Story Based Question
Imagine you’re managing a global news website with content targeted to different regions like the US, UK, and Australia. Your content is in English, but you want to ensure that each region sees the most relevant version of your articles in search results. You’ve already set up region-specific versions of your site, but now you need to ensure that Google knows which region to target for each version of your content.
How do you set up geotargeting in Google Search Console to make sure your articles are shown to the right audience in each region?
Exact Answer
To set geotargeting in Google Search Console, you need to use the International Targeting feature. From there, you can select a target country for each version of your site.
Explanation
Google Search Console offers a way to specify which country you want to target with your website’s content. This helps ensure that search engines serve the right version of your site to the appropriate users in their region. Setting geotargeting properly boosts your site’s visibility in local search results and enhances user engagement.
Here’s how to do it:
- Open Google Search Console
Log in to your Google Search Console account and select the property (website) you want to configure. - Navigate to the “International Targeting” Report
In the left-hand sidebar, go to “Legacy tools and reports” and select “International Targeting” under the “Search Appearance” section. - Choose the Target Country
On the International Targeting page, you’ll see the option to set a country target. Choose the “Country” tab, then select the country you want to target from the dropdown menu. - Apply Country Targeting
After selecting the appropriate country for the version of your site, click “Save”. You can repeat this process for different regional versions of your site (e.g., US, UK, Australia). - Use hreflang Tags
In addition to setting geotargeting, make sure your site is using correct hreflang tags to specify regional variations. This helps search engines understand which version of the page to show based on the user’s location and language.
Example
In the story, you manage a global news website with separate versions for the US, UK, and Australia. You want to make sure the right content shows up in search results for users in each country.
- You go into Google Search Console, navigate to International Targeting, and select “Country”.
- For the US version, you target United States.
- For the UK version, you select United Kingdom.
- For the Australian version, you target Australia.
This ensures that when someone in the US searches for one of your articles, they’ll see the US-specific version of the content, while users in the UK or Australia will be shown the appropriate regional version.