Results not appearing in google.ca?

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Results not appearing in google.ca?

apauto

10:06 pm on Oct 28, 2011 (gmt 0)

I have a PR6 site that does well, and gets about 50,000 uniques a day, mainly from the US.

When I search in google.ca, I don't appear for many terms.

I can't seem to find much info on optimizing for google.ca

in WMT, the site is not specifically set to "target users" with any country.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks

toplisek

10:13 am on Oct 29, 2011 (gmt 0)

You should define web pages to language folder:
en-CA and fr-CA

Let us do some tests:
type video cam
into Google search:www.google.ca

What do you see on the left and right?

apauto

8:59 pm on Oct 31, 2011 (gmt 0)

I'm not too sure I follow... what do you mean define web pages to a language folder?

You mean just put them into a folder? I doubt they would rank in Canada just because of the folder name.

please clarify, thanks!

apauto

9:02 pm on Oct 31, 2011 (gmt 0)

BTW, I already have this: <html lang="en" >

apauto

4:47 pm on Nov 1, 2011 (gmt 0)

Any ideas guys?

toplisek

6:43 pm on Nov 1, 2011 (gmt 0)

This is not this.
Please do this as this has nothing with ranking but Google will help you if you help Google!
lang="en" is just en. This has nothing with my suggested issue.

Let us do some tests:
type video cam
into Google search:www.google.ca

What do you see on the left and right?

aakk9999

12:18 am on Nov 2, 2011 (gmt 0)

@toplisek

I am curious. I cannot see anything special (I am searching google.ca for video cam but am located in UK).

Perhaps you could explain what are you seeing or what should we be seeing?

wheel

12:56 am on Nov 2, 2011 (gmt 0)

I can't seem to find much info on optimizing for google.ca

Very generally that's because if you're optimizing for google.ca then you're specifically targetting that - probably to the exclusion of other countries. Understand that again, very generally, people searching google.ca are looking for canadian-centric sites, not international sites hoping to gain exposure to canadians.

So, set canada in webmaster tools. Physically host your site in Canada. Get links from Canadian sites. All of these things will help your rankings in google.ca. And not help your google.com rankings.

If you're looking at getting ranked in Google.ca for Canadians and Google.com for US and google.co.uk for ukranians, then that's a much much more difficult task. If I was trying to do that I'd be looking at travel sites for guidance. They need to target people all around the world on different Googles. But in the end, I believe it's a very difficult task.

toplisek

9:30 am on Nov 2, 2011 (gmt 0)

Let us do from the start.
1. You quoted:
searching google.ca for video cam but am located in UK
I cannot see anything special. You see on the left hand site links with top rated:
Digital camcorder reviews and ratings, video reviews, user opinions, most popular digital cameras, camera buying guides, prices, and comparisons.

On the right hand side you will see Ad words with shopping companies.

Do you see this?

2. If I understand apauto likes to sell to Canadian population but issue is GOOGLE.COM.
quoted:
When I search in google.ca, I don't appear for many terms.

2.1. Main point is: Set en-CA and fr-CA
2.2. Set .CA domain
2.3. Ad words campaigns are typical for this:
Do not sell for UK population inside Spain with English text (content). Define Ads in English for UK population and Ireland. Buy domain .ES and translate text to Spanish and you will have correct exposure to Spain!

aakk9999

10:06 am on Nov 2, 2011 (gmt 0)

@toplisek

Perhaps if you want to set up a new domain to target Canada.
But I think OP question was why his current domain is not ranking in google.ca for many terms. Obviously this would depend on local Canadian competition and how generic keywords are.

For example, more backlinks from Canadian sites for terms not ranking well currently can help.