Opening Up Webmaster Tools Geo-Targeting to Everyone Instead of US

[SylviaH]

Hi Mozzers,

I wanted to get everyone's opinion on this.  We have an e-commerce site that was targeting 3 different geo-locations.  The main one is a .com.  The other two were Canada and UK based.  We recently turned off our Canada site and 301 to the .com.  The .com site had been targeted towards United States in Google Webmaster Tools.

Should I remove the Webmaster Tools geo-targeting now that Canada is pointing towards our main site?  I don't want to lose rankings for US since that is our main market and the .com site is our main revenue driver and focus.  I'm inclined to leave it as is because I still see our .com site ranking when I search in Google CA.  From what I've seen is that it can take months for something to change and I definitely don't want anything to go awry.

Just wanted to get everyone's thoughts on this.  Thanks in advance.

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

If you're still seeing Canada rankings and you haven't switched off the targeting, I wouldn't worry too much about it. You won't hurt anything by turning it off, but if nothing has changed and you're still seeing your old site's rankings in Canada, I wouldn't worry too much about it. You can always experiment and see what happens turning off the targeting; track carefully and keep an eye on rankings. If something goes wrong (which I highly doubt it will), switch it back. Either way, you should be fine!

Hope this helps! Good luck!

[SylviaH]

That's what I'm hoping for since I still see them there.  Thanks for your input.