If you have a website that you would like to get to the top of the search engine then there are some
simple rules you can follow that will help you do just that. Obviously what you do is country-specific
so you will need to tailor your website to the Google listing appropriate for your country.

Hopefully you will find the information we have included interesting and useful to you. Maybe you
will even want to share our tips with your friends….

The first thing to think about is where you are going to sell your goods or services. Just as you might
if you were marketing your business in one country and targeting specific groups of people, you should
do the same but on a larger scale. What is different about the country you are going to sell to. Use this
information to help you work on your website. The results that are pulled up in a search listing will differ
by country so you will need to do slightly different things  if you want your website to rank highly in
each of them.

Why you should try to appear in versions that are specific to the country
If it isn’t immediately obvious to you why you should look to have your website listed in other versions
of Google then lets go through some of the reasons.Google.com takes your IP address to locate you and
direct you to the appropriate version. For instance, if you were based in the UK, then this would be the
Google.co.uk version. If you have a listing through the .com version then this would not appear in the local,
by-country version.  If you want to be visible to other countries, and choose which countries these will be
then you need to ensure you are listed in their specific versions.

How to ensure you appear in the search engine results
The next question, is how you can do this. Firstly, make sure you have a domain name that is relevant for
that country. A .co.uk domain would not be appropriate for Germany, for instance, so making sure that you
have the country-specific domain name will help you and give you a greater chance  of achieving a higher
ranking. If you cannot get a domain name that is specific to that country then the next thing you can do is
to get an IP address that is local to that country instead. At least this way, Google will recognise the IP address
as based within the country you are trying to market and therefore allow you to list within those search results.

Make the content of your site relevant to that country
Including a postal address on your website that is based in the country you wish to target will help Google to
list you in the relevant search engine results, as will having your address information listed on different pages
of your site. The more information that can be collected from your site to help identify your location the better.

Use the right language
Of course, it goes without saying that your website should be in an appropriate language. There is very little point
having your website in French if you are selling to the Spanish, but more than this, your website should use the
right phraseology. If you are an English speaker based in the US but targeting a UK audience, you should adjust
your spellings and phrasing to suit the market. This is not just a concern in terms of reaching the people you want
to market yourself to, but also in terms of having Google recognise you as a site that is appropriate for the listing
you wish to appear in. If you do the things above, you will dramatically improve your chances of being listed in
Google’s results for a particular country.

Getting to the top of the listings
Once you have appeared in the listing you wish to rank highly in you now need to think about how you will get to
the top of the search. Using the right keywords and in the right density will help you in this regard. Google should
not only recognise you as appropriate for a specific country, but relevant to a particular search. You should ensure
that the content of your website is as relevant as possible in terms of text and using the associated keywords.
Hopefully you will find that by using all of this information you are able to get to the top of the search engine listings
and target the market you are looking to break into!