Google: we use country top level domains and search console settings for geo-targeting

On Twitter, Google’s John Mueller said that Google uses the ccTLD (country code top level domain) and the settings in the Google Search Console to determine the geographic location of a website.

In the past, Google also used the IP address of the server that hosts the website. So if you want to get high rankings in Germany, your website should use a .de domain. If you want to get high rankings in the UK, your website should use a .co.uk domain, etc.

How to check your local rankings

The Ranking Monitor in SEOprofiler can check your website rankings in more than 92,000 different locations.

Depending on the location, Google shows different search results to searchers. People who search for “car dealer” from New York will get different results than people from Chicago. SEOprofiler shows you exactly where your website is ranking. You will get the same results as if you were physically located in a different city.

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Tom Cassy

Tom Cassy is the CEO of SEOprofiler. He blogs about search engine optimization and website marketing topics at “http://blog.seoprofiler.com”.