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Hi Guido,

This sort of issue isn't unusual unfortunately - however, just so you know I suspect that your location is affecting the results you're seeing - as when I search Google.com from here in the UK I'm seeing your English content ranking. However, when I search Google.es I'm seeing your Catalan content ranking so either way there are a few issues.

I suspect (although I can't be 100% sure) - that part of the issue is the Catalan vs Spanish content - as they do also speak Catalan in parts of Spain - it may be that Google is struggling to figure out which is the best content to display. There are two things that you can do:

1. Set up geo-targeting via webmaster tools (if you haven't already done so) - there's a good guide here: http://www.seo-chicks.com/1463/geotargeting-on-the-same-domain-using-xml-sitemaps.html

NB - you can only do this if you are targeting specific countries - not languages. If for example you want to attract UK and US English visitors then do not implement this.

2. Implement hreflang if your content is duplicate (i.e. it's the same content but in different languages):

In terms of implementation you need to place the tag on all versions of the page -

So on http://yourdomain.com/page-whatever you'd need:

So on http://yourdomain.com/page-whatever you'd need:

http://yourdomain.com/en/page-whatever; />

http://yourdomain.com/es/page-whatever; />

Like the rel="alternate" tag you need to put the canonical tag on every page of your .ie site pointing to the relevant page on your .co.uk site. You should also put the canonical tag on the .co.uk site pointing to itself - e.g.:

So on http://yourdomain.co.uk/page-whatever you'd need:

http://yourdomain.ie/page-whatever; />

http://yourdomain.ie/page-whatever - you'd need:

http://yourdomain.ie/page-whatever; />

Hey Lewis,

If they'd used your infographic without credit or attributed credit elsewhere then you'd absolutely be within your rights to ask for attribution. However in this instance as they've given you the appropriate credit there's nothing you can do (whether the link is no-followed or not).

Whilst clearly a followed link would be great I'd strongly advise that you don't pursue this aggressively. You've not said whether or not they routinely no-follow all outbound links on the site but this may just be their policy. Moreover you really don't want to end up upsetting or alienating what could be a great contact in the future.

This is still definitely a win

Hi Christine,

Apologies for the delayed response

Ranking in the UK with a .com shouldn't be an issue; there are many sites which use a .com and rank perfectly well in the UK. As such I don't think you should be considering going down the .co.uk route.

You mention that you've geo-targeted via webmaster tools which is great, but there are some other things I'd also recommend that you do (if you're not already). These aren't ranking factors per se, however they will help the search engines to better understand the location that you're targeting.

1. Include a UK bricks and mortar address

2. Include a UK phone number

3. Claim / create your business Google Places

4. Ensure prices are in £s

I'd also be happy to take a closer look if you'd like to share your domain and the keyword which you're looking to target.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hey,

It really depends on what you're looking to do - are you wanting to actively trade via those other ccTLDs?

For example - with your .co.uk; do you have the ability to offer your product in the UK? If so, then it's absolutely fine to set up as a separate site.

However, if you're just going to replicate your current site you will need to do a little work to avoid that content being seen as duplicate.

You can geo-target via webmaster tools see - http://www.seo-chicks.com/1463/geotargeting-on-the-same-domain-using-xml-sitemaps.html

You can also implement rel-alternate hreflang via your sitemaps see - http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/multilingual-and-multinational-site.html

As Fidelityim says - I'd also recommend you including other signals e.g.

• Local phone numbers
• Local bricks and mortar addresses
• Local currency

This helps the search engines understand where you're trying to target.

Please note, that whilst this activity will help in terms of geo-targeting your content in order to actually rank in these countries you'll likely need to do some link building for each of these sites too.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Danielle,

There was a hangout with Pierre Far which might be helpful to you - https://plus.google.com/115984868678744352358/posts/9zA3a96XahN

There he speaks pretty extensively about how to implement this.

I guess it's important to note that this tag is designed for use when you have duplicate content - e.g. the same content in English for say UK / US / Australia etc and/or translated content e.g. English content, French content etc.

My understanding is that if your content isn't duplicate - i.e. you have unique content for each market then the use of this tag isn't appropriate.

I'm also not sure if this will help your less established international sites in real terms - I'm guessing that the issue might be that they lack the raw link strength to rank as opposed to it being a geo-targeting issue.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hello there,

In an ideal world I would recommend (wherever possible) that completely different content is created for UK / US / Canadian markets.

I recommend this mainly because there are a lot of differences in consumer behaviour. Although we all speak English, the English we speak, the way we search, the messaging we respond to etc is different.

Obviously the option to create separate content isn't open to everyone (budgets, resources, etc). As such, if you can't stretch to creating separate content for each market I'd probably go with the rel=alternate hreflang implementation.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Whilst one would hope that Google pay attention to geo-targeting via Webmaster Tools, in my experience it makes no material difference to rankings - either in your desired target or elsewhere.

There's been some debate as to whether or not it only influences 'Pages from the UK' (or whatever your chosen target) - however I've not seen proof it actually influences that either.

In short, if you geo-target via webmaster tools you're not blocking visitors via any other locations.

That said - it is worth noting (as I've alluded to above) geo-targeting via Webmaster tools isn't particularly effective in terms of actually establishing a geographic target for your website. As such if you're serious about establishing a geographic target this might not be the best way.

Sorry! Misunderstood you

Yes, you could launch a .com.au but even if you have created Australian content I'd probably still be inclined to implement rel-alternate-hreflang annotations in your sitemaps; as the content will still likely be very similar.

The only issue with this is that your new domain won't have much in the way of link equity so it still might not rank without some link building effort on your part.

A further alternative would be to get yourself a generic domain like a .com and split into subfolders - /uk and /au. You'd then only have one site to build links to rather than two...

However the process of migrating from your .co.uk to your .com (and the potential to lose rankings whilst the search engines figure out what you're doing) might make this option unattractive.

I guess I'm saying launching the .com.au is probably quicker, cleaner and less risky but be aware you'll probably need to do some link building too.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Jose,

Are you talking about doing an IP redirect to country-specific URLs? Or changing the content displayed based on the user's IP?

If so, I don't really like either of those options - automatically redirecting a user based on IP can cause issues in terms of indexation as Google crawl via a US IP, and if you're not careful US content is all they'll be able to see.

Similarly if you're talking about dynamically delivering page content based on IP - again you're likely to have indexation problems as Google may only be able to crawl and index US content; plus (more importantly) I've seen sites penalised in the past for doing this sort of thing.

If you want to direct visitors to the most appropriate content I quite like the approach that Cheap Flights use - if you visit cheapflights.com from a UK IP you're pushed to this page - http://www.cheapflights.com/workers/profile-select.aspx?sref=CFUK&redirect=GeoIP&geoip=GB&cfref=CFUS&spt=Home&rp=/

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Google don't look at Bing for their results

About a year ago Google complained that Bing were copying their results - http://searchengineland.com/google-bing-is-cheating-copying-our-search-results-62914 - but really that's an aside.

That said, in an ideal world I would also still recommend (wherever possible) that completely different content is created for UK and US markets.

Partially to dodge the duplicate content bullet (although with href lang it looks like this isn't going to be so much of an issue any more); but mainly because there are a lot of differences between UK and US consumers. Although we both speak English, the English we speak, the way we search, the messaging we respond to is different.

Obviously the option to create separate content isn't open to everyone (budgets, resources, etc). As such, if you can't stretch to creating separate content for each market I'd probably go with the hreflang implementation.

However it is important to note that all that really deals with is the duplicate content - if your pages aren't strong enough then they still won't rank, so you'll need to think about building links to these pages too.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hey Rob,

In short, no - this set up shouldn't cause you problems from a duplicate content perspective. The search engines (broadly speaking) understand that content intended for different geographic locations shouldn't be considered duplicate.

Are you having issues in terms of Google ranking the correct content in each location? (I.E. - does your Irish content rank on google.ie?).

If not, you might consider implementing hreflang - see this post by Aleyda for further information.

Thanks

Hannah

Hello there,

Automating title tags and meta descriptions as you've described above shouldn't cause you any problems.The meta keywords tag is redundant (Google don't use it) so I wouldn't bother populating it.

You might like to review these resources for further guidance on title tags and meta descriptions before you go ahead and implement.

Regarding your second question about content, I'd strongly recommend that you don't automate as described above. Having the same content (but just changing the location) is likely to be considered duplicate content by the search engines. I'd strongly recommend that you write unique copy for each page.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

It's perfectly possible to get a .com ranking well in the UK - there are lots of sites that use a .com and rank just fine.

However if time is of the essence (and when is it not?) and you have the .co.uk domain then switching now and building further links to the .co.uk is probably a good option for you

Hi Erick,

First up, it may be worth you reading this to see if there's anything else you can do legally: http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/2014/11/10/when-a-ripoff-report-strikes-your-business-follow-these-steps

You asked if it might be possible to get one of your own interior pages to outrank the Ripoff Report page. The answer is yes, it might be possible, but I suspect it's unlikely. Ripoff Report is a strong domain, and your own site probably isn't strong enough to knock Ripoff Report from the 1st page. Moreover, for a search query like '[brand name] reviews' Google will want to show results from a variety of sites, not just your own. I recognise this is potentially bad for your company, but from a user's perspective it's a better search experience.

If you feel like it's actively damaging your business you might consider hiring a company to help. There are a bunch of agencies who offer reputation management on the Moz recommended companies list here.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hey Dan,

The challenges with international sites are many and varied. The 'best' international strategy really depends on your resources

Here's how I see the advantages / disadvantages of each approach:

Subfolders - ranking may be 'easier' as domain authority is consolidated, but URLs are ugly

The sub-folder approach is often utilised where there's insufficient resource to market and maintain separate international ccTLDs (e.g. .co.uk, .com, .fr etc). The advantage with the subfolder approach is that you're consolidating domain authority - so the links to /en-uk/ (NB do use en-uk NOT en-gb incidentally) pass authority to /en-us/ and vice versa.

You're building one strong site, rather than trying to build two, three (or more) strong sites. However, as you've identified URLs get long and a bit ugly.

ccTLDs - Arguably nicer for users, but might not rank

Conversely, whilst ccTLDs (.co.uk, .com, .fr etc) are nicer from a user's perspective, you may struggle to rank if you're not able to spend sufficient time and resource on marketing and building links to these domains.

If you have the time and resources, I'd probably go down the ccTLD route, but if you don't, then the subfolder route is probably best.

IP redirects

In terms of the IP sniffers etc - be careful

Googlebot typical crawls from the US, and as such is likely to be redirected by your sniffer too. Essentially you're in danger of making any non-US versions invisible as far as Google are concerned. For that reason rather than doing a hard redirect I prefer Amazon's approach - if you visit Amazon.com from a UK IP you'll see a message which says: "Shopping from the UK? Visit Amazon.co.uk.".

That way users get the nudge to direct them to the right site and the bots can still crawl and index all of your content.