International SEO - How do I show correct SERP results in the UK and US?
-
Hi, Moz community.
I hope you’re all OK and keeping busy during this difficult period. I have a few questions about international SEO, specifically when it comes to ranking pages in the UK and the US simultaneously. We currently have 2 websites set-up which are aimed towards their respective countries. We have a ‘.com’ and a ‘.com/us’.
If anybody could help with the issues below, I would be very grateful. Thank you all.
Issues
-
When looking in US Google search with a VPN, the title tag for our UK page appears in the SERP e.g. I will see:
-
UK [Product Name] | [Brand]
-
When checking the Google cache, the UK page version also appears
-
This can cause a problem especially when I am creating title tags and meta descriptions that are unique from the UK versions
-
However, when clicking through from the SERP link to the actual page, the US page appears as it should do. I find this very bizarre that it seems to show you the US page when you click through, but you see the UK version in the SERP when looking in the overall search results.
Current Set-Up
-
Our UK and US page content is often very similar across our “.com” and “.com/us” websites and our US pages are canonicalised to their UK page versions to remove potential penalisation
-
We have also added herflang to our UK and US pages
Query
- How do I show our US SERP as opposed to the UK version in US Google search?
My Theories/ Answers
-
US page versions have to be completely unique with content related to US search intent and be indexed separately - therefore no longer canonicalised to UK version
-
Ensure hreflang is enabled to point Google to correct local page versions
-
Ensure local backlinks point to localised pages
If anyone can help, it will be much appreciated. Many thanks all.
-
-
Same to you! Happy to help!
-
Thank you for taking the time to help me with all of my questions Kate. It is refreshing to know that experienced SEO marketers like yourself are happy to help others build their knowledge.
I hope you have a good weekend!
-
Yeah, that is actually what hreflang was intended to be. Just to differentiate content pages that had the same content just translated, even if in just dialect. Alas it is also used to show geo-targeting, but I try to not be mad about it
Change as much as needed to make the target market user comfortable. There is no hard and fast rule.
-
Thanks again Kate. This makes sense to me now and it seems to be a nice, easy method. I just have one final question when it comes to differentiating content between UK and US pages.
If we have a page that is relatively similar in terms of content, but the language has been amended to match the local dialect, will this remove the duplication issue if hreflang is in place?
Say, for example, there are 5 key features about a product on a page, and 3 of them are suited to both the US and UK markets. Is it enough to add localised spellings to each description, or would the entire paragraph have to be re-written from scratch to create 2 unique copies?
I see that some competitors re-write their content entirely which makes sense if they're appealing to differing local user intent but some only alter the spellings and their price points where needed. What are your thoughts on this?
Thanks
Katarina -
If the page is https://www.example.com/us/product/ then the hreflang on that page should be:
If it is on https://www.example.com/product/ then it is actually the same
The other two lines are not needed. x-default is for your homepage when there is no target and you are asking users to set their target. If you visit https://www.ikea.com/ in an incognito window, you'll see what I mean.
And general en is not needed here. You are using hreflang for helping the SEs understand the difference in the content across countries that use the same language. As much as I hate it for that purpose, they do use this as a signal. General "en" is if you had a business that didn't geo-target and rather just had translations. One page in English, one in Spanish, etc. But no localization.
-
Hi Kate!
Thanks for your response, I really appreciate the help. What you say makes a lot of sense. The reason we are opting for US and UK sites is that we offer different package and pricing information to each market so it was important to have a distinction between the two.
One thing that is very new to me, however, is the use of hreflang. Here is a sample of what we currently have on our UK and US pages:
I wasn't sure whether we needed to only include the emboldened line of code on US pages. Are the other 3 lines necessary? The same layout appears on our UK pages also.
Thanks in advance!
-
Hi Katarina!
Your theories are right but let me explain a little more.
-
US page versions have to be completely unique with content related to US search intent and be indexed separately - therefore no longer canonicalised to UK version.
If you are going to create a US and UK version of your page, there needs to be a reason why. If there is no reason why other than "someone told us we should," then only do one page. If there is a reason like differing product information then the pages need to be distinct from each other. -
Ensure hreflang is enabled to point Google to correct local page versions
This is blended with what you said above. If you use a canonical and hreflang, the engines will get confused. You are telling them with the canonical that they are the same page. Then the hreflang tells them that the pages are different because of localization. You can't have both. Remove the canonical and make sure the hreflang is right. -
Ensure local backlinks point to localised pages.
Yes!
-
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
-
Does having an embedded Google Map still count as a positive SEO signal?
I know this was true a few years ago, however is there still an advantage to having an embedded map vs. a pop up map in 2017?
Local Website Optimization | | BigChad21 -
Competitor significantly jumped in SERP rankings
We opened a new location in a new market in early February and eventually tapered off improving SERP rankings when we reached an average rank of #3. As we began increasing in ranking, the competitions' average rankings we're declining. Suddenly, in April, one of our competitors spiked to an average SERP ranking of #1. The site that jumped to the top of SERP was a location page and there was no content changes, or changes to their website. Our competitor's links also decreased during the time of this spike. Does anyone have any ideas as to what caused our competitor to spike so high, so suddenly? Thanks,
Local Website Optimization | | Dions0 -
SEO and Redirecting Site to a Different Firm's Domain while Maintaining Current Domain's Rankings
I am a plaintiffs' attorney with a website that ranks well for my major practice areas. I am considering taking a position with a new firm. As part of the discussion, the new firm would allow me to keep my current site so long as it redirects to my bio page on their firm's site. My goal is to keep my current site ranking well and continuously work on SEO efforts, in case I leave the new firm and want to rely on my current site in the future. My questions are: Is there a way to redirect my site every time it shows up in the listings (I have 1000+ indexed pages) without sacrificing its current rankings b/c of bounce rate issues, etc and 2) If I continue to add pages and work on SEO for my site while it redirects to another, will those efforts be worthwhile due to the redirect? I want to keep trying to build my site even though it redirects to a page on a different domain.
Local Website Optimization | | crpoll0 -
Does the Location of my Server effect my SEO?
Does the geographic Location of my Server effect my SEO? HELP US! We are arguing for 3 weeks already. My partner has mentioned multiple times in the past that "since 2013 google does not require your server to be in the country you are targeting for seo"
Local Website Optimization | | DanielBernhardt
And that actually all they care about is if its a good and fast server - not where its physically located in the world. I am a strong believer that the geographic location of your server directly effects your SEO ranking... lets say if you want to target www.google.ru for your seo, best you have a server located in Russia for hosting your website.. WHO IS RIGHT? Choose the winner and base the facts.
If anybody has the correct answer and information to base it on it will help us alot - and maybe even spare some unnecessary violent between us two! we found some articles across the web, sadly they are all dated back to 2012.... Thanks in Advance for all the help guys!0 -
Is my GeoSiteMap correct?
When I put my information into the geositemap generator, it generated this file: http://kempruge.com/geositemap.xml This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below:<urlset<span class="webkit-html-attribute"> xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"</urlset<span> xmlns:geo="http://www.google.com/geo/schemas/sitemap/1.0">http://www.kempruge.com/locations.kml But other geosite maps I've seen have three extra lines involving "geo." Is my file wrong? Do I need to add something? Thanks in advance,Ruben
Local Website Optimization | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Merging two pages into one - bad seo done previously
Hi, I have two pages Page 1
Local Website Optimization | | Syed_Ozair
/stop-smoking-hypnotherapy.php
Page authority: 24 and Page 2
/stop-smoking-in-highgate-north-london-radlett-hertfordshire-and-city-of-london.php
Page authority: 13 with 2 internal links only This was probably done to get more local searches to the page but i think it is a bit spamy. Would it be better to 301 page 2 to page 1 or make it as a blog post and keep it alive?0 -
UK website to be duplicated onto 2 ccTLD's - is this duplicate content?
Hi We have a client who wishes to have a site created and duplicated onto 3 servers hosted in three different countries. United Kingdom, Australia and USA. All of which will ofcourse be in the English language. A long story short, the website will provide the user 3 options on the homepage asking them which "country site" they wish to view. (I know I can detect the user IP and autoredirect but this is not what they want) Once they choose an option it will direct the user to the appropriate ccTLD. Now the client wants the same information to appear on all 3 sites with some slight variations in products available and English/US spelling difference but for the most part, the sites will look the same with the same content on each page. So my question is, will these 3 sites been seen as duplicates of each other even though they are hosted in different countries and are on ccTLD's? Are there any considerations I should pass onto the client with this approach? Many thanks for reading.
Local Website Optimization | | yousayjump
Kris0 -
Local SEO + Best Practice for locations
Hi All, Based on a hypothetical scenario, lets say you are a plumber. You live and operate within Chelsea in London. You have established a Google places profile and incorporated schema data to tell Google your fixed place location. In addition you operate in several nearby towns with no fixed location presence. i.e Brentford, Bromley, Catford, Cheswick and Tottenham. I create a feature rich page on 'How to find a quality plumber'. Within the page I incorporate the following description: blah blah, as a quality plumber serving the community of Chelsea, we also offer our services to nearby towns of Brentford, Bromley, Catford, Cheswick and Tottenham. I create hyperlinks for the towns (Brentford, Bromley, Catford, Cheswick and Tottenham) that allow the user see in details a full list of services, operation hours, etc. Naturally all towns will have there own unique content (no duplication). Question
Local Website Optimization | | Mark_Ch
Is the above scenario the correct way to provide local seo or is this approach considered spammy to Google? Thanks Mark0