For many businesses, it makes sense to target traffic from specific countries.
But, how do we do that?
There are many factors that can help you to get country-specific traffic. For example, ShoutMeLoud is a popular blog in India & also globally.
I could actually work on targeting more U.S.-based traffic, but whenever I iterate my blogging business plan, I realize that it’s better to target an Indian audience as it provides less competition and a better supply: demand ratio.
There are very few blogs in India that teaches how to make money from blogging in a practical manner.
In this video, I will share some ideas that are likely to help you improve the traffic from your target country.
7 Ways Of Driving Country-Specific Website Traffic:
1. Domain Name Extension
Top level domain extensions like .com and .org usually rank higher on global search engines, but in order to have your blog or website target a specific country, buying a country-specific domain is always a good idea.
You may notice that most Aussie bloggers are using the .au domain extension, and they rank pretty high in Australian Google.
Similarly for India, you can target .in or .co.in as your domain extensions with good results in India. For traffic from the U.K. (United Kingdom), grab a .co.uk domain extension for the best results.
In an effort to preserve your brand, you can also buy other TLDs like .com or .org. But one major disadvantage of this idea is that you will find it very hard to rank on other country-specific search engines.
So, if your goal is clear and you know your target audience, a country-specific domain extension is your best bet.
2. Google Search console Geo-Targeting
Google search console, a free tool from Google for bloggers and webmasters, will be very helpful to a blogger or webmaster seeking country-specific traffic. This tool allows you to set which country your website is targeted to, which helps you get traffic from that targeted country.
Here is to use the country targeting feature of search console.
Login to Google search console
Click on international targeting under legacy tools and reports
Now, on the next page specify which country you wish to target.
3. Web Hosting Server Location
Another significant factor in driving geo-targeted traffic is your server location. If your target country for traffic is the U.S. (United States), you will want to host your website on U.S.-based servers. If you’re targeting traffic from Australia, host your website on Australian servers.
Example:
U.S.-based servers: Bluehost, SiteGround
India-based servers: A2Hosting
Europe server: SiteGround, Kinsta
Other factors like CDNs also help to speed up your website in different countries, but in order to remain focused on your target, host your website only in the country whose traffic you’re targeting.
This will ensure that your website will load faster in that country due to the server’s IP, and search engines bots will be able to determine the location of your server.
All of this will help your site to rank higher in your target country.
4. Backlinks
When Google Search was launched, they used backlinks to determine the popularity of content. Much has changed over time, but the importance of backlinks remains significant. For this reason, it is a good idea to target country-specific backlinks.
For example, if your target audience is in the U.K., try to get more backlinks from U.K.-based websites.
You can get country-based backlinks by taking advantage of guest blogging opportunities, or by spending some time learning the art of blog commenting. Both methods are proven and Penguin-safe… if done properly.
5. Content Level Targeting
Your content is the main signal that Google uses to determine which country you are targeting. If you are targeting multiple countries with your generic domain name extension (.com, .org), add the country’s name in your posts’ meta titles and descriptions. This will not only make your content more keyword-targeted, but it will also give a clear signal that you are targeting a specific country.
Additionally, the kind of content and language you are using in your articles will also determine the ranking of your website.
We all know that readability is a known SEO factor, and if your language is following Indian standards, targeting U.S. traffic will be very difficult. For this reason, you need to be sure to improve your language for the specific country whose traffic you’re targeting.
You can also hire writers or editors from that specific country who have excellent writing and grammatical skills in that country’s language.
6. Local SEO Using Google my business
This may not apply to a generic blog, but if you are running a service blog or an e-commerce website, Google business is going to be very handy.
Claim your business in Google business, and add all related information such as an address, phone number, etc.
This will help Google to determine the location of your
