Geo-targeting: How to drive country specific traffic

Even though there are many known ways to drive traffic to one’s website, the influence of country specific traffic is huge. For instance, traffic from the US and UK converts better in terms of sales and advertising owing to the purchasing power of the people in these countries. While one can easily buy country specific traffic, a blog is perhaps the most reliable method. Here are some more helpful strategies when looking to buy country specific traffic.

Domain name

High level domain name extensions like .com and .org often rank higher globally in search indices. However, in order to have a website or blog target a specific country, it might be useful to buy a country specific domain. For instance, most Australian bloggers favor the .au extension, ranking very high in the Australian searches. The same is true for India and the UK, where .uk and .in are popular and effective. However, one disadvantage with this is that one will find it hard ranking in other countries, so their goals when targeting that country should be very clear.

Google webmaster geotargeting tool

This is a free tool for webmasters and bloggers and is very useful when seeking country specific traffic. The tool allows one to set which country they want their website to target, and subsequently get traffic from the said country. Simply log in, verify the website and under the configuration settings, specify which country the website is to target.

Server location

The location of one’s server might also be useful in driving geo-targeted website traffic. If the target market is the US, for instance, one will want to host their website on servers within the US. Targeting traffic from Australia, then the ideal server location should be in the country. While other factors and tools like CDN can speed up one’s website in different countries, hosting the website only in the target country will ensure it loads faster within that country. Search engine bots will also be able to determine the server’s location, helping rank the site higher in the country whose traffic is targeted.

Backlinks

One of the original features of Google search at launch was the use of backlinks to determine content popularity. While a lot has changed since, the significance of backlinks still remains. It is therefore important to target country specific backlinks. For instance, with the UK as a target area. Getting backlinks from websites based in the UK will drive popularity numbers in that particular country. One can leverage the advantages of country specific backlinks by taking advantage of opportunities to guest blog and learning the art of blog commenting. When done safely, both can be penguin safe for one’s website.

Content level targeting

Content is the main signal used by Google to determine the country one targets. Those targeting many countries should consider adding their country’s names in posts and meta-titles. Additionally, the language and readability of the content will also determine its ranking.

Google places

This is especially useful for those running e-commerce sites or blogs. Claiming one’s business on Google places will certainly be helpful in driving local traffic. Another useful technique is to create social media profiles.

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