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Geotargetting and google.co.uk

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  • 01-12-2010 11:27pm
    #1
    IrishIrish
    Registered Users Posts: 1,000 ✭✭✭


    Hi Lads,

    Set up a new website there last week for the first time for a bit of fun but also to learn and eventually make some money. My domain is a .com domain but I need to target .co.uk entirely as I am unable to ship the products outside the UK anyway. The thing is that in only 4 or 5 days I am ranked 5th in google.com for my main keyword, however I am still way down on google.co.uk

    I have used google webmaster tools to change my geotargetting to the UK but this was only 24 hours ago, does it take a few days to update and will I start seeing results on google.co.uk in the future or what do I need to do in order for me to improve my ranking on google.co.uk?

    Cheers for the help lads.

    Edit: Having read more threads on similar topics in this forum I should state that I am using an american server to host my site. Should I cancel and move to a UK based server? (would rather not if it makes no difference) Could this be the problem or will having changed my Geotargetting to UK rectify this?


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    #2
    tomED
    Registered Users Posts: 1,452 ✭✭✭tomED


    Yeah give Google Webmaster tools sometime - it won't happen immediately.
    If you can, try generate links from UK based websites.

    The results you are getting on .com could be personalised search results. Why not post the term and link to your website so we can see if everyone else is seeing it too.


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    #3
    IrishIrish
    Registered Users Posts: 1,000 ✭✭✭IrishIrish


    Hey Tom, cheers for reply. I've been using a couple of backlink services which I imagine would be majorly american based, are there any UK based backlinking services you would recommend or know of?

    My backlinking service was what told me I had a ranking of 5th and then I used another webmaster tool I found some where which searched my ranking and came back as 5th as well. Then I tried for myself and on www.google.com I was ranking 5th for the search term "Juwel Aquariums", my site is in my sig.

    The thing I found weird about this is I never really tried to get my mainpage ranked for this search term because I was trying to get my individual pages ranked for the specific aquarium model keyword such as "Juwel Rio 180". Would you have any explanation for this?


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    #4
    tomED
    Registered Users Posts: 1,452 ✭✭✭tomED


    Hey IrishIrish

    I wouldn't have a list off the top of my head, but have a look at the uk competition and see where they are getting their links from and work from there.

    I'm not seeing you in the top 10 on Google for that search term, so you must be seeing personalised search results there.

    If you want to target the UK, I'd suggest either hosting or getting a .co.uk domain name - in fact, my rule of thumb is always to do as much as you can and never rely on Webmaster Tools etc! :) But that's just me being pedantic!


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    #5
    IrishIrish
    Registered Users Posts: 1,000 ✭✭✭IrishIrish


    Cheers Tom, I was just thinking I will need to keep my hosting where I am as my future websites will be targetting the American market so best to leave it as it is at the moment. I realise now I should have got a .co.uk domain yeah, there is one I like which is coming up for renewal at the end of January so I will see what happens now.

    I'm not sure how the personalised ranking thing you mention works, as I stated in my OP i'm fairly new to all this. I did access google.com through a proxy as well as having 2 different sites tell me i'm 5th though if that makes a difference? Maybe not.

    One more thing if you dont mind, my url shows up without the www at the start. Do you recommend displaying the www or does it make any difference at all? I just noticed that every other site that comes back in the results (my competition) is displayed as www. and mine isn;t, so might look out of place.

    Cheers again.


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    #6
    tomED
    Registered Users Posts: 1,452 ✭✭✭tomED


    Hey!

    On the location of your server, since you don't want to move host, I'd suggest setting up the webmaster tools equivelant on Yahoo and MSN to make sure they pick you up as being from the UK too.

    In relation to the personalised search - the best thing to do is open an incognito window in Google Chrome (or inPrivate browsing in IE) and run your search there. You should see completely different results.

    The url issue without www - there's nothing wrong with this and the reason it has picked it up this way is most likely because of your links to it. For example, your sig has it without the www.

    If you prefer to keep it without the www. make sure you handle the www. with 301 redirects. So, if Google picks up the www. make Google aware that your main domain name is without the wwww.


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