Posted by: Tanya Vaughan, Global SEO Manager, HP.com

I have to admit, when I got the notice from Vanessa Fox (previous Google Webmaster Tools product manager) about the ability to tell Google my preferred geographic location, I was ecstatic! This has been a challenge I’ve been trying to address for some time both directly (to the extent I can get any Google facetime) and indirectly through blog posts about International Web Content and Search Engines and pestering of Google personnel. Unfortunately the recent addition of the “Set geographic target” feature in the Webmaster Tools doesn’t quite work for many global web sites.  

The feature is a great addition; don’t get me wrong. I applaud Google and other search engines when they allow web masters to tell them a little about their sites to help aid them in their indexation process. (In fact, Yahoo! recently announced a new Dynamic URL Rewriting Tool that’s something webmasters have been wanting for a long time.)  However, the new feature in Google’s webmaster tools doesn’t allow for much customization – meaning it was developed to address a few sites that are using subdomains to identify country target.  So now, it seems, Google will not only look at top level domains (TLDs) and hosting IPs to determine geographic relevance and inclusion in country-specific indices, it may also look to subdomains that a webmaster has identified as being associated with a particular country or region. 

But what if a web site is a truly global web site and uses directory structures (file names) to identify the country and language?  Are those still ignored or perhaps will this be the next feature added to the Webmaster Tools within Google?  Let’s hope for the latter – and the sooner the better!