Geotargeting website content is a practice that involves delivering different types of content or ads to users via websites based on their location geographically. This practice is often used as a tool to target local customers via paid search campaigns. Social networking sites that are location-based also allow merchants to use this practice in order to target existing and potential customers. In this guide, we provide a more in-depth assessment of geotargeting content for websites.
Whether you run an ecommerce business or you operate a local brick and mortar establishment, your goal is to make sales. In order to make sales, having a website is crucial. More importantly, optimizing that website so that it will lead to sales is essential. The majority of the elements within your website you can control, such as the design and the navigation; however, there is one critical element that is difficult to control: traffic.
Traffic, as you know, refers to the people that visit your website. Obviously, the goal is to get as much traffic as possible, as the more people that visit your website, the more sales you will make (hopefully).
The traffic to your website is comprised of various people. They can differ in age, gender, profession, socioeconomic status, etc. They also come from different locations. Essentially, your website serves as a platform for your business that can reach people around the world, making your small mom-and-pop organization an international business. With that said, you want to make sure that the content people are receiving in various parts of the world meets their needs. How can you do that? - By geotargeting your website content.
What is Geotargeted Website Content?
To understand geotargeting content for a website, you first have to understand what geotargeting is.
Every person’s computer is linked to an IP address, and this address indicates the specific location of the computer. The first three digits in an IP address match a specific country code. The remaining digits usually refer to specific locations within the domain. When used for marketing purposes, this geographical information is known as geotargeting.
Once a website user’s location has been identified base on this geographical information, content that is specific to that person’s location is delivered. The location can vary; for example, it can be a country, a state, a city, a county, a town, etc. In other words, when website content is geotargeted, the content is relevant to the user’s location. This content can be in a variety of forms, including text, maps, videos, infographics and more.
An Example of Geotargeted Website Content
To better understand geotargeted website content, consider the following example:
Suppose you own a furniture repair company in Arlington, Virginia called “I Fix Furniture”. You provide your furniture repair services in Arlington, Virginia, as well as the surrounding areas, such as Fairfax, VA; Great Falls, VA; Falls Church, VA; Alexandria, VA; Washington, DC, and Silver Spring, MD.
Now, suppose a possible customer who lives in Alexandria, VA is in need of furniture repair and enters “furniture repair in Alexandria” into a search engine. The person clicks on your website, “ifixfurniture.com” and finds herself on a page titled “Furniture Repair in Alexandria, VA”.
On the webpage, the user notices that there is text that mentions landmarks and attractions in Alexandria, as well as a map of the town and an infographic that details the top causes of broken furniture in Alexandria. Now, should another user located in Washington, DC search for “furniture repair in Washington, DC”, that user might find your website and land on a page that is titled “Furniture Repair in Washington, DC”. The rest of the content on the site contains information that is relevant to DC, not to Alexandria. These users have landed on a website – your hypothetical website – that has been optimized with geotargeted content.
Why Geotargeted Website Content is Important
When a search engine, such Google, crawls a website and finds that it has been optimized with geotargeted content, the search engine views the publisher as being authoritative, and therefore ranks the site and its content higher for geographical search terms.
Obviously, the higher your website is, the more traffic your website is going to have. In turn, this will lead to more sales. Moreover, when people visit websites that contain information that is specific to their geographical area, the content is more meaningful, as they can better relate to it, which means there is a greater chance that they will decide to purchase from your business as opposed to a business that has a website that doesn’t contain location-specific content.
Should You Optimize Your Website with Geotargeted Content?
The short answer to that question is yes. Doing so, you will provide your visitors with unique content that is customized to them and that they can better relate to, which will help increase conversions. Additionally, when search engines crawl your website and discover that it contains geotargeted content, your site is considered more authoritative and will receive a higher ranking. This will increase the chances of your site being found by potential customers, which will also help to increase conversions.
While geotargeting website content is extremely beneficial, it should be noted that it does take time and money; however, considering the benefits that it can provide, it is an investment that will be well worth your while.
Geotargeted Content Tips
In order to get the best results possible, you want to make sure that you geotarget your content correctly. Here are some tips that can help:
- Make sure the content is unique to each area you are targeting
- Ensure the content offers value to visitors
- The content should be relevant
- The content should be relatable
