Geotargeting
Geotargeting is the method of determining the location of a user and serving different content to visitors dependent on where they are viewing the site from. To find out more about how search engines crawl and index this geotargeted website content, along with recommendations and insights from Google, we have compiled common questions and answers within our SEO Office Hours recaps below.
For more on geotargeting and international website best practices for SEO, check out our additional guides:
An SEO’s Guide to International Site Architecture
Getting Your International Website Structure Right
Geo-targeting Doesn’t Restrict Pages to a Specific Country
Geo-targeting in Search Console indicates to Google that a page is more relevant for a specific country, and it may rank higher for local search queries, not that it will be removed for other countries.
Blocking US IPs Likely to Block Googlebot. Having at Least Some US Accessible Content is Recommended
Other than the US, Google only crawls from a handful of other countries. If you block US IP addresses you’re probably blocking Googlebot, but you can test this with Fetch & Render or by checking log files. John recommends having at least some content accessible from the US, so that Googlebot and US users can go to your site.
Words in URL are Relatively Small Ranking Factor Compared to Page Content
Google does use words in URLs if there is anything useful there, but this is a relatively small factor compared to content on the page. However, Google does pick up country and language codes that they think are relevant to identify different versions of a page.
Include Shared Content Block For Pages That Vary Dependent on Location
If content served varies dependent on location then John recommends having a shared content block across all variations as Google primarily crawls from IP addresses geo-located to San Francisco.
Ranking Fluctuations Between Different Countries Due to Differing Competition
It is common for ranking fluctuations to exist from country to country because of differences in the level of competition for these queries. You may consider splitting your site into individual country versions, using subdomains or subdirectories, if you have content specific to users in different countries. The target country for individual content can then be specified in GSC.
GSC’s Unlisted Setting Used For Domains Switching From Country-Specific to International Focus
Unlisted setting used in Search Console explicitly says to use geo-targeting on the site. John recommends using this setting if a domain was previously highly focused on a particular country and you want to change it to have an international or global focus.
Geo-targeting Can’t be Set for ccTLDs
Google will promote ccTLDs for that specific country but you can’t set up geo-targeting for other countries outside of that ccTLD.
Geo-targeting is Overridden for Search Queries for Something in Different Country
Geo-targeting is based on user’s location, so this will be overridden if Google recognises you�۪re looking for something in a different country.
Automatic Geographic Redirects Should be Avoided
Googlebot should see the same redirects the same as normal users, so automatic redirects to a different geographic site should be avoided. Google only recommends a redirect from a generic page to a specific geographic site, or a pop-up to suggest a different geographic site to the one being used.
Non-Country Regional Domains are Treated As Top Level Domains
Regional domains which don’t targe specific countries, such as .berlin, will be treated as top-level domains and won’t have any geographic targeting applied.