Google asserts Geo!
Those who follow search engine trends will be well aware that since mid 2008, Google’s algorithm has been attributing increasing importance to the geographical fraction of the website parameters it evaluates. Every SEO company had realized this with a shock last year, as they usually do with most alterations in the algorithm.
But as with every modification geared towards “more relevant results for the user”, this I believe, has only generated optimized solutions that have served to make websites more organized. Solutions geared towards additional verticals of categorization of websites, making the websites and in turn the results more structured.
One of the most important factors that very noticeably affect the “geographic algorithmic categorization” of a website is the location of the server where it is hosted and even more so, the geographical location of the registrant of the website. In fact even the incoming link building to your website should focused be from a web page hosted in an appropriate location. These factors affect the region of the world wherein the websites visibility on search engines will be good.
Sub- domains are another extremely underutilized method of targeting audiences across a wide range of physical locations. Apart from creating sub-domains, further emphasizing the location of the target audience by specifying it in Google’s Webmaster Tools is a good move.
Localizing the content on your website and maintaining a physical address in the target location, will help you grab traffic from sources such as the Local results displayed by search engines these days.
As, Google’s algorithm is going to get only more location specific and more discerning when displaying results it only makes sense for websites to move in the same direction strategically.
Tags: Geo-targeting, SEO
May 9th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
It’s indeed a very good thing for small, local businesses that Google’s algorithm has changed, but it is a lot harder to optimize big, worldwide corporations’ websites. I’ve noticed that many SEO consultants has begun branding themselves as “International SEO experts”…
May 11th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
This is really interesting, but do you really think that Google’s even taking into account where the sites where your incoming links are hosted.
I’ve not seen much of a difference in setting the geotargeting in webmaster tools though….
May 14th, 2009 at 10:30 am
@Billig Hjemmeside: Yes, it is indeed beneficial for small businesses. For websites of multi-national corporations that demand presence in several countries Sub-domains are a great solution.
@John: Setting the Geo targeting is important primarily so that we don’y miss out on any bases. This will definitely gain importance over time.
Yes, Google does take into account the hosting of the site where your incoming links are coming from. This applies more to the websites that require to rank on other google domains such as Google.fr, Google.co.uk