Today’s tip was submitted by Umair Asif
Google has already started integrating local search results into the main page of regional search engines. Few US users may have noticed it, but it has huge implications for webmasters and SEO experts outside the United States. Here is how it may look for someone searching in Ireland…
Notice local search results moving into the main page. The point I want to make is how this has leveled the playing field for local webmasters as they may only have to compete for a few thousand web pages in order for them to show on the Google main page.
Take an example of a webmaster in Ireland. Anyone targeting the keyword ‘antique books’ may only need to optimize their website for local search results by competing with a mere 37,000 web pages and Google will do the rest by filtering top results to the main Google result page.
In order to make sure that your website appears in the results, don’t be tempted by hosting domains in another country, instead find a local host. It is necessary because Google rely on IP address of the web searcher to present results. If your website is hosted in another country, it may not be considered a local website.
Here is a nice article explaining how to appear in Google’s local search results. I acknowledge that regional traffic is less than global search queries but getting a good position on the main pages of regional search engines far outweighs any drawbacks.
There’s no real need to host locally. You can set the country in webmaster tools and it will appear in local search results. Been using this successfuly for quite some time now.
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The russian google (google.ru) offers an option to search for “pages in russian” not “pages from russia”. I believe it’s also true for japanese, thai etc. (non-english) versions.
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Here in Brazil also there is the option to search for “pages in portuguese”. In Google Brasil (google.com.br), also, is already geotargeted, not showing in relevant positions pages from Portugal or from other countries. For my keywords, for instance, monografia and TCC, also the same in spanish language, only brazilian sites are shown. However, Google considers as brazilian website all pages that have the tag , no matter where the website is hosted.
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thanks about information
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good start. make sure you register your biz with google biz directory. add as much info as you can. and be sure to register with as many other local biz directories as possible (yellow pages, city data etc) for maximum benefit.
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In Google Webmaster tools Geographic target there is an explanation how to work with the localized search.
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Interesting point on hosting! I never thought it mattered until I was in Europe recently and anywhere I would log in and sign up it will bring my country as something different. Will have to check on it. Thanks for pointing this out. Happy Holidays!
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I find myself increasingly looking at Google local results to gain extra traffic.
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Interesting info I think I will look into listing locally for my business soon.
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Good information about local optimization. Now i searching this way. Thanks.
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Ya, Local search results will be very handful for small business. So now its better to optimize your business site for a specific geographical location. Thanks for sharing.
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yes..local search will be a major role in SEO.
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Great tips indeed. I was thinking that its quite difficult and different to optimize website for a local seach results, But your article quite helps me. Thank You
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