Geo Targetting and international searches

Hello!

My website is targeting Buyers and Sellers in Sri Lankan market.
There for i specified the target geo location in webmaster tool as sri lanka.
but, i also want the sri lankan expatriates who living in abroad to be able to view my site when searched for example "Buy and Sell sri lanka".

Now my question is, specifying a particulate location as the geo target will prevent the site from appearing in international searches?

*my site uses a .com domain.

 

If you specify a geographical target in webmaster tools you're slightly more likely to appear in searches in Sri Lanka and slightly less likely to appear for searches internationally. But it doesn't exclude you from the international results - that's judged on a whole load of other factors.

More important would be your link pattern. If you only get links from Sri Lankan sites then Google will judge you as very localised to Sri Lanka. If you get links from some international sites too then you are more likely to appear in international searches by people lookling for Sri Lanka related services.

 

Thank you so much for the nice explanation!

 

in my point of view, It doesn't effect other regional search. It depends upon the local competition.

 

Thanks for your thought soman..

 

Try to build some link building strategies, surely you will get good results.

 

it will effect it for sure - as to how much will depend on many factors including competition.
Try creating a page and seoing it to target those international visitors u r hoping for . For example buying and selling in "sri lanka from the united states"