Thursday, August 21, 2008

How to GEO Target Google to Get Results for Your Global Marketing Plans

When you are ready to expand your website business globally, or want to include other areas of the world outside of the United States, there are a few things to keep in mind. You should know that Google is one of the biggest marketing players in the United States market. But you may not be aware that they also have market shares in other countries as well, and some of those countries they have very substantial shares. Here is a look at some of the other countries that Google has a lot of market share in:

Google Germany – 89.20 %
Google UK – 70.25 %
Google Bulgaria – 90.00 %
Google France – 89.79 %
Google Netherlands - 95.00 %
Google Poland – 90.00 %
Google Israel – 90.00 %

Getting customers globally and outside of the United States means that you need to ensure your website is ready for the different versions of Google. For instance, in Germany, when users go to Google.com they are redirected to Google.de instead. These are important things to keep in mind when you set your sites on marketing globally. You need to know and understand how Google works in different countries and parts of the world and how users see it. You need to be aware of the needs of your target audiences in different areas and how you are going to appeal to them.

You should also be aware the Google has different search results in each of the different countries. You will not get the same results for a given keyword in one country that you use Google than in another country. This means to you that you have to be able to meet the criteria of Google in order to be listed in the different versions.

What can you do to make sure you can get listed in the local versions of Google? Here are some pointers:
• Make sure you have a country specific domain name - you need to have a domain name that matches the country you are targeting.
• Make sure that your web page and website content is relevant to the market that you are targeting. Different areas have different markets, and you need to make sure that you are properly addressing the right markets.
• Check the location of your server – Google will make assumptions of what you are targeting by what the IP address of your server is.

Following these steps can help you be confident that you will properly target the right markets in the right locations. Targeting global markets with Google can be very effective and you can increase the traffic and profit of your website greatly by engaging efforts in marketing with Google in different countries. You will be able to increase your rankings and visits to your website by effectively marketing to other areas in the world, it is just important that you know the best strategies to do so in order to get the best results.

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