Targetting USA Traffic

[sean22]

I have a site based in the USA and I'm mostly interested in USA traffic. So should I set the Google WMT option to target USA traffic? Seems like a no-brainer but will it actually pay off. Those of you that have experience is it noticeable serp ranking wise?

[tedster]

If you mean will the WMT choice increase your traffic from the US, I'd say no.

[sean22]

Yes that's what I meant but given your answer it seems like a worthless option.

Thanks

[aristotle]

Other things you might try:

1. If you are link-building, concentrate on getting links from other US based sites, and try to avoid getting links from sites hosted in other countries or with county-specific (non-US) domains.

2 If feasible, try to put references to US geographic locations into your site's content.

[Robert Charlton]

You don't mention whether it's a .com tld or a cc tld.

[sean22]

Here is some additional information. My site is a .com and as I mentioned my site is hosted in the USA. The links coming in are from American websites - sites that Americans use more than 75%.

The only thing that I wrote in my site that might have be ? is a historical piece about the Dutch influence on what my site is generally about.

I am getting a lot of African traffic and that is totally weird.

[sean22]

Update:

I've looked at my latest stats now and they are returning more USA and UK visitors. The Asian and African visitors have decreased.

Maybe this KW is searched often in Africa and Asia, I do not know. I do know I have never had this problem with other sites. To give you an idea, past 24hrs from Africa and Asia is down to 25%.

[tedster]

Setting the geotargetting tool to US may indeed help you limit traffic from Africa, but it would probably do so without improving your US rankings.

If the traffic you are seeing is from the country of South Africa, remember that the Dutch were some of the first Europeans to settle there - and the cultural and linguistic influence is still quite strong.

[sean22]

I'll change it Tedster. And yes I do receive traffic from South Africa but also other African countries too. I'll update you guys on the results of the change.