's recommended that you:
- Use the rel="alternate" hreflang="de" tag, as specified here by Google in order to inform them that this content is in German and targeted to these users.
- Build links from specific German speaking websites, from blogs, communities, forums, news sites, etc. specially those hosted in German IPs and with German (.DE) or Swiss (.CH) ccTLDs
- Since I understand that you're using a .com domain to rank for all of the German speaking countries with the same content, both Germany and Switzerland and not specifically targeted to a specific country (so your site is language, not country targeted) in this case you're not able to geotarget it in Google Webmaster Tools which would be also an additional possibility if you had for example, a specific German version targeting Germany with: yourdomain.com/de/ or targeting to Switzerland with: yourdomain.com/ch/, nonetheless, if at some point you are, is important that you also know of this setting. Moreover, if you switch towards a country targeted domain structure, instead of using a generic domain such .com the best is to switch over a .de targeting Germany and .ch targeting Switzerland.
These additional signals should help!
-
Hi Yiqing,
You're right about getting links from domains like, .de and .ch, they will increase the authority within the German market. As I would imagine, but we never know for sure, Google will give more weight to the Zeitung, when you're a German site then the BBC as the Zeitung is a way more popular news source in Germany then the BBC is.
As I'm not sure about which site we're talking but I would also suggest taking a look at the HREF Lang tag. As this help article from Google: support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=189077 already suggest it's used by Google to determine which language is used for what countries.
Lately the're have been written a couple of great blog posts around the topic of internationalization, I would at least recommend to read:
Hope this helps a bit!
-
If you are using multiple language sites, make sure you set your geographic target in webmaster tools. Also make sure your content is well written for the local language and if possible i think it could help to have a local contact address in that country displayed somewhere throughout the website.
Hope this helps slightly
James
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
-
Google PageSpeed Insights Error
Google PageSpeed Insights showing this "An error occurred while fetching or analyzing the page.Dismiss" URL: http://westpalmbailbonds.com/ What should I do to fix this? Thanks in Advance
Technical SEO | | Beachflower0 -
When i type site:jamalon.com to discover number of pages indexed it gives me different result from google web master tools
when i type site:jamalon.com to discover number of pages indexed it gives me different result from google web master tools
Technical SEO | | Jamalon0 -
Should I remove these pages from the Google index?
Hi there, Please have a look at the following URL http://www.elefant-tours.com/index.php?callback=imagerotator&gid=65&483. It's a "sitemap" generated by a Wordpress plug-in called NextGen gallery and it maps all the images that have been added to the site through this plugin, which is quite a lot in this case. I can see that these "sitemap" pages have been indexed by Google and I'm wondering whether I should remove these or not? In my opinion these are pages that a search engine would never would want to serve as a search result and pages that a visitor never would want to see. Attracting any traffic through Google images is irrelevant in this case. What is your advice? Block it or leave it indexed or something else?
Technical SEO | | Robbern0 -
Why is Google's cache preview showing different version of webpage (i.e. not displaying content)
My URL is: http://www.fslocal.comRecently, we discovered Google's cached snapshots of our business listings look different from what's displayed to users. The main issue? Our content isn't displayed in cached results (although while the content isn't visible on the front-end of cached pages, the text can be found when you view the page source of that cached result).These listings are structured so everything is coded and contained within 1 page (e.g. http://www.fslocal.com/toronto/auto-vault-canada/). But even though the URL stays the same, we've created separate "pages" of content (e.g. "About," "Additional Info," "Contact," etc.) for each listing, and only 1 "page" of content will ever be displayed to the user at a time. This is controlled by JavaScript and using display:none in CSS. Why do our cached results look different? Why would our content not show up in Google's cache preview, even though the text can be found in the page source? Does it have to do with the way we're using display:none? Are there negative SEO effects with regards to how we're using it (i.e. we're employing it strictly for aesthetics, but is it possible Google thinks we're trying to hide text)? Google's Technical Guidelines recommends against using "fancy features such as JavaScript, cookies, session IDs, frames, DHTML, or Flash." If we were to separate those business listing "pages" into actual separate URLs (e.g. http://www.fslocal.com/toronto/auto-vault-canada/contact/ would be the "Contact" page), and employ static HTML code instead of complicated JavaScript, would that solve the problem? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.Thanks!
Technical SEO | | fslocal0 -
Google Penalty Investigation
Hi All, I've recently had a google penalty, and have spent a long while working through tying up any loose ends with my site (I'm building a new one, so you'll still see some probs on my current one). My search referrals do slowly seem to be recovering, but only for variations of terms that are similar to 'bike repair'. Now, my site does primarily offer bike repair advice, so that's a good thing, but I'm not yet ranking for any of my specific keywords. One example is that I used to rank quite high for the term 'schrader valve'. Is this a signal of anything in particular? Or can I not read anything specific into this? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | madegood0 -
Homepage disappeared from Google Serp
I redirected my domain using this code in .htaccess : RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^xxxx.com
Technical SEO | | digitalkiddie
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.xxxx.com/$1 [R=301,L]
<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L] RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /([^/]/)index.(html?|php)(?[^\ ])?\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^(([^/]/)*)index.(html?|php)$ http://www.xxxx.com/$1 [R=301,L]</ifmodule> A day after I did it, got an error in GWMT "Google can't find your site's robots.txt" and my homepage disappeared from the result pages. When I try to open Google cache of the homepage I got an error 404. I generated new robots.txt, uploaded it , now the error doesnt show but still my homepage is not in the serps. Its been 3 days. What should I do ? Thanks in advance "Google can't find your site's robots.txt" error? - Pro ...0 -
Multiple (different) domains and canonicalisation
Hello, We've had experience with canonical tags for various domains before, such as tidying up product categories etc... However, can anyone point me to any guidelines about different domains using canonicalisation. For example: If I had the following sites, all with identical content - exampledomain.com completelydifferentdomain.net anothertotallydifferentdomain.com With canonical tags pointing to the first one (exampledomain.com), could this be harmful? Is it better to 301 redirect the other sites? Thanks
Technical SEO | | Sarbs0 -
Google Penalize?
Hello, I read an statement somewhere which stated: "2 identical URLs linked to 2 different popular key phrases next to each other (on the same website/domain) will lead to a Google penalize. Google knows, that both terms are popular. This means, Google will ignore the links to your site (you'll not have any benefit) and the site you have your links on loses authority." What are your thoughts on this statement? Thank you.
Technical SEO | | micfo0