Do Meta Geo Tags Influence Google?

The use of geo tags, or location based keywords meta in the title, description and keyword fields is felt to have an effect on Google search results for local  locations. This video seems to say that isn;t so and the IP addres, domain name, domain extension or entries in the Google Webmaster tools has a greater impact. Watch the video for a better idea, it’s pretty short. -Editor

Matt Cutts Talks Geo Tags and Webmaster Tools

Google’s Matt Cutts frequently posts useful tips for webmasters on the Google Webmaster Central YouTube channel. The short clips generally offer valuable nuggets of info that can have an impact on your site’s performance in Google.

In these videos, Matt always answers questions submitted by users, and in a recent one he answers the question: “How do meta geo tags influence search results?”

Noticed changes in your ranking based on geographic info? Discuss.

Cutts says it’s not something Google really looks at at all. He says they do look at:

- IP Address
- gTLD
- ccTLD

He also points out that there’s a feature in Google’s Webmaster Tools where you can tell it that your site pertains to a specific country even though it’s a dot com. “Typically the geotags that are in meta tags are not as useful and We don’t tend to give those as much weight if at all,” says Cutts. He suggests spending your time:

- trying to make sure you have the right domain name

- trying to make sure you have the right IP address if you can

- If you have content (even if it’s geo-located) even if it’s a sub-domain or a sub-directory, you can specify it in Google’s Webamster Tools. You can tell it that certain content is relevant for a particular country.

These are good things to keep in mind if geographic information is important to your site. Have you used the Webmaster Tools Feature Cutts refers to?

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/07/06/influencing-search-results-with-geographic-info

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