Geographical Targeting in SEO

Now there are many a debate about what Google (in particular) takes into account with geographical Targeting in SEO. Firstly lets think about what Google takes into account.

1. Domain Name
2. Website Hosting
3. Domain Registrar
4. Inbound Links

Domain Name

This is quite simple if you want you website to appear in a UK Search, Spanish Search or any other regional variation, the easiest way to achieve this is by buying a regional domain name, i.e .co.uk, .es etc. Quick tip avoid .uk.com as this is just treated as a sub domain of a .com domain. So the obvious next problem is if you choose a .com, .net, .biz or one of the other types of domains.

Website Hosting

If you choose / own a domain that is not regionally specific then you need to take a look at where your hosted, we find a number of clients who own .com domain names but are hosted out side of the UK, this means that they don’t turn up under searches when users click on “pages from the UK”. The answer is move your website to the geographical location you want you non regional domain name to appear in.

Domain Registrar

The next point is the country your non regional domain is registered to, have you noticed that your results in Google.co.uk appear higher on searches from “the web” than “pages from the UK” then check where you domain is registered, we find a number of clients have purchased domain names cheaply from America and hence appear lower on a search from “pages from the UK”.

Inbound Links

Lastly another countable factor is where your inbound links come from, if your links are generally from the UK, this can help your position on a localised search and if you have a significant number of links this can often sway Google into treating your website as located in a region which it is not hosted.

Neil
Head of SEO