Hi Guys, I have a client who wants to optimize his website for a specific keyword (call it "My Keyword"). This part is easy as the keyword is not very high-competitve, but the problem is that he wants to optimize the website for UK traffic specifically and unfortunately, I don't have any experience with that. He wants to rank #1 for that keyword in the Google.co.uk Currently, his website is ranking #1 for My Keyword in USA (Google.com), but when he searches for My Keyword on Google.co.uk, his website is in the 5th page. How can I go about this? I'm thinking of: 1. Getting links from UK directories. 2. Getting links from UK other websites. 3. Adding the text "UK" to the website. 4. When getting links, I'm thinking of using the text "My Keyword UK". 5. His domain is XXX.com, do you think that moving it to .co.uk will have a very good impact? (I don't prefer this solution unless it's the only one possible). 6. What about keeping the domain XXX.com but moving the hosting to a UK server? Can you please tell me if these steps would work? What is the best approach to attack this problem? thanks in advance for the help.
The things i have done in the past that all made a differance are:- In google webmaster tools go to settings then Geographic target, set it for United Kingdom. Changing to .co.uk would help lots. Hosting it on a UK server helps a little, although i have found it does not make a big difference. In the relevant meta tag make sure it is lang="en-gb" not lang="en-us" or even missing. The more links from other UK sites the better. If the site has it's physical bricks and mortar address in the footer make sure it includes the words "United Kingdom"
Thanks a lot for the great info. But what about using links that point to my website like "My Keyword uk" ? does that make any difference or help boost my ranking better for "My Keyword" in Google.co.uk ? More questions: - Is it absolutely necessary to change the .com domain to .co.uk if you want to be competitive in the Google.co.uk search results? - Can you rank a .com domain as #1 for high competitive keywords over your .co.uk competitors - What is the effect of the changes you mentioned like: and and On the "My Keyword" ranking on Google.com (not UK)? Will that affect the ranking there? Thanks again for your help.
Lots of good advice given above. I'd personally compare an allinanchor: search on google.co.uk to an allinanchor: search on google.com and see if there's any difference to where the site ranks. I have a feeling this may well answer your question. No need to change your URL to .co.uk, .coms are more than capable of ranking in Google.co.uk
he should have started with a .co.uk or .org.uk etc... he should add geo location HTML and HTML address
First of all, go to your google webmaster account >> setting >>geographical target and select United Kingdom as target (as Vagran has already recommended). It 'll take you just 1 or 2 minutes to do so. http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=62399&topic=14165 You should get changes in SERP's within a few weeks (sometimes quickly, sometimes with some delay). Check search from the web and search from Pages from UK with google.co.uk. If nothing change, wait further or consider moving to IP in UK.
Thank you guys very much for all these tips. I'll try them all to fix my client's problem and to learn this area of the SEO. Can you guys confirm whether using a UK host for the .com domain will have a good effect on the SERPs or not? From what you have said above, it seems that the value of this factor is not very clear. Can you shed some light on this? What about using links with text like "My Keyword UK" ? Does that affect UK SERPs ?
When you advertise via Facebook or Adwords make sure you just put for you UK this will help you get solid traffic to your site from just obviously UK visitors, that's if you do paid campaigns of course.
All of what you have mentioned is typically good - especially points 1 and 2. However, do not go changing the domain to .co.uk as you will then be setting up a different site and then having to wait a while so the content is not deemed as duplicate content.
All your ideas are smart As an add on to this one, I'd also register the uk version of his domain. He will not see an immediate impact from this but it is certainly a smart long term move.
set a target country in his webmaster tools, if you do this, no need to go swapping to a .co.uk I don't think, but that's just my personal opinion! I would also try to get some decent UK links, joinup in Google local business centre too maybe.
Thanks guys for the great info. Based on your advice, I'm reading about Google geographic target tool. Take a look at this (from Google website): From that paragraph, it seems that using this tool will have a bad effect on the visitors in some areas like Brazil, Spain and Canada. The problem is that my client wants to rank better in UK, but he doesn't want to lose his other customers/visitors. Any experience in this area? How bad it would be for the website ranking in these areas?
Though there is no official word from Google on this but there is a consensus among big SEO's that hosting location, IP address etc does help in ranking your site on the local search. Other than this if your client is some business based out of UK, you can add his listing to Google UK Local directory.