This is a guest post by Ben Hook. If you want to guest post on this blog check out the guidelines here.
Targeting a specific location is often a major part of the SEO campaign, but it’s often given little consideration because most of the time the targeting just works correctly without anything needing to be done. While this is a good thing when it works, it often means people get stuck when it doesn’t, so here I want to cover some of the things to consider when trying to geo-target a website.
Hosting
Search engines will often look at the IP address and where the site is hosted to get an understanding of the target location. It may be worth considering switching providers if your host is not able to provide you with an IP address in the target location.
Who is information
Have you made sure you have provided an address based in the location of your target audience? If you can, try to make sure the Who Is information matches up to your specific location.
TLD – top level domain
Another major factor that search engines will look at when trying to determine the location of a website is the top level domain. This should be given a lot of consideration as I can work to your advantage, but it can also hinder you.
If you are planning to specifically target one country in particular then in would be advisable to consider hosting the website on a country specific TLD, as this will help to give you a boost in the search engines for searched performed in that country. However, if there is a chance that at some point you may want to consider targeting searchers from other locations, a country specific TLD could make it harder for you to gain rankings in these areas.
Local search
Making sure your local search listings are up to date can help you to tell the search engines your location and give you a boost in your target locations SERP’s. This can also really help increase your presence in the universal search results that are often displayed.
Directory listings
Search engines will often gather information on your site, including locations, from directories such as DMOZ and also listings pages such as Yell. Not only will this help to reaffirm your location, but it will also help to increase your rankings in local listings, as the search engines often look in these areas to gain a better understanding of your business.
Links from same location
Links are used to determine topic and relevance, and in a similar way they can be used to gain a better understanding of the target audience. By building links from sites with the IP address of your target location you can help to increase your presence in these locations and boost your rankings.
Address on every page
Possibly the most important point here is making sure your address is displayed on every page, this really can help solidify your location and also help to increase rankings for longer tailed terms including the location
Location in titles
Last but not least, if you are really pulling your hair out and location targeting is vital, then it’s worth including the location at the end of your title tags to ensure the search engines see the importance of the location.
This is a guest post by Ben Hook, director of Navaro, a Warwickshire SEO company.
Article by JaneSheeba
+Jane is the founder of Problogging Success. She is an expert blogger, consultant, freelance writer and blog designer. Don't forget to get your hands on two FREE Ebooks she offers.
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