Does Local SEO affect international ranking ability?

[jamesjackson]

I'm 90% sure that local SEO doesn't have an affect on international rankings (it doesn't logically make sense that it would) but I wondered if someone could verify that assertion for me, either from experience or by pointing me in the direction of a resource/article that states it.

Have searched high and low but can't find anything

thanks

j

[SimonCullum]

Hi James

The short answer is 'yes and no'.

Solely Local SEO doesn't usually affect International SEO at face value, as local is local and international is everywhere, as I think you already know from your question description (though read on below...)

However, just about any aspect of SEO can affect the SEO of a webpage and a website from the overall bigger perspective. There are lots of common factors between local and international SEO, as well as some differences. For one website that is trying to cater for both, there will be compromises to be made in some instances, plus some advanced SEO to take care of too.

You'll find  http://searchengineland.com/local-seo-international-seo-have-lots-in-common-47937  an interesting and helpful read on this topic.

An example, an IP Address can have a different effect on local SEO efforts than International efforts (i.e. location of where the website is hosted).

There are language differences, user behaviour differences...

I'd suggest reading that article and then figure out who you're targeting, where and how.  The answer could end up in needing more than 1 website, subdomains for different geo-locations, a site/cms language translator...

Hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

[jamesjackson]

Hi Simon,

Thanks for the detailed answer, very helpful.

If I can give you a specific example, it would be great to get your thoughts:

I work for a London based tour company. Our main market is in the US (and our server is hosted there, which I am loathed to change as our rankings there are good).

We want to optimise for local search on 'london tours' but without affecting our US rankings. We'll use all the standard local ranking factors, but our server will remain in the US. Can you see any specific issues around us wanting to rank for local searches but on a primarily international basis?

thanks

j

[SimonCullum]

Hi James, you're welcome, am glad to have helped. I agree it's important to maintain your current US rankings as your target audience are initially in the US (before they travel over here on vacation). ~ To cater for local search in London on your existing website, I'd suggest creating a Local page for 'London Tours' or similar. Within this page, include some local content, such as a local address of a booking office if you have one, a local telephone number, some content based around the location of these tours, such as the West End, Westminster... Make sure that this page can be easily navigated to from the homepage. Inbound links from other local businesses, review sites etc will help the page to get noticed and recognised as an authoritative page for London tours. If you can include this new local page as a listing in Google Places that will likely help, you should be able to as the business really does operate from the location of London, those local details will be essential for this. ~ Hope some of that may help you further. Regards, Simon