Ranking overseas

[onlinechester]

I have a well established website that I market as the busness being based in London, how hard would it be for me to start ranking for phrases in America? (An increasing amount of our work is being carried out in America.) What exactly would it entail?

Thanks in advance.

[OrionGroup]

Is it on a .com or another TLD? What geographical area do you have your Google Webmaster Tools set to target? It might be easier to create a whole new website so you can target each continent separately, especially if you have a co.uk domain.

[Solvari]

That's quite hard to tell without knowing more about the website, keywords etc. Will you target the US with the same website or will you launch a new one?

After you've decided on which keywords you'd like to rank for, start with making an analysis of the keyword difficulty and the competition in the US. Take a look at the metrics of sites that rank well for the keyword you're targeting and have a look at their link profile. Also don't forget to do a little keyword research so you get an idea of the search volumes and can check if users in the US use the same keyword as they do in the UK. This information will give you a better understanding of the market and will allow you to plan and prioritise your SEO efforts better.