: Can country geo targeting be overridden for country code top level domains in Google Webmaster Tools? Google Webmaster Tools automatically associated your website with the TLD that you're in. This

@Eichhorn148

Google maintains a list of top level domains that are geo-targetable. There are a few country code TLDs on that list:


.ad .as .bz .cc .cd .co .dj .fm .io .la .me .ms .nu .sc .sr .su .tv .tk .ws


However, if your TLD isn't on that list, you are out of luck. Google Webmaster Tools will not allow you to geo-target most country code domains to something other than their intended country.

Matt Cutts has a video where he explains Google's reasoning for this:


If you have a .jp domain and are trying to target Finland, you are really going against a lot of expectations and conventions that people have on the net. So one thing to think about would be whether it would be possible to get a generic TLD and use that for other countries.


For what it's worth, I also think that Google is being silly on this issue.


It limits the creative use of names.
You can't use TLDs for language (.de sites don't rank well in Austria where they also speak German, or .pt in Brazil)


This has been Google's policy for years now though, and they haven't been willing to budge on it. If you want your site to rank worldwide, you can't use most country code top level domains.

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@Becky754

Google and I assume Bing, place various TLDs into data centers and specific search sites such as google.it depending upon locale as determined by the ccTLD, language and previous search patterns. It is a load balancing mechanism that allows various search results to contain relevant search results. It would not make sense to show Korean sites to Italians or the French. However, some TLDs will enjoy impressions in more search sites and data centers such as .com, .net, and .org since these tend to be more universal. Again language has an effect. For example, many companies in China have been moving their sites to a .com domain and offering English as a language to reach a wider audience outside of China.

If you are talking about ccTLDs, you will not be able to influence Google to place your site into the various sites and data centers. In fact, I do not think you can influence any TLD placement except to offer different languages. Then you might enjoy a wider audience.

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