Sometimes we build websites targeted to a specific audience or even a specific country. This article is setup to help you understand how you can geographically target your website to a specific country on the Google Search engine. Some of these factors may or may not work for you depending on language barriers and domain extensions so it’s suggested you review them all and use them all when possible.

Geo-Target via Google Webmaster Tools

If you don’t have a cc-TLD (country coded top level domain) you can actually set your geo-targeting via Google Webmasters Central (http://www.google.com/webmasters). This is an excellent way to target a specific region with a non cc-TLD domain name. It’s also noted by Google that you’ll receive less traffic via Google if you leave this set to unlisted. So, it’s general practice to set this to the most common region you are trying to target.

Using a Country Coded Top Level Domain Name

Countering what’s mentioned above you can use a cc-TLD to target a specific region. This is domain extensions such as *.br (Brazil), *.fr (France), etc. Just about every country now has its own cc-TLD. So, an alternate and most likely better solution than using Google Webmaster Central’s targeting ability is to just initially register with a cc-TLD. Now, due to some limitations that some countries have you might find it difficult to register an out of country cc-TLD. There are brokering companies that handle this for you and to keep this article bias free none will be mentioned, however the service is available.

Web Hosting in That Region

It is a very debatable option to geo-targeting; however it’s been widely recognize to work. The concept is simple, you buy hosting via a web hosting company in the region that you are trying to target and host the physical website in that country. This is a decent solution; however language and currency barriers can make it difficult. For example, someone in China wanting to host in the US will find the costs FAR more expensive after currency conversions are figured. If this is a plausible solution that you can deal with and afford it should be considered.

Proper Regional Language & Grammar

You’d be surprised how many people over look this specific method of geo-targeting. You always want to use the same language and grammar usage of that region with your website’s content. I’ve seen countless sites trying to rank in a specific geo-graphically region not even using the native language. By using the native language it’s clearly noticeable to search engine crawlers and will help associate your web pages with those specific geo-targeted results.

Regional Backlink Building

Doesn’t everything we do with SEO seem to come down to backlinks; well with geo-targeting that won’t change! You’ll want to obtain backlinks from websites that are already geo-targeted for that specific regional results and if possible already appearing for your specific keyword or keyword phrase in those regional results. It also helps if the web page linking to yours is using the native language of that region and even hosted there.

What may seem like a lot of work really isn’t, geo-targeting is an excellent way to get the targeted traffic you need. With a few simple methods as displayed above you’ll achieve the results you’re looking for. Please, don’t hesitate to use more than one method, in fact it’s encouraged! Best of luck with your geo-targeting and sales.

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