Submitted by Helen on June 30, 2009 - 9:09pm
Being a Canadian Internet Marketer, there are two SEO questions that I field frequently which US SEOs may never have heard in their whole careers.
The two questions are:
1. How can I get IN to Google.ca?
2. How can I get OUT of Google.ca?
These two questions are the kind that can cause night sweats and premature grey hair the first time you have to answer them. For those of us who have had, at least once in our careers, to brute strength test the different combinations of factors to figure this out, the answer, of course, is obvious.
A few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to share the stage at SES Toronto with Greg Jarboe, Kerstin Baker-Ash, Andy Atkins-Krüger and Erica Schmidt in the "Internationalizing Your Campaigns & Sites" session.
This session covered a wide variety of different tactics, from site architecture to link neighbourhoods to grammar and spelling.
But what struck me the most was how similar all the presentations were. Almost everyone in the panel covered similar solutions to country-specific SEO. The main factors seem to be the same regardless of which country is in play: Content, Location-specific links, getting listed in Google Local, using country-specific spelling and grammar, using a country-specific domain, and hosting the site on a server located in the country.
What's interesting to me is that I fielded the exact same conversation again today: "We've got to rank in Canada so we need to host the site in Canada, right?", and "we chose the country we're aiming for in Google Webmaster Tools, so we're done, right?"
I would argue, strongly, that the number one signal you can send to the search engine that your content is specific to a country is to host the content on a country-specific domain, and to use location-specific content. Is it necessary to host in the country? I would say generally not, unless you are playing in a high-competition space where every little tiny point helps. Otherwise, I've never seen hosting location have a statistically significant effect.
Domains though... they can make all the difference in the world, and for a very good reason.
Google has always appeared to my eye to be happy to let other people vet their search results. From DMOZ to Yahoo Directory, Google has always given some bonus points to sites that are accepted into a group that has specific standards. IIWG (If I Were Google), country-specific domains would be an important part of that 3rd party vetting process.
In order to get a .ca domain name, you must get through CIRA, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority. To get through CIRA and register a .ca domain name, you must meet the Canadian Presence Requirements for Registrants (Full PDF). It's a longish document but it boils down on a basic level to: You must be a Canadian resident or an organization which has an acceptable Canadian presence.
This vetting process by CIRA is probably one reason why country-specific domain names can have such a powerful effect on whether you rank in a country-specific version of Google, or in the US/Global Google.com site. Why spend time chasing down spelling and link neighbourhoods when this friendly organization is vetting everyone so effectively for free?
Over and over, in a wide variety of industries, I see the same results: sites hosted on a country-specific domain tend to rank better in that country than relatively equal sites on a .com domain.
So if you want to get IN to Google.ca results but you are having trouble, consider using a .ca domain name to HOST your content (yes, that's right - don't just 301 redirect the .ca to the home page of the .com - actually host the content on the .ca).
And if you want to get OUT of Google.ca results and start showing up in front of your US customers, get a .com and host on it! And if you've already done that, then consider all the other factors: Getting links from local US sites, verifying your US addresses in Google Local, using US spelling and grammar, and adding US specific content.
Every site is unique, and every site requires a slightly different approach, but one piece of helpful advice I'm happy to give out for free is to consider where your audience is, and to tailor your domain strategy appropriately.
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so does picking Canada in our google account make us rank better in Canada? Why have this if it doesn't do anything??
If you choose "Canada" in Google WMT as your target audience, it doesn't generally affect the google.ca listings.
What it does is affect searches when people click the "pages from Canada" button.
Hello,
I have been hosting my site on a canadian server host and have been getting primarily google.ca results only. Since then I have changed the host to a US hosted company and my results are dropping in google.ca and gaining in google.com.
I dont care what anyone says but the country and ip location of the server that is hosting you does make a big difference.
I have tested this theory for the past year or so and I am 100% right. If you want to rank in google.ca, host your site in Canada. First hand info here that is correct.
Granted, if you're playing in a high-competition space, sometimes every little factor can help. As with any SEO, it's difficult to draw conclusions unless all the variables have been controlled - which is difficult. For example, the search engine may change how it weights certian signals, you may lose a valuable link or gain a link in a "bad neighbourhood", or your content may change, for example. Or it could be something as simple as your new host being identified as having hosted low-quality or spam sites which may work against your site.
If you change the server back and the rankings come back - without anything else changing - then the ranking changes you're seeing could be due to the hosting. Whether that is a location-based factor or something more basic like a server that hosts other sites that could be hurting your rankings, you'd have to do more research to say for sure.
How do you get a .ca domain which is doing very well in Google.ca to rank stronger in Google.com (for searchers in the US)? Even if we bought the .com we can't just have the same content otherwise we'd have duplicate content concerns.
Choosing the domain TLD for your site/business is a strategic decision, and sometimes not one made easily. If it's critical that you rank well for searchers in the US, you might want to consider moving to the .com instead of the .ca. If that's something you decide to do, it can be a little tricky to make sure that the move goes well. But if US traffic is something that's a big part of your overall marketing plan, it could be worth it to consider making the transition.
Our website (http://www.VancouverWeddingPhotographer.org/) has entirely Canadian content. The other websites that do well in Canada for our main search term (Vancouver Wedding Photographer) are almost all .com, with a rare .ca
We rank much better on .com than on .ca. We were up to number 3 or 4 on .com but we are at 20+ in .ca
The server is in the US, but so are most of our competitors. Our advantage over the competition is that our target search term is our domain name. I would think that that would be huge, but we are having difficulty switching our .com success to .ca
Any suggestions?
Thanks
Any tips for the Do it your Self SEO? I'm new to the game and would like any cool and easy tips on optimization.
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