Building a new site and want to be found in both Google.co.uk and Goolge.ie. What is the best practice?
-
We are building a new site which is a .com site and the client would like to be found in both Google.co.uk and Goolge.ie. What is the best practice to go about this? Can you geo-target two countries with the one site?
-
Hi Peter,
A generic domain name's website can geo-target more than one country only it is follow a geo-targeting subfolders or subdomains strategy.
For instance, domain.com may geo-target its root on UK and its subfolder domain.com/ie/ on Ireland (or ie.domain.com, in case of subdomain).
If the site you are talking about is http://www.wsidigitalweb.co.uk/, then I see it hard to follow a subfolder/subdomain strategy, because the content will be substantially the same. Not impossible, but complicated.
An option could be:
- creating duplicating everything but the blog both in the root (for UK) and a /ie/ subfolder;
- then creating to properties on Search Console (1 for the UK version and 1 for the IE one) and geo-target them appropriately;
- then localizing as much as possible the two versions. if you have prices, convert them in Euros for Ireland. If you can buy an Irish phone number, present it in your contact information and so on;
- then implementing the hreflang in order to tell Google to show the UK version to British users from Great Britain and the Irish version to Irish users from Ireland.
I suggest to not duplicate the blog, because in that case you should be always paying attention in implementing the hreflang correctly every time you publish a new post, and because - a even greater bias - you will have to double your efforts in promoting the blog's content.
Remember, then, that backlinks are very helpful also for geotargeting, so try to create content that answers to real needs your geo-targeted audiences have, and remember to dedicate some of your posts to topics particularly urgent for one or the other specific country target.
-
Hi Robert,
thanks for your answer, but I think it is not on topic.
Peter is asking about International SEO and geotargeting, not about optimizing for multi-location, which is more Local Search than International.
If the "new site" is a new version of http://www.wsidigitalweb.co.uk/ (the one Peter indicates in his Moz profile), your solution is not valid either, because they have only one physical address in Belfast.
-
Hello Peter,
There is only 1 strategy I can think of that will make this possible, and I'm sure other Mozzers will have their own tactics.
For me, you are looking at building a silo into your site architecture. Basically, you use the website folders to create geo-targeted locations pages for areas you wish to rank for. You always start from the largest geographical area (country) and work your way down to the smallest (city). For example:
yoursite.com/United-States/New-York/New-York
would be found through Google.com.
It follows that:
yoursite.co.uk/UK/Suffolk/Ipswich will be found in the UK and
yoursite.ie/ireland/leinster/dublin will be found in IrelandThis will result in you building a link to a "Locations" page through your Home Page from which you can break down your service areas according to regions and cities. A direct example you can use for your client is:
yoursite.com/uk/suffolk/ipswich
yoursite.com/ireland/leinster/dublinThis way you retain geographical relevance but are able to hit multiple countries/regions/cities from the same domain TLD. Don't forget to add the keyword you are targeting for topical relevance!
For example:
yoursite.com/uk/suffolk/ipswich/ipswich-plumber
I have several clients I have performed this service for in the US and the UK who have service areas that are separated geographically but serviced by the same company. Google has responded quite well, with most of them featuring 1st page rankings within 3-6 months. You might even shorten the internal link path to reduce the amount of drain on your link juice from your Home Page.
The other benefit of this approach is it automatically creates landing pages that you can use for additional targeted link-building campaigns.
Hope this helps and let me know if you need further clarification - always happy to help!
Best regards,
Rob
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
-
Correct Localisation of my website on Google
I have a website which services various countries, specifically the United Kingdom and United States of America. I am now expanding the target of my website to focus on Australian and South African customers. The structure of my website is www.websitename.com/us/ for the American audience. This is also what appears on a Google search when browsing in the USA. For the United Kingdom we use just www.websitename.com which works and shows in the UK. When I have created the new versions which are:
Local Website Optimization | | A95Bennett
www.websitename.com/au/
www.websitename.com/za/ I go onto google search my company and still www.websitename.com shows (When browsing from the relevant location). When it should show the /au/ or /za/ versions. I have submitted the relevant sitemaps to Google Search Console. Yet still from Australia and South Africa the .com version of the website it what shows. Please offer any advice to how I can get the correct version of the website showing in the correct location?1 -
Local Site Linking to Corporate Site In Main Menu - Bad for SEO?
Hi, We have 'local' websites for different countries (UK, DE, FR, AP, US etc.) and a corporate website, the local websites are going to be linking back to the corporate website in the main menu (think about us, terms and conditions kind of pages). Any local products will have their own pages on the local website but global products will be linked back to the corporate website. We will be placing an indication the user will be going to another website next to those menu links that go to the corporate website. Is there any drawback to this for SEO? Should we use nofollow in the menu structure of regional websites for these links? Thanks for your help.
Local Website Optimization | | UNIT40 -
Discourage search engines from indexing this site AFTER a site launch
Hi, I have unticked "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" a few months before the initial release of my website. I don't want to be found by search engines until the official release (still a few months left). Do you think that ticking this box again will harm the website's long-term ranking or have any repercussion on the website? Do you have any additional advice to avoid being temporarily ranked until the official release which won't harm the website in SERPs? Thanks for your answers.
Local Website Optimization | | Juvo0 -
Company with different branches: Generic Keywords & Localized Keywords: Best practise?
INITIAL SITUATION: We offer a branded product/service in different cities. We have different contact pages for every city (—> basically just a form and a map, i.e. 100% SHALLOW). GOAL:
Local Website Optimization | | Cesare.Marchetti
We would like to rank for the branded keyword only (—> more generic search intent) but as well as for branded keyword + cities (—> more transactional search intent) combinations. REMARK: It would make little sense in my opinion to develop the individual contact pages (for every city) to „full“ pages with real content as there isn’t really specific content for the differenct cities to add. OPTIONS:
1) HOME page: target for the branded keyword CONTACT pages (one for each city): target for the branded keyword + city name HOME page: target for the branded keyword + all the city names CONTACT pages (one for each city): : NO keyword targeting at all HOME page: target for the branded keyword + different city names CONTACT pages (one for each city): target for the branded keyword + city name Add CANONICAL tag to main page ???!!!??? What is best practise? What would you recommend? Is there another solution? I really would like to know your opinion. Thanks a lot for your hints in advance.
Cheers,
CesareBearbeiten0 -
Seeking advise about my new landing pages for different cites
I have just created 6 new location landing pages for my Dallas insurance agency. Each one is for a different city, but I have a feeling I did it wrong 😞 Because my site is rather large, I put two different lines of insurance on each page. Homeowners insurance and business insurance. Now I'm wondering if I should of done 12 different pages? i.e **1 city + 1 product = 1 page ** Here's one of the new pages: http://thumannagency.com/personal-insurance/frisco-insurance I'm having a guess here, but would it be better if the Navigation was; thumannagency.com/personal-insurance/frisco thumannagency.com/business-insurance/frisco ??? Thank you so much in advance!!
Local Website Optimization | | MissThumann0 -
Recommended blogs and sites about local seo
HI.
Local Website Optimization | | corn2015
Can you please tell me some great blogs/sites to read daily about local seo? I'm really wanting to beef up my knowledge in this area to assist local businesses. Corn1 -
Duplicate content question for multiple sites under one brand
I would like to get some opinions on the best way to handle duplicate / similar content that is on our company website and local facility level sites. Our company website is our flagship website that contains all of our service offerings, and we use this site to complete nationally for our SEO efforts. We then have around 100 localized facility level sites for the different locations we operate that we use to rank for local SEO. There is enough of a difference between these locations that it was decided (long ago before me) that there would be a separate website for each. There is however, much duplicate content across all these sites due to the service offerings being roughly the same. Every website has it's own unique domain name, but I believe they are all on the same C-block. I'm thinking of going with 1 of 2 options and wanted to get some opinions on which would be best. 1 - Keep the services content identical across the company website and all facility sites, and use the rel=canonical tag on all the facility sites to reference the company website. My only concern here is if this would drastically hurt local SEO for the facility sites. 2 - Create two unique sets of services content. Use one set on the company website. And use the second set on the facility sites, and either live with the duplicate content or try and sprinkle in enough local geographic content to create some differential between the facility sites. Or if there are other suggestions on a better way to handle this, I would love to hear any other thoughts as well. Thanks!
Local Website Optimization | | KHCreative0 -
Killing it in Yahoo/Bing...Sucking it in Google. What gives?
Our website http://www.survive-a-storm.com has historically performed well in Google for the search terms "storm shelters" and "tornado shelters." Our geographic focus is nationwide, but we are particularly interested in ranking up for Oklahoma. Right now we are hovering at about the third position in Yahoo/Bing, and in some geographic areas (i.e., as selected in Google's search settings) we are doing reasonably to quite well for these terms in Google (i.e., first page). In Oklahoma, though, we are holding steady around positions 20-25. We have just changed the title tag on our home page, cleaned up a bit of on-page optimization, and are going to work on getting some more optimized content on the page. We are outperforming the competition on Domain Authority (38) and Page Authority (46), and as far as I can tell, other key metrics are respectable. Our social isn't bad, but could always use improvement--which we are working on. Any idea why we might be lagging so badly in Google? Any help would be appreciated!
Local Website Optimization | | Survive-a-Storm0