Geographic Targeting Feature

[COA]

Inside Google Webmaster Tools is the Geographic target feature.  Am I wise to change it from it's default setting ?

The Geographic Targeting is a great feature that allows you to link your website to a particular location/country. It should be used only when a website targets to users from a particular country and when it does not really make sense to attract visitors from other countries.

I have a site that ONLY is applicable to the UK.

MY QUESTION

Will I do more damage by setting the geographic location to UK, and so down grade my Google ranking in general. Or It's best to inconvenience none-UK geographical users and then NOT impact any google rankings holistically.

I'm thinking of switching from the default webmaster geographical setting to the UK only. Good decision based on my site only being in the UK?

Thanks in advance for any reply
Robert

[Antony_Towle]

Robert,

From my experience we have set our targeting to UK and have as long as i can remember as we are a UK company, with a .co.uk website,

I think Google see's it as more of a guideline, as this targeting has never held us back internationally as roughly 60% of our traffic comes from worldwide and we rank well in the states particularly,

My advice is to go ahead and target UK especially if the website is only applicable to UK

Hope this helps

James

[COA]

thanks James, that's the kind of confidence I was looking for ;->

I must be misunderstanding something here... well it is google. I though that when I limit a .com to the UK only, then that preference would only allow my customers to see me in, well... the UK.

It seems based on your experience that you still get shown in the US, so what's the point in making it UK specific. That's quite a  guideline. We may never know...

thanks, I'll dive in. Hold my towel won't you.

Robert

[David-Kley]

They only use that as a guideline, not to establish ranking. Your content will speak louder than any webmaster setting as to where you are located, along with the rest of your citations.

[COA]

thank you for taking the time to help David