Geographic Targeting or Geo targeting of the websites need to be done if you want to promote your website for a particular geographical region. For example, if you have a Canada based site and uses .com as the TLD (Top Level Domain), you would not get any priority or importance in Google Canada Search results. In this case your site would be getting search visibility based on the global searches, and would be missing many potential visitors from Canada. To get priority for Google Canada search results, wither your site should be hosted in Canada, or you should use .ca as your TLD.
Google has provided an excellent option to do this through Google Webmasters Tool. The Geographic Targeting feature in Google Webmasters helps you to tell Google, the geographic area your site is supposed to be promoted and given importance. This tool is free and easy to use, as anyone with a Google account can use this amazing and interesting webmaster tool.
The steps for setting the Geographic Targeting for a website that is using Google Webmasters tool are given below. (I am not telling how here how to submit the site to Google Webmasters tool)
1) Log into your Google Webmasters tool.
2) From the home page click on your website name which is listed there.
3) Now you have entered the Dashboard of Google Webmasters tool for your website. Expand the Site Configuration link seen on the top left of the Dashboard.
4) From the expanded links click on the link named Settings and go to the Settings page.
5) There is a Check Box option with the text Geographic target. Enable that link and you will see a drop down list which contains the list of Countries.
6) Select the Country and press the Save button.
Thats it. You have set the Geographic targeting for your website for that particular country. I hope the mentioned steps are clear to you. I have done this for my clients and have worked for me.
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