Search Engine Optimisation or Seo can be targeted at a local level and opens up the Internet to business owners who only wish to attract clients from certain areas. Local search engine optimisation will help you target only those customers who are most profitable to your business and who are most likely to buy. Google is the most popular search engine and thankfully it offers rankings which are country specific, which offers far more diversity than Google.com.
As you will know by now if you have followed my tutorials, Google indexes sites in the most relevant way, therefore a UK based website will primarily be indexed in google.co.uk, therefore if you are targeting your site to a specific country you will need to compete with local sites as well as general ones on google.com.
I want go through some general pieces of advice for all of you targeting a country specific audience.
Your domains and Hosting
When it comes to local search engine optimisation (seo) there are two criteria Google will look at in order to determine where to index your site.
1- Your top level domain (TLD)
2- The location of your hosting
Your TLD is your main domain ie. this site is http://www.seowizz.net/, if you are targeting a local audience you should use the domain name of the country your targeting ie au = Australia ca = Canada and UK = United Kingdom. This will help Google decide where to list your website.
Another way of optimising locally is through opening your hosting account in the relevant country. If the IP address of your site is hosted in a certain country it will not matter what your TLD is, Google will list you in the hosting location index. This is a great way of targeting customers all over the world.
Contact Information
Another way of targeting locally is to place your contact information in the footer of your website. However only do this if you have one office as mentioning multiple countries and cities will do you no good.
Language Issues
This is more for your visitors, but try to use the same phrases as would be encountered in the particular countries you are targeting. Not all English speaking countries speak the same and more importantly sell the same.
Get Local Links
This is probably the most powerful technique to raise your local rankings and its simple all you need is local links. Try locating local government sites or businesses and attempt to get a link back. Submit your site to local business directories and contact directories. This will all help to improve your local link popularity.
Use Google Webmaster Tools
Simply go to google webmaster tools
Sign into your account and go to settings.
The simply select your geographic target and save.
Add your site to Google maps for added value.
Following these local search engine optimisation (seo) tips you will increase your chances of your pages being indexed locally and receiving highly targeted traffic.
As you will know by now if you have followed my tutorials, Google indexes sites in the most relevant way, therefore a UK based website will primarily be indexed in google.co.uk, therefore if you are targeting your site to a specific country you will need to compete with local sites as well as general ones on google.com.
I want go through some general pieces of advice for all of you targeting a country specific audience.
Your domains and Hosting
When it comes to local search engine optimisation (seo) there are two criteria Google will look at in order to determine where to index your site.
1- Your top level domain (TLD)
2- The location of your hosting
Your TLD is your main domain ie. this site is http://www.seowizz.net/, if you are targeting a local audience you should use the domain name of the country your targeting ie au = Australia ca = Canada and UK = United Kingdom. This will help Google decide where to list your website.
Another way of optimising locally is through opening your hosting account in the relevant country. If the IP address of your site is hosted in a certain country it will not matter what your TLD is, Google will list you in the hosting location index. This is a great way of targeting customers all over the world.
Contact Information
Another way of targeting locally is to place your contact information in the footer of your website. However only do this if you have one office as mentioning multiple countries and cities will do you no good.
Language Issues
This is more for your visitors, but try to use the same phrases as would be encountered in the particular countries you are targeting. Not all English speaking countries speak the same and more importantly sell the same.
Get Local Links
This is probably the most powerful technique to raise your local rankings and its simple all you need is local links. Try locating local government sites or businesses and attempt to get a link back. Submit your site to local business directories and contact directories. This will all help to improve your local link popularity.
Use Google Webmaster Tools
Simply go to google webmaster tools
Sign into your account and go to settings.
The simply select your geographic target and save.
Add your site to Google maps for added value.
Following these local search engine optimisation (seo) tips you will increase your chances of your pages being indexed locally and receiving highly targeted traffic.
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