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No geo targeting = No traffic

by junilerick
7 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi everyone,

I have joined WF for a bit less than a month now and have been amazed at the sense of community found here. People are truly generous with their time and would often go out of their way to make sure your questions are fully answered.

I've been learning SEO for about a month now so that you may have a better understand of my current knowledge dealing with SEO, which is essentially close to zero.

Anyhow, my question is regarding my very first website which I built around 3 weeks ago. Initially, I went through all the steps of keyword research and found a keyword with roughly 6,600 search per month (exact phrase). I had no problem climbing the rankings and after about 2 weeks I was at No.6. However, I received virtually no traffic and have been very confused. At first, I attributed it to the fact that the daily search count would be about 220 and at No.6 I'd probably be getting maybe 5% of that. But it then seemed ridiculous that I'd be getting NO traffic at all. And I mean NONE.

Then it struck me that perhaps those in UK, which is where the keyword is targeting, might see different SERPs than in the US or perhaps people there use a different browser altogether. I checked my keyword on google.co.uk, and lo and behold, I was nowhere to be seen for pages upon pages. (In fact, I gave up looking for where the website was ranked after about the 8th page or so)

The best fix that I've come up with so far is to change my setting in WMT to target the UK, but other than that I don't know what else to do. Maybe I need to just forget about it and see it as a learning experience though I do have some sentimental feelings toward it, considering it was my first website and all. At this stage, I feel a bit like the captain of the Titanic and it will be hard to completely let go.

This post got a wee bit long so I commend you for reading till here. Anyway, feel free to offer suggestions and what not!

Kind regards,
Erick
#geo #targeting #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author carleisenstein
    There are many factors that influence the likelihood of your site appearing for people in various geographical regions. If you're wanting to target people in a specific area (like the UK) then the ideal would be:

    1) To have a .co.uk domain
    2) To be hosting in the UK
    3) To have UK WHOIS data
    4) To have UK set in WMT
    5) To have links back from lots of UK properties

    Point #5 is the most important one though - the others are just slight 'signals' IMHO. If all of your backlinks are purely from US sites then you're unlikely to be ranking as well as you should in the UK. Concentrate on getting links from UK sites - and possibly look to change some of the other variables above - and you'll pretty soon find yourself ranking higher in the UK (and maybe losing some positions in the US).
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  • Profile picture of the author junilerick
    Thanks for the detailed reply. All of those sound like good suggestions except that I am basically limited to the last two. Hopefully I'll be able to successfully build links as I do believe that the channels to implement SEO for UK sites can be somewhat different than those in the US, but perhaps I am mistaken.

    Interestingly, I've also read somewhere that tailoring the written content can make a big difference for ranking in specific areas. ie writing litre instead of liter.
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    • Profile picture of the author carleisenstein
      Originally Posted by junilerick View Post

      Thanks for the detailed reply. All of those sound like good suggestions except that I am basically limited to the last two.
      The link pattern is by far the most important factor, so don't worry if that's all you can do.

      Originally Posted by junilerick View Post

      Interestingly, I've also read somewhere that tailoring the written content can make a big difference for ranking in specific areas. ie writing litre instead of liter.
      Certainly people the UK will search for litre, colour, behaviour, favourite etc. so you do want to make sure you target British English terms and use British English language. I've never heard of the search engines making decisions based on that though.

      I did hear rumours once that Google was using address data on sites to try and help it target locations, but that was just a rumour and I've never heard anyone follow up on it with real evidence since.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mo Annuar
    Ofc, targeting is the main thing any marketer should consider. I'd focus on getting links from UK sites and a co.uk domain name. Hosting would be good too, if you want to ensure a fast loading time.
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  • Profile picture of the author junilerick
    Thanks for the reply, carleisenstein.

    I realized that you're actually from the UK! Do you personally make UK or US sites? Just hoping you could give me some suggestions for UK-targeted link building, or it basically the same?
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    • Profile picture of the author vsky
      I personally think that where the backlinks are coming from makes no difference whatsoever on the location. Where your host is situated would the biggest factor in my opinion aswell as the extension.

      I mean... say you have a UK site, where it just so happens it gets a lot of backlinks from Amercian sites. Does that mean it won't get indexed as a UK site, won't show up in google.co.uk and are seen as Amercian just because that's where its backlinks are coming from? I don't think so. Obviously it would help if you can get some .co.uk backlinks but I don't think it's critical imo.
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