See which organic keywords actually drive conversions
Replace (not provided) with actual keywords and monitor their specific performance metrics in Google Analytics.
Utilizing Google Search Console’s international targeting feature, also known as “geotargeting,” can hurt search rankings if you’re trying to reach a wide audience.
This topic is discussed in during the Google Search Central SEO office hours hangout recorded on December 31.
An SEO named Aleem Bawany joins the livestream to ask Google Search Advocate John Mueller why a smaller sister site is outranking his main site.
Bawany says the main site publishes news content for a general audience, which is sometimes republished on the sister site.
Despite the main site being the source of the news, it’s the smaller site that achieves more favorable rankings.
After looking at the site, Mueller says this could be happening because of the international targeting settings in Search Console.
See Mueller’s full response in the section below.
How Geotargeting Can Negatively Impact Rankings
Mueller personally looked at the site and ruled out any major issues that could hold the site back in search results, such as manual penalties or spammy links.
What he did happen to notice is the site’s international targeting settings in Search Console are set up for Pakistan.
That’s fine if the primary goal is to rank in Pakistan, but it could adversely impact rankings in other countries.
Mueller states:
“The one thing I did...
Read Full Story: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-search-console-geotargeting-can-hurt-search-rankings/431655/
Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.
