SEO - Regional Targeting for Geographically Specific Traffic (geotargeting)

How does one target a specific geographic region/country/city?

There are a few areas of SEO and marketing that you can do to improve your site ranking within a particular region, known as ‘geotargeting’. The biggest challenge would be ranking well in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) across a range of regions. It would probably require several regional campaigns.

1. Domain TLD: You can register your domain with a country specific TLD, such as “.co.uk”. This should help you rank better in the UK. The same can be done for other countries.
2. Hosting: This is a major factor, if web host server is located in France, then you are likely to rank well in France. Unfortunately, you may not rank well for search engine users in other countries. You should look around for webhosts from that area, for example: you can be hosted on a Maui server, if you are targeting a Maui audience.
3. Languages: If your site includes more than one language, you will have a better chance of ranking well within countries where that language is spoken.
4. Keywords Usage: If your website has too much content for “German”, as apposed to the “UK”, then the search engines may perceive this as the website is targeting the location mentioned in the content. I do not believe in keyword density as being of any value, but I do believe that including the keywords within the content would be relevant.
5. On page/site SEO: Create individual pages or sections of your website for the area you are targeting. Your efforts should then focus the traffic to these pages/areas. This includes link building, advertising, and other means to direct traffic and improve your rank in the SERPs.
   
6. Localized Link Building: Find local bloggers and websites (government city, state, country too!) and see if they’d link to you. Even better, see if they would write an article or two about your site or services.
7. Create a network: Buy domains and host them on localized webhosts. Create original, good content and point them to your main site. You may even get some referral traffic from them as well.
8. Google Local Business Center: By using the Google Local Business Center, you are also narrowing your site down to local areas.
   

   Use the Local Business Center to create your free listing. When potential customers search Maps for local information, they’ll find your business: your address, hours of operation, even coupons to print out and bring to your shop. It’s easy, free, and you don’t need a website of your own.









9. Google Webmaster Tools: Within Google Webmaster Tools, go to Tools, Set geographic target. You can associate a particular geographic location with this site if you are targeting users within that area. You are currently not able to designate multiple regions.
10. Google Adwords: You can target regionally specific traffic via Google Adwords. This is an excellent way to get targeted traffic.
    
11. Yahoo! Local: You can list your site locally within Yahoo! Local for some additional traffic.
12. Use other local directories: You can use other directories to bring in local customers.
    • Verizon SuperPages
    • DMOZ
    • CitySearch
    • TrueLocal
    • Qwest Dex
    • Localeze
    • Merchant Circle
13. Use localized SEO companies: These companies specialize in improving your regional presence. If your own efforts appear to be limited or you do not have the knowledge or time, then definitely consider going with an SEO company such as these.
    • GeoLocalSEO
    • BoostLocalListings
14. Seeing the search engine results: Use Geoseo.com to view how your site/pages rank in the SERPs for specific keywords. It will show you results for Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.