undefined
Skip to content
Moz logo Menu open Menu close
  • Products
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Pro Home
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Home
    • STAT
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Home
    • Compare SEO Products
    • Moz Data
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis
    • Keyword Explorer
    • Link Explorer
    • Competitive Research
    • MozBar
    • More Free SEO Tools
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
    • SEO Learning Center
    • Moz Academy
    • SEO Q&A
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • Case Studies
    • The Moz Story
    • New Releases
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • Products
    • Moz Pro

      Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

    • Moz Local

      Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

    • STAT

      SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

    • Moz API

      Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

    • Compare SEO Products

      See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

    • Moz Data

      Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis

      Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

    • Keyword Explorer

      Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

    • Link Explorer

      Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

    • Competitive Research

      Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

    • MozBar

      See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

    • More Free SEO Tools

      Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO

      The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

    • SEO Learning Center

      Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

    • On-Demand Webinars

      Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

    • How-To Guides

      Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

    • Moz Academy

      Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

    • MozCon

      Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
    Moz API

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

    Find your plan
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Small Business Solutions

      Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

    • Agency Solutions

      Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

    • Enterprise Solutions

      Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

    • The Moz Story

      Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

    • Case Studies

      Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

    • New Releases

      Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

    Surface actionable competitive intel
    New Feature

    Surface actionable competitive intel

    Learn More
  • Log in
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Dashboard
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Dashboard
    • Moz Academy
  • Avatar
    • Moz Home
    • Notifications
    • Account & Billing
    • Manage Users
    • Community Profile
    • My Q&A
    • My Videos
    • Log Out

The Moz Q&A Forum

  • Forum
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Ask the Community

Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. SEO Tactics
  3. International SEO
  4. Google Webmaster Tools - International SEO Geo-Targeting site with Worldwide rankings

Moz Q&A is closed.

After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

Google Webmaster Tools - International SEO Geo-Targeting site with Worldwide rankings

International SEO
7
7
7.0k
Loading More Posts
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as question
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
  • Francisco_Meza
    Francisco_Meza last edited by Feb 10, 2011, 4:01 AM

    I have a client who already has rankings in the US & internationally.

    The site is broken down like this:

    • url.com (main site with USA & International Rankings)
    • url.com/de
    • url.com/de-english
    • url.com/ng
    • url.com/au
    • url.com/ch
    • url.com/ch-french
    • url.com/etc

    Each folder has it's own sitmap & relative content for it's respective country.

    I am reading in google webmaster tools > site config > settings, the option under 'Learn More': "If you don't want your site associated with any location, select Unlisted."

    1. If I want to keep my client's international rankings the way it currently is on url.com, do NOT geo target to United States?
    2. So I select unlisted, right?
    3. Would I use geo targeting on the url.com/de, url.com/de-english, url.com/ng, url.com/au and so on?
    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • jaraca
      jaraca last edited by Jun 15, 2015, 6:56 PM Jun 15, 2015, 6:56 PM

      Very interesting answers. Thanks to all of you!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • topic:timeago_earlier,4 years
      • AlanMosley
        AlanMosley @fabioricotta-84038 last edited by Mar 4, 2011, 2:02 AM Mar 4, 2011, 2:02 AM

        I agree, trying to target many locals may stuff you up.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • NicoleMunoz
          NicoleMunoz @fabioricotta-84038 last edited by Mar 3, 2011, 1:24 AM Mar 3, 2011, 1:24 AM

          I agree.  Let Google decide unless you need to target a specific country.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • fabioricotta-84038
            fabioricotta-84038 last edited by Mar 4, 2011, 9:05 PM Mar 1, 2011, 11:19 PM

            My tip here is to use this geotarget feature only, and if only, you want to target ONE specific country. Otherwise, let Google decide.

            NicoleMunoz AlanMosley 2 Replies Last reply Mar 4, 2011, 2:02 AM Reply Quote 5
            • topic:timeago_earlier,19 days
            • Francisco_Meza
              Francisco_Meza @SEOMeetups last edited by Feb 10, 2011, 2:19 PM Feb 10, 2011, 2:19 PM

              Here is where the traffic comes from.

              • 60% of the quotes come from people in the United States

              • 40% of the quotes come from people in their own country, not usa.

              It sounds as 'if' I GEO target url.com to US (this has the rankings), my international keywords will disappear because I am telling google that url.com is only in the US. 40% of my traffic would go away by geo targeting URL.com to the US.  I see that you said URL.com/us, but then I would have duplicate content.  Url.com would equal url.com/us, unless I rewrote everything.  I think url.com will go as unlisted. "If" I create url.com/us with original content, then I will be competing for the same keywords.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • SEOMeetups
                SEOMeetups last edited by Feb 10, 2011, 6:46 AM Feb 10, 2011, 6:46 AM

                I would set your GEO to USA as international is fairly untargeted and much of the people that typically use Google.com are US users, any of countries would typicallly use the local GEO domains.

                You can set url.com and all the subdirectory locations seperately, i would consider setting url.com/US as a GEO of focused directory and then you can leave url.com as untargeted.

                Francisco_Meza 1 Reply Last reply Feb 10, 2011, 2:19 PM Reply Quote 1
                • 1 / 1
                1 out of 7
                • First post
                  1/7
                  Last post

                Got a burning SEO question?

                Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                Start my free trial


                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.

                • See all categories

                Related Questions

                • gxpl09

                  Who is the best SEO expert in the World?

                  seo expert

                  Hey everyone, i am creating a blog post on Top SEO Experts in the World. I need your recommendation who is in the top 10 list? Your suggestions is highly appreciated for me. Thanks!

                  International SEO | Oct 7, 2024, 4:35 PM | gxpl09
                  0
                • Cleber009

                  Problem to get multilingual posts indexed on Google

                  Last year on June I decided to make my site multi-lingual. The domain is: https://www.dailyblogprofits.com/ The main language English and I added Portuguese and a few posts on Spanish. What happened since then? I started losing traffic from Google and posts on Portuguese are not being indexed. I use WPML plugin to make it multi-lingual and I had Yoast installed. This week I uninstalled Yoast and when I type on google "site:site:dailyblogprofits.com/pt-br" I started seeing Google indexing images, but still not the missing posts. I have around 145 posts on Portuguese, but on Search Console it show only 57 hreflang tags. Any idea what is the problem? I'm willing to pay for an SEO Expert to resolve this problem to me.

                  International SEO | Feb 23, 2021, 6:26 PM | Cleber009
                  0
                • SEOCT

                  International SEO - how likely is it autoredirect via IP Address will impact rankings?

                  Hello, We're looking to internationalise our site so that US visitors will see the US branded version while everyone else will see the global version (currently at .com). This question specifically is about location-based auto-redirects. The literature I've read (including Google) recommends against auto-redirection: "Avoid automatic redirection based on the user’s perceived language. These redirections could prevent users (and search engines) from viewing all the versions of your site." Insofar as I understand it the theory goes as follows. Google crawls mainly from the US Auto-redirecting by US IP to the US domain will also redirect the Googlebot crawlers Because of this the crawlers will only see the US site / domain and not original .com website Crawlers can't index what they can't see Drop in rankings for the original site However, one of my colleagues has pointed out to me a company which does use auto-redirects. If a user is in the UK and type in their website they will be redirected to the UK version of the site, US will be US etc. I have checked their rankings and they are still ranking highly for relevant terms. I have been asked why they have been able to do this without impacting their visibility. Any ideas? Given their success have the risks of auto-redirecting have been overstated? How can we ensure US visitors land on the correct internationalised domain without auto-redirects in place? Looking forward to your thoughts on this as well as your experiences. Thanks in advance!

                  International SEO | Feb 22, 2020, 4:23 AM | SEOCT
                  0
                • VERBInteractive

                  Has any one seen negative SEO effects from using Google Translate API

                  We have a site currently in development that is using the Google Translate API and I am having a massive issue getting screaming frog to crawl and all of our non-native English speaking employees have read through the translated copy in their native language and the general consensus is it reads at a 5th grade level at best. My questions to the community is, has anyone implemented this API on a site and has it a) helped with gaining traffic from other languages/countires and b) has it hurt there site from an SEO standpoint.

                  International SEO | Oct 13, 2016, 10:04 AM | VERBInteractive
                  0
                • DocdataCommerce

                  How to best set up international XML site map?

                  Hi everyone, I've been searching about a problem, but haven't been able to find an answer. We would like to generate a XML site map for an international web shop. This shop has one domain for Dutch visitors (.nl) and another domain for visitors of other countries (Germany, France, Belgium etc.) (.com). The website on the 2 domains looks the same, has the same template and same pages, but as it is targeted to other countries, the pages are in different languages and the urls are also in different languages (see example below for a category bags). Example Netherlands:
                  Dutch domain: www.client.nl 
                  Example Dutch bags category page: www.client.nl/tassen Example France:
                  International domain: www.client.com 
                  Example French bags category page: www.client.com/sacs When a visitor is on the Dutch domain (.nl) which shows the Dutch content, he can switch country to for example France in the country switch and then gets redirected to the other, international .com domain. Also the other way round. Now we want to generate a XML sitemap for these 2 domains. As it is the same site, but on 2 domains, development wants to make 1 sitemap, where we take the Dutch version with Dutch domain as basis and in the alternates we specify the other language versions on the other domain (see example below). <loc>http://www.client.nl/tassen</loc>
                  <xhtml:link<br>rel="alternate"
                  hreflang="fr"
                  href="http://www.client.com/sacs"
                  /></xhtml:link<br> Is this the best way to do this? Or would we need to make 2 site maps, as it are 2 domains?

                  International SEO | Sep 28, 2015, 10:25 AM | DocdataCommerce
                  0
                • Secrets

                  Google.ie returning more and more UK based results, why?

                  I have discovered the most infuriating issue with Google Search for Irish users and it seems to be getting increasingly worse in the last 2 years or so. This is not only frustrating as a business owner (in fact it could bring a business to its knees) but it is rage inducing as a consumer.
                  Google knows the location where I am searching from and I'm using google.ie yet I still get just a small number of Irish websites usually followed by eBay and Amazon results then a never ending list of websites that are based in the United Kingdom. Now, I know the one thing that we all have in common is the use of the English language, however what we don't have in common is shipping costs. In order to slightly increase the number of Irish based companies I need to add in the phrase 'Ireland' to my search (on google.ie in Ireland) and this makes only a small difference. In fact, oftentimes Google seems to throw in the odd American or Australian site just to really wind me up.
                  It's completely absurd that Google rarely returns results for .ie websites or irish based websites when searching in Ireland. Many UK companies don't ship to Ireland (including many of the eBay and Amazon results). This is killing Irish businesses who have the products and cheaper or free shipping and many how are working damn hard on their SEO are still being passed up for companies that have nothing to do with our economy.... Why oh why is this happening.

                  International SEO | Sep 14, 2015, 11:33 AM | Secrets
                  0
                • ecommercebc

                  Language Usage for SEO in Hong Kong

                  Hi guys, I was wondering if you could help me with an SEO query for language usage in Hong Kong? Specifically, I'm aware that in mainland China it's preferred to use simplified Chinese. However, in Hong Kong, if you want to rank well in Google and Yahoo! HK, should you be use traditional or simplified Chinese in your web content? Any guidance would be much appreciated.

                  International SEO | Nov 30, 2014, 4:46 PM | ecommercebc
                  0
                • jorgediaz

                  Pop-up to select country. Any negative SEO effect?

                  Hi there! We have similar websites in different countries (it's an ecommerce site). Some times, those websites share the same language and, for example, people from Mexico end up in a page from our website in Argentina. Therefore they see our products in their language buy in a foreign currency. We would like to show them a pop-up (like a shadowbox) depending on their IP to allow them to go to their local website. There wouldn't be any redirect. Would that affect our rankings in any way? Would Googlebots see that as well? Thanks!

                  International SEO | Sep 3, 2011, 9:21 PM | jorgediaz
                  0

                Get started with Moz Pro!

                Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                Start my free trial
                Products
                • Moz Pro
                • Moz Local
                • Moz API
                • Moz Data
                • STAT
                • Product Updates
                Moz Solutions
                • SMB Solutions
                • Agency Solutions
                • Enterprise Solutions
                Free SEO Tools
                • Domain Authority Checker
                • Link Explorer
                • Keyword Explorer
                • Competitive Research
                • Brand Authority Checker
                • Local Citation Checker
                • MozBar Extension
                • MozCast
                Resources
                • Blog
                • SEO Learning Center
                • Help Hub
                • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                • How-to Guides
                • Moz Academy
                • API Docs
                About Moz
                • About
                • Team
                • Careers
                • Contact
                Why Moz
                • Case Studies
                • Testimonials
                Get Involved
                • Become an Affiliate
                • MozCon
                • Webinars
                • Practical Marketer Series
                • MozPod
                Connect with us

                Contact the Help team

                Join our newsletter
                Moz logo
                © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                • Accessibility
                • Terms of Use
                • Privacy

                Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.