You can now tell Google what country/region your site targets
Just caught this on Sphinn this morning. According to ex-Googler Vanessa Fox, Google has introduced a way for webmasters to inform them what country their site should be associated with. This is an important feature and can influence the way Google ranks your site.To use this tool, simply login to your Webmaster Tools account and follow the instructions in Vanessa's post.
This is a great addition to Webmaster Tools and should solve a LOT of the webmaster questions I've been getting on this blog about regional domain issues and how to tell Google about a site's geographic market.
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Labels: domain names, google webmaster tools, regional domains
2 Comments:
Tell me more... Why does this matter? I have noticed the option in Webmaster tools. By selecting this does it mean Google will give our site more credibility? Will it keep our non target audience out? Does it really make a difference?
It's only really important to companies that have dot com sites that are targeting markets outside the US. For example, I have a client who runs a training school in New Zealand. Their web site ends in dot com and they target a global market, with their main market being New Zealand. This Google tool enables them to specify to Google that New Zealand is their primary market and so their site should be given prominence in the search results shown to New Zealand searchers.
Before this tool came along, Google would automatically *assume* that they were targeting the US market primarily, because their domain ends in dot com. Make sense?
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