Expert offers regional SEO tips

10/09/2008

There are a number of tactics businesses can deploy when refining search engine optimisation (SEO) campaigns for regional websites.

This is according to Aaron Wall of the SearchNewz blog, who noted that Google's various country-specific search services display results differently compared with those on Google.com.

It is a good idea to obtain a local domain name extension and specify which country the website is associated with in Google Webmaster Tools, he advised.

Listing local contact information on the website could also help, as could hosting the site on a local server, although this does not necessarily mean that hosting regional sites on a server in another country will impact on search rankings, Mr Wall said.

Other SEO advice included using the right spelling and language for that specific part of the world, getting listed in local directories and issuing location-focused press releases.

The Google search engine is currently available in more than 100 global languages.