Questions about ranking on foreign Google(s)

[NedieNed]

Hi to all the BHW Community,


I have a few questions concerning ranking a non-english website in its own Google country.


For instance : a Canadian website on Google.ca or a French website on Google.fr. I'm convinced that many members there would like to know a bit more about ranking there "foreign" website.

Here is what I've learn so far :

- English and foreign language must not be mixed into the website to make sure Google is ranking you on the correct domain (like .ca or .fr)

- Build backlinks on your language which means : write it in your language and post it in specific domain name ( like .ca or .fr)

- Get a hosting in the place you want to rank


That would be nice if anyone have some more tips to put here so I could make a recap thread on how to rank on foreign Google places.

Thanks to all.
Nedie

 

[HostStage]

Hey Neddie,

Here are the things i'm sure of :

1) Hosting is better with an IP in your own country but not an obligation, it is a weak ranking factor.
2) It is way better to stick mostly for the langage you are targeting
3) Your anchor in your langage is recommanded but i really don't know if IP from backlinks or langage of the comments (page) have an impact, i'd be pleased to hear people's thoughts about it.

 

[NedieNed]

Bumping on this thread. More informations are required

 

[Kaithe.Clarke]

A few more things that we can do for ranking in Google foreign...
- Get a country specific TLD
- Submit your website to local search engines
- Submit your website to local web directories
- Get backlinks from target country
- Get listed on local classified websites
- Participate in communities that are active in target country
- Get citations

 

[seojumper]

IN GWT set your website audience.

 

[NedieNed]

Thanks to both (Kaithe.Clarke & SeoJumper) for giving a few more tips.

@ Everybody : If you have some more tips, just write it down and I'll recap all.

 

[NedieNed]

Bumping the thread to the top. Any advices will be greatly appreciated.

 

[dk1180]

[FONT=&quot]You can also tell Google about the geo targeting area in webmaster tools.

I've heard about trying to get links from websites that have their IP in the country you want to get ranked in. But not sure how effective this second idea is.
[/FONT]

 

[IamNRE]

Its also good to get site wide links from the country you want to rank in.

I.e contact webmasters that have a .FR domain and ask them to put your link in the footer for 12 months for like 30 Euro or something (depending on what their PR. is)

 

[seoguy81]

Try looking for country specific blog networks.. ex: libero.it has a free blog section. While auto posting hasn't evolved much for such country/language specific sites, posting the excerpt and linking to your main site helps.

Country specific wikipedia links.. Nothing to do with backlinks, but noticed country specific wiki pages are lot less competitive thus increasing the chances of getting your links stuck much higher. Makes for a good traffic.

 

[stimpo321]

Hi NedieNed thanks for the reply to my thread. i to am interested in translating a website to french. im based in UK and to my understanding it would be ok to host french website in uk, i currently host about 30 websites in america and they all rank well in google UK and bnot so good in google.com

 

[SEORasta]

All good points and thanx nedie for this link...Lets keep this thread up with tips to help outside of Google US

 

[blackhatbeginner2010]

I think the most important factor on this would be to make sure your site is HOSTED and domain registered with the IP being in your target country and having that countries TLD like .us .. and having backlinks in the language youre targeting too

 

[YenSync]

For non-US English sites it best to always add a lang attribute to the html tag to set the default language of your page.
This helps in getting categorized properly by the search engines.
There are many more reasons to declare the page language, but let's just say it's best practice.
Warning: do not use the meta element with http-equiv set to Content-Language.
Again: declare the language in the html tag. Important !
This is very easy to implement, and I've had great results with this.

 

[SEORasta]

For non-US English sites it best to always add a lang attribute to the html tag to set the default language of your page.
This helps in getting categorized properly by the search engines.
There are many more reasons to declare the page language, but let's just say it's best practice.
Warning: do not use the meta element with http-equiv set to Content-Language.
Again: declare the language in the html tag. Important !
This is very easy to implement, and I've had great results with this.

What do you do when the language is English but client is in the UK? If they have hosting in the UK, a .co.uk domain then if I build links as i would normally for a site will it help at all for Google.co.uk even if none of the links are on a co.uk site.

 

[fuzzy_corleone]

good thread

 

[Top1position]

You can also tell The google about the geo concentrating on position in webmaster sources. I've noticed about trying to get backlinks from websites that have their IP in the country you want to get ranked in. But not sure how effective this second idea is.

 

[milian]

What do you do when the language is English but client is in the UK? If they have hosting in the UK, a .co.uk domain then if I build links as i would normally for a site will it help at all for Google.co.uk even if none of the links are on a co.uk site.

Doesn't matter, you dont need links from that country, or hosting from that country. Just a county TLD, or geo target a generic TLD to that country in GWT.


I target specific countries but have never built links from other sites from that country. Just link build as normal.