Organic Rankings for the US & Australia

[NickMacario]

I have a site that is ranking well for competitive keywords in the US, but would like to have it rank in Australia as well.  Although there's no direct correlation, I'm running large Adwords campaigns in both countries.  I've read to write localized content for each region, but not sure if this is effective as it used to be.  I've also read to use location markup and microformats.  Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance

[jeremycbray]

Hi Nicholas,

as an Australian, I know that it is very important for me to rank very well for search engine optimisation and search engine optimization for my international clients. Make sure you localise and not localize.

localisation is integral here both with the search engines and with the sales process.

As a matter if interest have you thought of split testing a new domain or sub domain with web master tools set up differently? Also are you displaying any business location?

Jerem

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[JamesNorquay]

The thing with Google Australia is that it tends to favor the following things, I have worked in the Australian and US markets for a long time so I see this day in day out.

1. A website which is using a local domain .com.au or .net.au - Australian specific domain names (if you are running off a .com domain make a sub folder or sub domain for the region.

2. Website which is hosted locally in Australia (not as important as above)

3. Local pages and content based for each specific region example - Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane based content driven pages. (From recent testing Google seems to be placing some focus on local based content for each specific region)

4. Local links and citations also help the overall process.

[MichaelYork]

Hi Nicholas,

It also depends if you are trying to rank for localised terms or localised variations in the Australian market. If so this will require some on page content optimisation and tweaking. Also look at building your SEO back-linking program from domestic sources i.e. .com.au/Australian directories etc.

You really just need to put your head in the space of "What would I do if I were an Australian business"
.

Hope this is of some assistance.

[NickMacario]

All feedback was very helpful. Thanks guys!