SEO for Europe

[stoaf88]

I live in the USA.

Is it possible for me to target a country such as Germany? And do I need to write content in German or will english rank?

I have no trouble doing USA based SEO but I have a client that needs to target Europe/Asia.

Does anyone have experience with this? And any suggestions?

P.S. I am optimising for google of course.

[TBInternetMarketing]

You just need to log into google webmasters and set the Geo Targeting to point to the country of your desire. I have done this with a UK website as well. It would possibly help if you had a domain name for that county as well. I.e. I use a .co.uk domain for my site I target to the UK.

[stoaf88]

Originally Posted by TBInternetMarketing

You just need to log into google webmasters and set the Geo Targeting to point to the country of your desire. I have done this with a UK website as well. It would possibly help if you had a domain name for that county as well. I.e. I use a .co.uk domain for my site I target to the UK.

This is what I figured. Thanks.

Also lets say the site is in a non english speaking European country, can you still rank using English? Or will you ever convert in English if you achieve rankings?

[faysal969]

Originally Posted by stoaf88

This is what I figured. Thanks.

Also lets say the site is in a non english speaking European country, can you still rank using English? Or will you ever convert in English if you achieve rankings?

Yes, you can rank well in that particular region, by doing proper optimization of your site. English will do not harm your ranking. You may create a version of your site in German language. There have many language package for converting your site in German.

[stoaf88]

Originally Posted by faysal969

Yes, you can rank well in that particular region, by doing proper optimization of your site. English will do not harm your ranking. You may create a version of your site in German language. There have many language package for converting your site in German.

Awesome thanks!

Also does anyone know the best way to test rankings in other countries?

I am in Usa so how do I check google rankings in Germany? Do I need German proxies? Or is there an easier way?

[Stuart william]

hi if you use only English then its really hard to get ranking in Germany. try to write some content in genman and submit it to German article sites it will helps you a lot in getting ranking in google.de (Germany). Do bookmarling and directory on Germany based sites.

[Always-A-Warrior]

Originally Posted by stoaf88

Awesome thanks!

Also does anyone know the best way to test rankings in other countries?

I am in Usa so how do I check google rankings in Germany? Do I need German proxies? Or is there an easier way?

Go to Google.de

[mrdomains]

Ranking a site is all about keywords and searchterms. Unless the german public are searching for your client's term in English, you will need to do your seo in German.

The site can still be in English but with inserted German keywords to match search terms. Backlink with the German terms as anchors. Obviously, not as good effect as if the whole site were in German.

If you will be doing everything in English you need to do in-depth research on actual English searches from Germany for Germany localized businesses (don´t expect a lot from this)

[stoaf88]

Thanks guys. So when I do keyword research I will select google.de and then search the terms in english? Do they ever search in english?

And also I will do research for german keywords as well.

Any advice? Thanks again!

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by stoaf88

.

Any advice? Thanks again!

Yes the most important that hasn't been mentioned. You need to be hosted in europe and getting links from sites that are in germany. the extension can be a boost but Google is quite aware that people all over the world register ,com, .net & .org. regional interest in your site by way of links is VERY important.

In doing SEO work for european companies I often find sites ranking in the Google .com database that are not showing in the regional (and vice versa) because of the lack or abundance of regional links.

[GeorgR.]

Being originally for Germany, i can tell you that this is more problematic than what you might think. (Let alone the fact you dont speak German..so how would you want to do proper keyword research?)

For good German rankings I THINK you really need a .DE domain, and those come with certain requirements: You need to prove you are German resident, and the nameservers for your .DE domain need to be in two different sub-nets.

Of course, you can still use .org, .com or whatever domains, but i really think .de would be an advantage. I personally don't market in Germany, too tough, too picky.

[GoldFace]

Lots of poor advices here. Guys, you never tried it, did you ?

To rank in a non-English speaking country, FORGET ABOUT ENGLISH !
The .DE is not important, you can pick a .com. The IP is not important.
What is important, are backlinks from related sites, and in German.

If you try to do some cheap stuff (xRumer, linkwheels, spammy comments), you will fail. Article marketing? probably a fail as well.

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by GoldFace

To rank in a non-English speaking country, FORGET ABOUT ENGLISH !
The .DE is not important, you can pick a .com. The IP is not important.
What is important, are backlinks from related sites, and in German.

Umm i as much as said some of that but you are wrong about the IP. Ip does indicate geo location to Google and link from within a geo location do in fact help.

[seothatworks]

if the hosting is in that country and the domain is county based like .co.uk it makes a big difference. i have seen sites of mine rank well in specific countries if i use country specific domains

[stoaf88]

Originally Posted by seothatworks

if the hosting is in that country and the domain is county based like .co.uk it makes a big difference. i have seen sites of mine rank well in specific countries if i use country specific domains

How do you obtain a.co.uk domain if you live in the USA?

[Tiffan Meloney]

Last time I did some German SEO for one of my websites. First you need to do these.

Purchase a TLD for that country.
Hosting doesn't really matter
And Build backlinks from the TLD

Like if i was ranking for a .de I will build .de backlinks. The more TLD for that country you have, the more boost you will get in the country. Make sure your content is in the language of the country. and make sure you do the same SEO.

Lastly, you will want to use some Social Media for the country. Get the most used Social sites in the country and build links on it. Its alot of work, but it pays off. Hope that helps.

And if you are using a .com/.org/.net/.info, you will have to geo target it in Google webmasters.

Originally Posted by stoaf88

How do you obtain a.co.uk domain if you live in the USA?

You can go to any domain registrar and they have it for you. finiding it is the hard part. but its there.

[stoaf88]

Oh I thought someone said that you need to prove you live in the country to get the extention for that country.

[seoservicesaustralia]

Hi

Me Also Target Local Country Australia And My Domain name Like Home :: XYZ Networks I have Targeting Local Submission site List Local Business Listing, Cassi field Submission and i also local forum targeting. I think it is Best Results. Please try.

[Fernando Veloso]

Been ranking PT sites with US and UK hosting with no problem whatsoever.

And thats a fact.

[stoaf88]

Originally Posted by Fernando Veloso

Been ranking PT sites with US and UK hosting with no problem whatsoever.

And thats a fact.

What do you mean by PT sites?

Thanks for the reply.

I guess my best course of action would be to register a .de domain and then write in English and use google translater to also have a German version. Then backlink to german blogs and forums.

Is this a good basic strategy?