Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • SEO Q&A
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • Case Studies
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      Discover Brand Authority
      Moz Pro

      Discover Brand Authority

      Learn More
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      What is your Brand Authority?
      Moz

      What is your Brand Authority?

      Take the quiz
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • SEO Q&A

        Insights & discussions from an SEO community of 500,000+.

      June 3 & 4, 2024, Seattle
      MozCon

      June 3 & 4, 2024, Seattle

      Get tickets
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • Case Studies

        Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature: Moz Pro

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. International SEO
    4. How do you optimise a website for European traffic?

    How do you optimise a website for European traffic?

    International SEO
    2
    3
    1523
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • JCN-SBWD
      JCN-SBWD last edited by

      I have a design portfolio website here https://www.nicholsoncreative.com/ which uses a .com but is currently configured through the Search Console to appear in results for Google.co.uk.

      I am going to be restructuring the website and optimisation and I want to bring in more traffic/enquiries/business from around Europe.

      As there's no Google.eu, and as Google also serves results based on the searchers geographic location it would seem difficult to structure and optimise content so that results can be found across all of Europe.

      I assume simply switching to a .eu domain extension for my own website wouldn't solve the problem?

      I also assume that creating content in different languages would be a logical (if time consuming) option?

      Are there any other tried and trusted techniques that can be used to target traffic throughout Europe?

      I'd appreciate any advice.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • JCN-SBWD
        JCN-SBWD last edited by

        Many thanks for this, it's really helpful.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • paints-n-design
          paints-n-design last edited by

          So no there is no google.eu and we here don't use .eu domains.  OK we are european union but we speak different languages, it doesn't make any sense to take one tld for us all. so you can use .com with folders for languages or get a bunch of new country based domains. Both have pros and cons.

          of course you need content in the language of the country you target, so to reach me on google.de you have to speak german.  And you need international seo with hreflang tags aso (https://moz.com/learn/seo/international-seo). By the way, dont simply translate content, mother tongue will win the race.

          Before creating content in our european languages you need to know how and if we search that, who your cempetitors are, how strong and if there is a chance for you to exist.

          You can ignore other search engines than google in most european countries, in germany we use bing only by mistake or to search for google. We use google >96% - in czech republic its different, they have their own search engine. For the rest - we google or search with youtube.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • 1 / 1
          • First post
            Last post

          Got a burning SEO question?

          Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


          Start my free trial


          Browse Questions

          Explore more categories

          • Moz Tools

            Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

          • SEO Tactics

            Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

          • Community

            Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

          • Digital Marketing

            Chat about tactics outside of SEO

          • Research & Trends

            Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

          • Support

            Connect on product support and feature requests.

          • See all categories

          Related Questions

          • spjain81

            Correct Hreflang & Canonical Tags for Multi-Regional Website English Language Only having URL Parameters

            Dear friends, We have a multi-regional website in English language only having the country selector on the top of each page and it adds countrycode parameters on each url. Website is built in Magento 1.8 and having 1 store with multiple store views. There is no default store set in Magento as I discussed with developer. Content is same for all the countries and only currency is changed. In navigation there are urls without url parameters but when we change store from any page it add parameters in the url for same page hence there are total 7 URLs. 6 URLs for each page (with country parameters) and 1 master url (without parameters) and making content duplicity. We have implemented hreflang tags on each page with url parameters but for canonical we have implemented master page url as per navigation without url parameters Example on this page. I think this is correct for master page but we should use URL parameters in canonical tags for each counry url too and there should be only 1 canonical tag on each country page url. Currently all the country urls are having master page canoncial tag as per the example. Please correct me if I am wrong and **in this case what has to be done for master page? **as google is indexing the pages without parameters too. We are also using GEOIP redirection for each store with country IP detection and for rest of the countries which are not listed on the website we are redirecting to USA store. Earlier it was 301 but we changed it to 302. Hreflang tags are showing errors in SEMRush due to redirection but in GWT it's OK for some pages it's showing no return tags only. Should I use **x-default tags for hreflang and country selector only on home page like this or should I remove the redirection? **However some of the website like this using redirection but header check tool doesn't show the redirection for this and for our website it shows 302 redirection. Sorry for the long post but looking for your support, please.

            International SEO | | spjain81
            0
          • NikelleClark

            Can a Global Website Rely on Browser Settings for Translation?

            Our website serves a global market and over a year ago, we launched 8 language variations of the site and implemented hreflang tags. These language variation pages are proving difficult to maintain, and in Search Console they're triggering thousands of errors. I have double checked our implementation and it's not perfect, so I understand the errors. Here's the question though... the 8 language variations of the site are receiving less than 1% of our web traffic despite 40% of our web traffic coming from countries outside of North America every month. I want to know if we can eliminate the headache of these 8 language variations altogether, remove our attempt at hreflang, and simply rely on the browser settings of the user to dictate what language the website appears in for them? If not, is there a simpler solution than hreflang and attempting to maintain a very large website in 8 languages? Thank for your input! Niki

            International SEO | | NikelleClark
            0
          • Anycoin

            Multilingual website - Url problem (sitemap)

            At this moment our website both uses the language in the url like "en" and localizes the url itself ("books" in english and "boeken" in dutch). Because of the history of making our website multilingual we have a system that takes the browser language for the localization if the url doesn't contain a language like "en". This means: www.test.com/books = browser language www.test.com/en/books = english language www.test.com/boeken = browser language www.test.com/nl/boeken = dutch language Now for the sitemap this makes it a little troublesome for me because which hreflang is used for which url? 1) The first thing I thought of was using x-default for all urls that get the language of the browser. <code><url><loc>http://www.test.com/books</loc></url></code> But as you can see we now got 2 times x-default. 2) Another solution I thought of was just use the localization of the url to determine the language like: <code><url><loc>http://www.test.com/books</loc></url></code> But now we got 2 of each language for the same page. 3) The last solution I thought of was removing links without a language in the url (except for the homepage, which will still have an x-default) like: <code><url><loc>http://www.test.comen/books</loc></url></code> But for this solution I need to put 301's at pages that are "deleted" and also need to change the system to 301 to the right page. Although the last point isn't really a problem I'm kind of worried that I will lose some of the "seo points" with a 301. (When we changed our domain in the past we had a bad experience with the 301 of our old domain) What do you think would be the best solution for SEO? Or do you have any other suggestions or solutions I haven't thought of.

            International SEO | | Anycoin
            0
          • roberthseo

            Duplicate content on multistore Magento website

            Hello there, We run a Magento based e-commerce site in the UK for example: domain.com We are looking to launch a USA and Australian version of the website: usa.domain.com and au.domain.com Obviously the currency will be different and so will some of the content. Will we be penalised for having duplicate content across these 3 sites? (As some pages will be very similar or the same) Thanks Robert

            International SEO | | roberthseo
            0
          • WayneRooney

            Transfer a website from WP to Joomla

            Hello guy's, We have a WP website and we are moving soon to a new site  that will be in Joomla.
            Our website is very big and we are ranking with more then 400 keys in all the tshirts industry in the UK.
            The new website will be with the same url's and the same domain so we will not lose any of the ranking.
            Within this domain we have the blogs as well and a lot of pages. I'd like to get some tips about how to make the transition as smooth as we can to avoid problems with Google ? We have more then 700 visitor a day so we can not take any risks regarding to this. Any help is welcome  !!!

            International SEO | | WayneRooney
            0
          • WayneRooney

            The Website Ahead Contains Malware! - How to deal with this ?

            Hello, I got in webmaster tools : The Website Ahead Contains Malware! When i go to the website i cant see the site and im getting a page that saying the same thing, a Malware! problem.
            I search in Google information's about this and its look like someone hack to our website and install something in the code. Is any one have experience with this ?
            How can i fix this ? its a very big website.... Need help !!!! Thank you

            International SEO | | WayneRooney
            0
          • Sudha_Mathew

            Is .in domain affecting international traffic inflow to my site?

            My holiday website http://seekandhide.in/ was completed and went live in Feb 2012. Last month I got 83% traffic from India and 3-5% each from USA and UK. The rest is a mixed bag from other countries. This is largely the trend since the last 3-4 months. I want to attract more organic traffic  from UK and rest of Europe. My SEO consultant says that with a .in domain that will be difficult. My website currently features unique holiday properties in India that typically attract European tourists so I don't think it is a product issue. But both website visits and sales enquiries remain primarily Indian even though total number of visitors have increased gradually over the last 6 months.. My queries are 1. Is it only the .in domain that's affecting inflow of international traffic? 2. Is there anything that I can do to offset it? 3. I own seekandhide.co.uk  too. Is there something I can do with that site without building a whole different website there? If I shift completely to .co.uk, I will have the same issue of being geographically limited and end up losing Indian traffic. 4. Is there something else that is not ok on the site that I am missing? 5. Advice that I get from a lot of consultants is to buy seekandhideindia.com but I plan to add international properties in a couple of years so that name would limit my appeal. Thanks in advance! Sudha

            International SEO | | Sudha_Mathew
            0
          • Michael-Goode

            Same website in different countries, best practices for SEO?

            Hey Guys, I have read several similar questions regarding mine, but none seem to truly cover my question. Basically, we have a company named Junair. We created the website for the company here in Australia (http://www.junair.com.au). As can be seen throughout the page, it mentions that it caters for both Australia and NZ (NZ has its own phone number). It does ok in the rankings at the moment, but rankings will continue to rise in the future once more links are getting picked up. Now however, the Junair team in NZ purchased the NZ domain http://www.junair.co.nz and redirected it to the Australian page. No matter which page you visit on the NZ URL, the URL will never change, and neither will the page title. They have now contacted us and asked to perform SEO on the NZ domain so the NZ domain would show up in searches on Google NZ. At the moment, when searching for "Junair" on google.co.nz, the Australian domain is coming up. How could I change this so the NZ URL would show instead? And what would be the best practices to perform SEO on the NZ URL, should I just create links pointing to http://www.junair.co.nz ? Thank you, Roderic

            International SEO | | Michael-Goode
            0
          Moz logo
          • Contact
          • Community
          • Free Trial
          • Terms & Privacy
          • Accessibility
          • Jobs
          • Help
          • News & Press
          • MozCon
          © 2021 - 2024 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.

          Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.