Reply To: Geotargetting?

Can a geo-targetting script negatively affect a site in the serps If I was to re-direct foreign visitors to their respective language sections? I understand that the script doesn’t work at the search engine level, but wouldn’t the google toolbar pick up the automatic redirection? I’ve noticed that most of the sites in the top 10 positions in google don’t use geo-tracking scripts. It’s probably a dumb question, but I thought I’d ask.

I use a custom script based around the GeoIP database. Works well. However your question above is interesting and well raised. It seems to divide opinion. Some think that if Google etc see different info on the same page, it baulks at it. However, i think a) this may only be the case if you are radically changing content (ie different languages) and b) the news sites are always changing, so my personal opinion is that the effect would not be too negative. But i have no proof.

I geo-target on one site, changing the reviews I show depending on country and while my rankings aren’t great and fluctuate, it doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference since i introduced thie Geo methodology.

But some think it has a negative impact. Trial and error I guess as no-one knows.

A safer method maybe to use Geo to place a message on the page for users to click if they want to, in turn directing them to their local version? “Parlez vous Francais? Cliquez ici s’il vous plait…” etc.