How to Geo Target Your Site with Google Webmaster Tools
Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Susan Moskwa made a video presentation titled Geo target Your Site with Google Webmaster Tools, in which she explained the basics needed to associate a website with a particular country in order to enhance its presence in the local search results.
According to Susan, Google used to (and still does) look at a couple of signals to determine where a site was located or what particular region belonged to. Those signals included:
- The server location of the website.
- The Top Level Domain (TLD).
Some Challenges with Geo Targeting
There are certain TLDs such as .com, .net and .org that by nature are considered geographically neutral.
One of the problems for websites using geographically neutral domain types was that they were hosted in different locations than where their actual business was. For example, let’s hypothetically say that SpanishSEO.org was hosted in Montreal, Canada and the main business was located in Colorado, USA. With those signals it is most likely that Google.com would have not included SpanishSEO.org in the local targeted search results for someone searching for Spanish SEO Services in Denver, Colorado.
The Google solution
To address the situation described above, Google created the geo targeting tool to help webmasters point a particular country/region their websites are targeting. With that in mind, Google will be able to retrieve more accurate natural search results for a specific geographical area.
When to use Geo Targeting
Geo targeting can be used for different purposes and with different variants. The following can be geo targeted in Google Webmaster Tools:
- Generic Top Level Domains (gTLD) such as .com, .net and .org.
- Individual sub-folders, i.e. www.SpanishSEO.org/lang/es/ for Spanish speakers from Argentina.
- Sub-domains, i.e. mexico.SpanishSEO.org to target the Mexican market.
Global websites can make a great use of this tool for localization purposes. For instance, let’s say we want to target the US, Canada and the UK with different websites. In that case, we need to create the following sub-domains:
- us.SpanishSEO.org -» Site for U.S. customers.
- ca.SpanishSEO.org -» Site for Canadian customers.
- uk.SpanishSEO.org -» Site for British customers.
Then, we will have to add each of these sub-domains as individual websites in our Google Webmaster Tools account. Once the sub-domains are established as different sites, we will proceed to set the geographic location respectively.
To avoid duplicate content, the information of these sites (sub-domains), assumed to be in English, has to be different. Conversely, if the same content is translated in different languages, duplicate content will not be a problem for the sub-domains.
Another good example is to target the sub-folder SpanishSEO.org/lang/es/ to Argentina. If Argentinean users residing in Buenos Aires use google.com.ar and select “search only pages from Argentina,” it will be more likely for Google to return information from SpanishSEO.org/lang/es/ in their local results since the Search Engine considers this geo targeted sub-folder relevant to the search.
On the other hand, it will be less likely for Google to return results from the same sub-folder SpanishSEO.org/lang/es/ for Peru or Mexico. And if these same Argentinean users are searching directly from google.com with the “search the web” option, any section of SpanishSEO.org (sub-folders, sub-domains, main pages) can show up.
When not to use the Geo Targeting Tool
Geographic targeting is not the best option for targeting a particular language. If you are targeting Spanish speakers around the world, you shouldn’t geo target your site to Argentina for example. The main reason is that by associating your site to that specific country, you will be missing Spanish speakers from other Latin America countries, Spain, U.S.A. and other areas.
However, if you want to target a specific language such as German, to a locale such as Austria using a neutral TLD (.com), then geo targeting will be your best choice.
Another situation in which this tool should not be used is when targeting continents or entire regions with TLDs .eu or .asia. As of this writing, Google has not come up with an option for regionalization yet.
And if you are using a Country-Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) such as .us, .es or .co.uk, then you will not be able to geo target sub-domains, sub-folders or the ccTLD itself. ccTLDs are automatically geo targeted by Google. A .co.uk domain will automatically be set up to appear in the UK local search.
How to set up Geo Target with Google Webmaster Tools
- First off, sign up for a Google Webmasters Tool account, currently in 26 languages. Once logged in, you will see in the Dashboard a box with a message Click here to add a site. Enter your domain in that box and click Add Site. For canonical purposes, which means to use either www.SpanishSEO.org or SpanishSEO.org, stick with the option of your preference for your website.
- The next step is to verify your site. One of the requirements to use Google Webmaster Tools is to verify the ownership of the domain you are setting up. To do that, you will see a box with a light bulb and a link that will take you to the verification status page. If your site has not been verified, you will see the NOT VERIFIED message. Here you have two verification options:
- Insert the meta tag provided by Google after the head element of your HTML document. For illustration purposes, let’s use the following meta tag that should go right after <head> but before </head>:
<meta name="verify-v1" content="i2W3OODwd4dKGaEvGRxmHh6ojeSwRMCgn5/6lsg8lf4=" />
- The other verification option is to create an HTML file using the name provided by Google. For this example we are using a file named google8b50e744aeb3f03c.html. This file can be created with Windows Notepad or your preferred HTML editor. There is no need to include any information. Simply save the file with the name assigned by Google, which by the way already includes the extension html, and upload it to the root of your site. The file’s URL created for verification purposes will look something like this:
SpanishSEO.org/google8b50e744aeb3f03c.html
- Insert the meta tag provided by Google after the head element of your HTML document. For illustration purposes, let’s use the following meta tag that should go right after <head> but before </head>:
Once this is done, click verify.
After you have verified your TLD, the sub-folders automatically will become verified too. For sub-domains you will need to verify each one of them in addition to the TLD.
You can set the geographic target by clicking on Set geographic target. The following options will be displayed:
- Do not associate a geographic location with this site.
- Associate a geographic location with this site. If you choose this option, you will have to select the country/region you are targeting. The last step is to click save.
If you already have a ccTLD such SpanishSEO.us, your geo target will be automatically set up to USA. In a case like this, you will see a message like this after clicking Set geographic target:
Your site’s domain (.US) is already associated with the country/region: United States
Final thoughts on Geo Targeting
The best use for Google Webmaster Tools is for geographically neutral TLDs and not for ccTLDs.
If you are planning to go global, don’t use a ccTLD for your main site, because it will be automatically associated to a country. Instead, invest in a neutral TLD.
However, if you have no choice but to use a ccTLD and are aspiring to go global visit the post on How To Geo Target Your Site for Global Exposure coming soon.
As of this writing, there is no information on how Google geo targeting tool deals with International Domain Names (IDNs). Since IDNs are based on language more than geographical location, the most reasonable assumption is that Google will not automatically geo target them.
Finally, if you wish to watch Susan Moskwa’s presentation click play on this video:
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What a great post! Thanks for sharing Augusto. I’ve thought of geo targeting using Google Webmaster Tools. I wonder how often searchers use the “only search (country) pages” option versus the regular search.
Also, any thoughts on whether its better to have a sub-domain versus a sub-folder to target geographically?
Best,
Will
Hi Will,
Welcome to the blog!
I am working on a post to respond to your first question, because I think it’s really important. So please bear with me because I think you will find the details interesting.
Using a sub-domain versus a sub-folder really depends on several factors of your strategy. From my perspective, the most important one is language.
Sub-domains are better to host different languages mainly because we should try to make things simple for crawling:
On the other hand, if you are planning to put same language content under a folder, then this strategy can work better. Though, if you are targeting Canada, Australia, the UK and the USA, I’d rather go with ccTLDs (first option) or sub-domains (like in the Spanish version of this site about Posicionamiento en Buscadores).
Regards,
Augusto
Hello,
I must say: This is the most comprehensive blog post about geo-targeting I have come across !
Well done. I also like the IDN issue, I never thought about that. 1+
Bill
Excellent read augusto…Good job
do you know if its enough if i tell google in its webmaster tools which contry i target or do i also have to move my host to this country??
Hi Joe,
Sorry for the late response. I was out of town and finally got back.
Using Google Webmaster Tools to assign a specific geographical location to your generic TLD can be enough depending on your overall SEO strategy, your vertical, among other things. It’s not cut and dry. For ccTLDs, Google does assign the locale automatically and you have no choice.
Nonetheless, if you want to have an edge over your competition in terms of local search, hosting the TLD (Top Level Domain) or ccTLD (Country Code TLD) in the country you are targeting may help a bit. This can be tedious work though. So you have to assess pros and cons. Also, keep in mind that this does not mean you will immediately outrank your competitors. There are other variables to take into account when competing globally.