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 was covered in the Google Search Central SEO office hours hangout on December 31.
Aleem Bawany, an SEO, joins the Livestream to question Google Search Advocate John Mueller about why a smaller sister site is outranking his main site.
According to Bawany, the main site publishes news content for a general audience that is occasionally republished on the sister site.
Even though the main site is the source of the news, the smaller site receives higher rankings.
Mueller believes this is due to the international targeting settings in Search Console after inspecting the site.
Mueller’s full response can be found in the section below.
How Geotargeting Can Negatively Impact Rankings
Mueller examined the site personally and ruled out any major issues that could cause the site to fall behind in search results, such as manual penalties or spammy links.
He did notice, however, that the site’s international targeting settings in Search Console are set to Pakistan.
That’s fine if the primary goal is to rank in Pakistan, but it may harm rankings in other countries.
Mueller states:
“The one thing I did notice is that you have geotargeting set up in Search Console for Pakistan. I don’t know if that’s by design, if that’s something you’re trying to do. If you want to make a general English-speaking news website, then probably it makes sense to turn off the geotargeting. So that might be something that can help you.”
If you want to target a worldwide audience with your website, Mueller says you should “definitely” turn off international targeting in Search Console.
“When it comes to search, if you want to target countries other than Pakistan, like a general English-speaking news site, then I would definitely turn that off. Because that can have an effect there in that it really focuses on Pakistan and then slightly focuses less on other countries.”
Bawany then asks Mueller how long it will take for the change to appear in Google’s search results.
Mueller estimates that it could take anywhere from a week to several months.
Because the site in question publishes news content, the change is likely to be noticed in search results faster than with other types of sites.
“My guess is it will be anywhere from a week or two, to maybe a month or two. So that’s kind of the timeframe that I suspect it takes for something like the geotargeting setting to change.
With regards to a news website, I suspect it’ll be a little bit faster than usual, just because with a news website we would focus on the newer content and with the newer content we would see the setting very quickly.
So probably more on the shorter side for news websites, but I don’t know all of the systems that are involved with geotargeting settings changes.”
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