Webmasters working on a website’s Google Search Console (formerly Webmasters Tools) always come across setting International Target of that website. And the big question that runs in their mind is to whether or not set the Geographic target to a particular country or not.
What is Setting International Targeting in Search Console?
Google Search Console allows a website to set a target geographic location to emphasize on the traffic from that location.
By setting international targeting to a particular country you are indicating Google that;
…the content on your website is more suitable for the target audience of the selected location.
When you select a country while setting international targeting the content on your website will not be of much importance or priority to other parts of the World.
How to set International Targeting in Search Console?
Steps to set target Geographic Location in the old Search Console:
- Log in to Google Search Console
- Select the website (property) from the dropdown that you want to set target location for
- Select Search Traffic > International Targeting from the left side menu
- Click on the “Country” tab
- Select the region you want to target or select “unlisted” and Save your selection
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If you have some trouble setting up the target location then contact your SEO service provider to assist you in setting up the location.
Does Setting International Targeting affect SEO?
International Targeting is not a direct Google Ranking Factor. But it certainly does impact your website’s search engine rankings.
When you set the geographic targeting to a particular Country then Google gives your website a boost in rankings when a query is raised from that location.
Having this said, other ranking factors like On Page SEO, Off Page SEO, Mobile SEO, Responsive Web Design etc are also considered in ranking your website on the SERPS.
Before digging in deep into setting international targeting let us first understand what is TLD, ccTLD and gTLD.
TLD – Top Level Domain
The last part in a domain name is referred as a Top-level domain (TLD). Simplistically it can be understood as the part after the dot(.) in a domain name.
TLDs are further sorted into two categories:
- generic TLDs (gTLD) and
- country-specific TLDs (ccTLD).
Most common examples of TLDs are .com, .in, .org, .net, .gov, .biz and .edu.
Generic TLD (gTLD)
As the name suggests they are General TLDs, suggesting no geographic location or region in particular. This makes gTLDs the most preferred and popular types of Top Level Domains.
Some of the common examples of gTLDs are; .com, .info, .net, .org etc.
Country code top-level domain (ccTLD)
The name itself is self-explanatory. A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is a TLD which is generally used or reserved for a particular target location.
This location can be a country, a state, or even a territory identified with a country code.
Examples of a ccTLD are; .asia, .au, .in etc.
Who Should Enable International Targeting?
As per Google International Targeting is beneficial to you only if you are targeting a particular location.
To elaborate further, let us assume that your website is in “Hindi” language and it targets the audience in India. In this case it’s best advised to set the geographic location to India in the search console.
This way you signal Google that your website is of more importance to the users in India. Hence when a user searches for a related query from Asia, Google may boost your search engine ranking.
But, if your website is in a general language like “English” and does not target any location in particular then its best to leave the target as “unlisted”. This way Google understands that your website has information of use for the users worldwide.
In what scenarios should you select International Targeting?
Scenario #1 – When you are targeting particular markets with TLDs
If you have Top Level Domains pointing to a particular country code (ccTLD) the its a best practice to assign a target location respective to the Country.
For eg:
www.example.com – (gTLD) – Unlisted (do not select any location)
www.example.it – (ccTLD) – Set International Target Location to Italy
www.example.au – (ccTLD) – Set International Target Location to Australia
Scenario #2 – When you are targeting particular markets with subdomain
If your website has subdomains or sub folders targeting to specific locations, then set the international target to the sub-folders only.
For eg:
www.example.com – (gTLD) – Unlisted (do not select any location)
–>it.example.com – (sub-folder) – Set International Target Location to Italy
–>au.example.com – (sub-folder) – Set International Target Location to Australia
In the above example the example website has two sub-folders – it.example.com and au.example.com. Therefore the gTLD will NOT be pointing to any specific location. And its sub-folders will be setting international targeting to respective countries.
Scenario #3 – When you are a local business targeting multilingual audience within your country
If your business website has multilingual content for multilingual audiences in your country then instead of adding different countries for different languages. Just add the target local country on the main domain.
For eg:
www.example.ca – (ccTLD) – Set International Target Location to Canada
–>www.example.ca/fr/ – Unlisted (Set target on the domain level)
–>www.example.ca/es/ – Unlisted (Set target on the domain level)
In the above example a website example.ca has content in two different languages to suit their local multilingual users. Therefore, just set the geographic location for the main domain to Canada. And for the language specific domains set the target on the domain level only.
This is because if you will set the target location to France for example.ca/fr/ then Google will not understand that this setting is for French speaking users in Canada.
When should you not assign International Target?
If your aim is to target the users Worldwide then assigning a particular country in Search Console is not a good idea.
Although by assigning a country you will experience a boost in rankings from that country, but it will cost you much more. The bounce rate of your website will increase because it will be demoted for the rest of the world.
Let us understand this in details with an example.
As per the above example let us assume that a Website has 100,000 searches globally for a web page. And this leads to us assuming that the same web page will have around 10,000 searches in a particular country.
This means that by restricting the website to a particular country you are restricting its access and exposure to lesser queries.
While the CTR can be high in your selected country, because of a better ranking positions. But again the percentage of exposure in just one country is way less as opposed to the whole world (10,000<100,00).
Whereas if your target audience are global and you have not selected any location preference then Google will spread your search appearance and ranking in different countries. Therefore you get a high chance to get more leads and more traffic from all over the world.
Opt for “Unlisted” i.e. do not select any location in the search console if your target is to rank better globally.
You must not play hit and trial with setting international targeting. It can harm your website’s SEO rankings drastically. And it has been noticed that it takes several months or more time for the previous rankings to show up.
Therefore set up a geographic location only and only if your website targets a particular language/region/country.
Should technical bloggers assign a Geographic Target?
No, it is not recommended.
This is due to the reason that knowledge sharing is not restricted to a particular country. For example; if someone writes about WordPress Website Designing, then the content in it will hold true for USA, UK, India and other countries too.
Summary of Setting International Targeting
As it is clear from the above facts a website owner should only select a particular country if the content in that website really caters to one specific country only.
But if a website caters globally then its best advised to not assign any country in the search console.
If you have any doubt regarding setting up International targeting then you can reach our SEO Agency in India to assist setting it up for you.
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