Help targeting the USA in Search
-
I believe I've properly targeted, and told Google that our website absoluteautomation.com is aimed at US residents, while the .ca domain targets Canadian. However our .com domain routinely appears above our .ca when searching in Canada (actually on a physical computer in Canada) on google.ca. I'm hoping I can fix this both to improve Canadian search results, and I'm assuming that whatever is making .com appear so well in Canada is hurting it on the US side.
Any ideas?
-
Hi there,
The best way to solve Google's search result misalignment issues is by using hreflang annotations in order to specify the language and country target for each one of your different sites pages and refer to Google to the relevant version in each case. Please check:
- Google's specification to use hreflang annotations.
- Examples of misalignment situations (as yours) and the explanation on how to use the hreflang annotations with a tool.
- More examples on how many different sites use hreflang annotations
I'm pretty positive that if you use the annotations correctly the situation will improve
Thanks,
Aleyda
-
I'm doing a search from Toronto and the .ca site comes up above the .com site for the branded terms. When did you create the .ca version? If it was done recently, it might take a bit of time for Google to rank the .ca pages for the related terms.
Cheers,
SEO5..
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
-
International targeting
I submitted each language URL as a separated website to google webmasters, I've submitted Hreflang sitemap which has language codes only(without countries codes) each page in my website has hreflang language and country code. Should i use international target option for each language to target the countries? will that hurt the language targeting? or I have to leave international targeting option unchecked for each language? My Goal to target by languages, not countries.
International SEO | | MTBE0 -
My indexed site URL removed from google search without get any message or Manual Actions??
On Agust 2 or 3.. I'm not sure about the exact date...
International SEO | | newwaves
The main URL of my website https://new-waves.net/ had been completely removed from Google search results! without getting any messages or Manual Actions on search console ?? but I'm still can find some of my site subpages in search results and on Google local maps results when I tried to check it on google
info:new-waves.net >> no results
site:new-waves.net >> only now I can see the main URL in results because I had submitted it again and again to google but it might be deleted again today or tomorrow as that happen before last few days
100% of all ranked keywords >> my site URL new-waves.net had been completely removed from all results! but I'm still can see it on maps on some results My site was ranked number 1 on google search results for "digital marketing qatar" and some other keywords, but the main URL had been removed from 100% of all search results. but you can still see it on the map only. I just tried to submit it again to Google and to index it through google search console tool but still not get any results, Can any one help to know what is the reason?? and how can I solve this issue without losing my previous ranked keywords? Can I submit a direct message to google support or customer service to know the reason or get help on this issue? Thanks & Regards0 -
Opening Up Webmaster Tools Geo-Targeting to Everyone Instead of US
Hi Mozzers, I wanted to get everyone's opinion on this. We have an e-commerce site that was targeting 3 different geo-locations. The main one is a .com. The other two were Canada and UK based. We recently turned off our Canada site and 301 to the .com. The .com site had been targeted towards United States in Google Webmaster Tools. Should I remove the Webmaster Tools geo-targeting now that Canada is pointing towards our main site? I don't want to lose rankings for US since that is our main market and the .com site is our main revenue driver and focus. I'm inclined to leave it as is because I still see our .com site ranking when I search in Google CA. From what I've seen is that it can take months for something to change and I definitely don't want anything to go awry. Just wanted to get everyone's thoughts on this. Thanks in advance.
International SEO | | SylviaH0 -
Soft Launch App with Country Targeting To Match?
Hi,
International SEO | | eTinaRose
We're gearing up to do a soft launch of our app in a few countries, such as Australia. Our website says to request early access since the app is not yet publicly available in the apple store. However, it will be in those soft launch countries. This is what I'm considering... Creating a subdomain site such as au.liquidtext.net (liquidtext.au is not available). And setting that site, au.liquidtext.net, to be country targeted to Australia via webmaster tools. Once the app is available internationally, and the main site has been updated to show this, I would then redirect any subdomains to the main site. Thoughts? Are there any negative repercussions to this this approach that I am not considering? Thank you for your help Moz community!! Tina0 -
Multiple You-Tube Channels for Geo-Targeting ??
Hi I have a UK based e-commerce client/project who has authorised a US distributor/dealer to set up their own US site along with US focused Facebook & other socials etc etc Should they also have country specific YouTube channels (even if both target countries English language i.e. UK & US) ? They brand has lots of video content of 2 main types: Product reviews to host on the website (to win serps, snippets and hence conversions from search) Longer more entertaining productions to put on YouTube channel to captivate, entertain and eventually drive YT target traffic to website via 'in video annotations' external link feature etc. Hence it makes sense to me that the US agent should set up their own YT channel along with their other social pages like FB etc, since annotated links go to different sites (US & UK). Does Google allow this (multiple channels) If not and sticking with the one channel is it possible to geo-target in video annotated external links so depending upon viewer location serves up relevant country link ? Any other ideas, help/advice, comments from anyone who has experience in this type of scenario ? Many thanks Dan
International SEO | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
International SEO - Help Make Tuff Decisions
Hey Moz Friends, I need help making a tuff decision. I just finished watching Rands Video here: http://moz.com/blog/international-seo-where-to-host-and-how-to-target-whiteboard-friday My website is www.pti-world.com , I'm trying to rank for the term "walk through metal detectors" for other countries. I am currently on the 2nd page in many countries. So here is the big question: Lets say I work hard and get 20 links from U.K. Should I point them to my page that is currently on page 2 in the u.k. ? OR... will I see better rankings if I start a "new" website under a subdirectory and point those 20 links to that new page? We don't have a large budget for this. The companies that are currently ranking in the top positions are "NOT" geotargeting there website from what I can tell (they are using .com domains). What route would you recommend I take??
International SEO | | brandon070 -
Cross domain rel alternate, will it help or hurt?
I have a website that has similar pages on a US version and a UK version. Currently we want Uk traffic to go to the US, but the US domain is so strong it is outranking the UK in the UK. We want to try using rel alternate but have some concerns. Currently for some of our keywords US is #1, UK is #4. If we implement rel alternate, will it just remove our US page? We don't want to shoot ourselves in the foot and lose traffic. Is this worth doing, will it just remove our US ranking and our double listing? Any anecdotes, experiences or opinions are appreciated. Thanks.
International SEO | | MarloSchneider0 -
International SEO - auto geo-targetting
I read with interest the recent post on international SEO and the top level domain architecture approaches to local content: http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/folders-vs-subdomains-vs-cctld-in-international-seo-an-overview#jtc135670 The issue I have is a little more complex: The business sells a wide variety of products (37) but one is by far and away the biggest and most popular. This means that due to the link profile of the various country sites and HQ site, search engines categorise the site according to this product (this is easily seen with the Google Adplanner) and the other product lines suffer as a result. The current architecture is to have a .com site and then individual ccTLD country sites, again with all products on each site. This creates an issue as in most countries the brand is not strong (compared to the keyword names and search volumes of the products) and so it is not that effective in generating organic traffic. The .com hogs much of the inbound links and the country sites themselves are not that well optimised for a number of reasons. A proposed solution has been to leverage the strength of the .com and the search volume for the product names, and to produce thematic sites based on each product: productA.brand.com
International SEO | | StevieCC
productB.brand.com
productC.brand.com In this way, the sites, content and link profiles are aligned around the more desirable products and we can expect improved organic search performance as a result (or at least ensure relevant traffic finds the relevant content fast). In terms of providing localised content, the plan was to use content mirroring and to then assign each content mirror to a specific geo-location using the webmaster tools console (and other SE equivilents). This is shown I think in one of Rand's videos. ProductA.brand.com/de/de Germany site for product A with unique German content
ProductA.brand.com/fr/fr French site for product A with unique French content This makes economic sense to me as to utilise the ccTLDs would result in hundreds of separate sites with all the licence and server considerations that entails. For example, for product A alone we would have to produce: productA.brand.de
productA.brand.fr
productA.brand.cn
productA.brand.jp
ect ect ect This just would not be sustainable in license/server costs alone across 37 products and 24 countries. However, I saw in a recent presentation at SES London that (auto) geo-targeting is risky, often doesn't work well for SEO and can even be seen as cloaking. I think the above strategy could still work, but perhaps we should avoid the use of auto-geotargetting altogether and hope the search engines alone do their job in getting users to the right content as we optimise the unique content for each country (and if they don't, ensure our desgn, UX and country selectors do the job instead). SEO guru consensus is to use the ccTLD if you own it, but as described above, in the real world that just isn't possible or practical given the company's strategic position. Which leads to the final question- we do own the brand ccTLDs- if they are directed back to the content mirror for the country on the .com, is there any SEO benefit in doing so aside from directing back any link juice associated with the domain)?0