Optimising for two countries

[markwes]

I have a UK-based client, with a global product,  who wants his website optimised for the same keywords in Google US and Google UK.

Should I treat this as two separate jobs in any way or does it make no difference? I'm particularly wondering about link building and onsite optimisation

[JonoAlderson]

Hello!

Unfortunately, the answer is very much "it depends"; on the client, their product, their market, and to a degree, how your commercial relationship with them is set up.

Let's explore some key elements, and hopefully, you can factor some of that back into a decision on how you'd like to proceed with them.

• The UK and US are different markets, with different demand, different consumer behaviours, sizes, and competitors. The same keyword in both territories might have a very different competitive landscape, depending on all of these factors.
• Furthermore, your link profile (vs your competitors') likely varies similarly; if you've no local relevance, you're likely going to struggle. You'll be competing against specific local competitors, as well as larger global companies, on multiple fronts.
• Real-world factors will affect you, too. If your product/service is in the UK, how well does it compete against local offerings - particularly in terms of delivery (time, costs), availability (opening hours, response time), etc?
• How well-supported is international targeting on the website? Do you have a different section for each territory (e.g., example.com/us/), and is the website set up with correct hreflang tagging?

In a nutshell, it'll definitely take more work and time to get everything set up, to scale any monitoring and reporting you're doing, and to grow your competitive footprint in both territories.

However, there are economies of scale; you'll have a better understanding of the marketplace overall, and any content or marketing you do could (in some scenarios) benefit both territories. From a billing perspective, I'd expect it to make more sense to run it as a single, large project, rather than as multiple projects.

Hopefully this is helpful; let me know if youve any questions which we haven't explored!