How to target particular country for SEO
Website
traffic is a sure way of getting good ranking in the search engines.
Growth in traffic optimizes the number of visitors while increasing the
visibility of your business. And things have become even better;it is
possible nowadays to use SEO to target a particular country. Countries
like US and UK are known for better conversion of adverts and affiliate
sales. Simply, target country-based traffic can yield good results. Some
of the website contents are developed exclusively for targeting a
particular country and/or use a certain language, and as a result, the
content is not of high importance to other regions of the world that are
not relevant to the material these sites provide.
How to target country-specific web traffic
The Domain Name
Domain extensions with the likes of .org and .com
usually rank higher on the global search engines. However, to target a
specific country, yourbest decision might be to buy a country-specific
domain. For the Australian market, it’s common to find the domain
extension .au. Similarly, in Spain, you can target domain extensions
such as .es to give you good results in Spain. It is also good idea to
setup country based subfolder in your main site and develop sites
accordingly in those particular languages. For Example: TechKoW.com,
TechKoW.com/DE, TechKoW.com/FR and many more. It is also best way to
perfectly optimize your site in different countries of the world and to
gain different targeted traffic. You need to add some codes in
.ht-access file in your main site directory so that you will be eligible
to redirect your visitors to exact place. It is compulsory that
whenever any visitor logon to your domain in that country then, it must
be automatically redirected at exact sub-folder domain.
Web hosting server location
Another essential factor in targeting particular
country’s traffic is the use of server location. If you are targeting
customers from the US, you may want to base your servers in the same
country. This helps to ensure your website loads faster in the said
country due to the server IP. The search engines will also be able to
determine the location of your server and hence helping you rank higher
in your target country.
The Google, Bing and other webmaster tools
These are the free tools provided by Search
Engines for webmasters and bloggers. They come in very useful in seeking
country specific traffic. The tool allows you to set the country you
are targeting and hence assist in getting traffic from that county. You
simply log in and verify your site on the webmaster tool, then under the
configurations, you specify the country you are targeting, and you are
good to go.
Content level targeting
The material on your internet site is the main
signal that a search engine uses to determine which country you are
targeting. In case you are targeting more than just one country with
your generic domain name extension (.com, .net, .org,…), add the name of
the targeted country in your post’s titles and descriptions; this will
not only make your material more keyword-targeted, but will also give a
clear signal that you are targeting a specific country with that
particular article or page.
In addition to the keywords, the type of content
you are posting and the language you are using in your articles will
also affect the ranking of your website. As you probably already know,
readability is a well-known SEO factor, and if your language is
following the U.S. standards to target Japan traffic, results will not
be satisfying. This is why you need to be sure to use the language of
the targeted country to make your site not only ranking higher in the
local searches, but also more approachable to the people.
Use of backlinks
When different search engines were devised, they
used backlinks to determine the popularity of content.They have changed
since then, but the importance of backlinks remains the key. Hence, you
can use this strategy to keep specific country backlinks. For instance,
if you are targeting audience from the UK, try getting backlinks from
various UK based websites. Here, you can use the power of guest blogging
and blog commenting. Both are proven methods to give you good results.
Track Keyword Progress in Country-Specific Searches
You read about some of the most efficient
techniques that you can use to target your website traffic for
particular countries. What you want to do next is keep track of the
keyword’s progress in the country you are targeting. This will assist
you to find out which strategies work and which do not. When you
identify the game plan that works best, you can fully focus on that
strategy and work on it to get it to the next level.
Design your content to your target user's language and culture
When you are targetinga specific audience, always make sure you are providing information that is suited for them.
By using local language, country's currency and
time zone combined with contact information, like addresses and phone
numbers, you are sending the users AND search engines powerful signals
that they are in the right place. And do not forget about cultural
differences when you are creating the design and content for the
website; countries and cultures around the world are very divergentand
they look at things in very different ways, even things like color,
shapes and style of humor, so make sure you do not offend anybody or
make an off-putting design.
Making it crystal clear that your website is made
exclusively for them, increases the chances that the audience will have a
pleasant experience.
Benefits of country-specific domain
When you are targeting a particular country, the
best move you can make is to buy a country-specific domain. Yes, you
have to dip into your wallet a little, but it certainly pays off
greatly.
Let’s have a look at some of the greatest benefits of buying a domain specific to a country;
- SEO Benefits
In many cases the major search engines provide
higher search engine rankings for webpages that have a country-specific
Top-Level Domain (TLD). For example, if a web user from Germany is
searching for a SEO Link Building consulting services in that specific
country, the website with the .de may rank higher than another site with
a .com extension providing the same service.
This type of domain can also increase the
visibility of your brand through directories commonly recommended by
local internet surfers. Directories make a great way to increase search
engine rankings and build quality links that lead to more traffic to
your internet site.
- Better audience identification
Identifying your customers’ location gives you an
edge, as it makes things much more convenient for both parties, you and
the client. You can easily display services and products aiming directly
at consumers in that particular region and the customers do not have to
be concern about choosing the area they are located in; this gives your
website a local feel, and establishes the trust a customer needs to
sense when doing business with you.
- Boosting the customer’s confidence
Having a country-specific domain help increase the
confidence in clients, because many of them feel more comfortable doing
business with local providers. For the consumers, it is easier to track
their sales and follow up with any potential questions and concerns
regarding the service or product. Even though businesses are conducted
all across international borders on daily bases, a lot of people would
simply like to know, that they are dealing with someone who either
resides in the same country or runs the business from there; it is
easier to trust someone like this, than someone who is operating in a
foreign locality.
If you are not completely sure whether or not a
country-specific domain will work, have it both ways; create a website
specially for the targeted country with its domain, and design
essentially the same site with a more common domain, like.com. In time
you will see for yourself which of these two reels in more traffic and
conversations.
FAQs on Country Specific SEO
1. Is the use of citations important?
Yes, indeed it is. Just like links, citations
(mention of your company’s name, address and phone number) are also a
big part of search engine’s algorithm, and when it comes to local search
engine rankings, they are a strong indication and ranking factor, so
make sure to include relevant citations to your website.
2. Why is it not recommended to use a machine translation on a website when targeting a particular country?
To put this simple: they are just not good enough.
You want your content to be well written and clear. The machine
translation software can help you a little, but you must check the
content you translated, because there might be grammatical errors and a
poor choice of words, due to a limited vocabulary. The best thing to do
here is to hire someone who is fluent in the language you need the
material to be written in.
3. Does the search engine know my location and can I do something about it?
Yes, it does, and although it is not a big factor,
it can still make a difference. The IP address of an internet site is
determined by the server the site is hosted on, which means that if you
are building a country-specific website, it would probably be wise to
host it in the country the site is targeting.
4. Can social media websites help me with targeting a particular country?
Of course they can. Social media sites have become
more than just a chat room filled with people’s pictures. When you are
targeting a specific country, just share the direct link to your website
with you friends, and ask them to share it forward. It is a chain
reaction, that can bring in relevant traffic when it comes to the right
crowd.
Final thoughts and recommendations on Country Specific SEO
- To increase relevance in the targeted country, it is recommended to have your registrant address in the same location as your targeted location. This is a very useful piece of information, that search engine uses to determine is doing business in that particular location.
- The nature of the content you post; language and the way the content is written certainly influence ranking of your website.
- When targeting more than one country with one website, use a common domain and target separate countries with articles written in their language, with relevant keywords, like the very name of the targeted location.
- Host your site on a local IP address and link to local content
- Build links from local resources; this will give you a lot of traffic from already established sites that people trust.
- Try and find ways to rank on local search engines. Not everybody uses a search engine like Google.com, there are many engines that are specific to the locations they operate in, and when you are targeting a particular country, it will serve you great, if you rank in the local search engine.
Targeting a country-specific web traffic is far
from a ‘’quick and easy’’ process, but combiningthe knowledge of SEO
Link Building, proper website design and great articles in the targeted
country’s language with some undivided attention, the objective is not
unreachable at all, and in the long run, all the time and effort you put
in today, will pay off with great results.
If you have any questions about the
country-targeting for SEO, do not be a stranger, and contact us, we will
be happy to help you with providing any necessary information.
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