Geographic Target set up in Google webmaster tool

[Indiatravelz]

Hi,

When i launched my web site 3 months ago ( I'm am very new to SEO)  I have set up the geographical target section in Google webmaster tool  for US.

Now, I'm thinking to change it to some other geo target to see if i can get more traffic. However, recently few of my prompted keywords got really well in Google US ranking.

Here are my Questions:

1. if i will change the geo settings in webmaster tool will effect the ranking i already managed to achieve in US?

2. In the list of all the countries in Google webmaster tools what does is mean "unlisted"?

3. Can i select more than one country to target and if I can how?

Thanks!!

Raviv

[Indiatravelz]

Hey Gianluca,

Thanks so much for your answer!! Hopefully i will make through this technical process in one piece:)

For sure I will have some more questions on the way.

PS your webinar about content curation was great

Thanks.

Raviv

[gfiorelli1]

_1) if i will change the geo settings in webmaster tool will effect the ranking i already managed to achieve in US? _

Yes, but that can be avoided (see answer to question 3)

_2) In the list of all the countries in Google webmaster tools what does is mean "unlisted"? _

"Unlisted" is what you have to choose if you want that your site is not targeting any country specifically. More about that here.

3. Can i select more than one country to target and if I can how?

Yes you can... for instance, in your specific case, you have your domain - which I suppose is a generic domain name, not a country level one - targeting US and is starting ranking well for a set of keywords. But you would like to open your chance also globally.

Well, even though it is usually the contrary what happens, you can create a subfolder for the "global market" in English, create a GWT profile for that subfolder and, finally, geotarget it in Setting as "Unlisted".

Then, as the US content and "Global" subfolder's content will probably duplicated because both are in English, you should have to implement the rel="alternate" hreflang="x-X", as it is described here by Google itself.