Geographic location settings

Question

I am building a website and it uses a Netherlands (.nl) domain. This domain is being found when using the Netherlands Google. I'd like the site to be found on all Google's not just country speific such as .co.uk, .com and so on.

I have looked on the Google forums and I've read that you can change the sites geographic position. I have done the nessarary changes to the site but in Google's Console (WMT) there is no select box as displayed by other users.

Screenshot of Google Webmaster Tools (nl)

Question(s):

• What do I need to do so that my site appears in Google's search results in other countries?

Answer 1

If you have a country specific TLD (eg. .nl - Netherlands) then you can't specify the geographic target in Google Webmaster Tools - it is already set to whatever region matches the TLD.

You can only specify the region yourself if you have a generic (non-country specific) TLD such as .com or .org.

However, this does not mean that your site won't appear on google.com or even google.co.uk, providing your content is deemed relevant to those users. Having a country specific TLD (or specifying a particular geographic target for a generic TLD) makes your site more relevant in a localised search but not necessarily any less relevant in a global search.

An example...

If I search for (what I think is) your full name on google.com then there is already a link to (what I think is) your site at #7 on page 1 of the SERPs! (The same on google.co.uk as it happens)

However, if I do the same search on google.nl, and do not specify English as the search language then your site does not appear on the first 5 pages. (If I specify 'English' as the search language then your site pops up - your site is in English.)

So, you are already global! :)