Multisite with alternate langs behaving weird

[Danne]

We have a global site (en), a New Zealand site (en-nz) and a Canadian site (en-ca). The global site has a fair amount of pages ranking.

But the problem is that New Zealand and Canadian site pages aren't picking up rankings. Only 1-2 pages from each of those countries are ranking. This has lasted for almost 5 months now.

What's funny is that the alternate lang sites keep popping up on spot 10-12 super a super competitive keyword, it's been toggling on and off for that kw for months now in Canada for example.

Anyone experienced something similar before?

 

[Ryuzaki]

I don't have direct experience with this, but my initial inclination says that the global site with the multi-language options probably has a lot more sitewide ranking power, probably in terms of backlinks. Is that the case?

These days, Google is definitely looking at the page level more so than the domain level when it comes to the content. The same content on a .com/nz/ subfolder on a global site hosted in the US with a ton of authority and age probably has a better chance of ranking than the same content on a New Zealand-specific site hosted in New Zealand with lesser authority and age.

 

[Philip J. Fry]

I don't have direct experience with this, but my initial inclination says that the global site with the multi-language options probably has a lot more sitewide ranking power, probably in terms of backlinks. Is that the case?

These days, Google is definitely looking at the page level more so than the domain level when it comes to the content. The same content on a .com/nz/ subfolder on a global site hosted in the US with a ton of authority and age probably has a better chance of ranking than the same content on a New Zealand-specific site hosted in New Zealand with lesser authority and age.

This. You need to distribute your PageRank across your languages more. Check the date of last index for the homepage on your global site vs your CA and NZ site. That's a good indication of the PR Google assigned to it.

 

[Danne]

Ah I forgot to mention sorry but the site has the alternate langs as subfolders. So it's .com/nz/ etc.

Philip cool, thanks. Do you link wildly between pages on the different languages to distribute PR better or just rely on the tags?

 

[ToffeeLa]

I've never used different en lang tags, tbh. My experience has been that a) hosting location b) localised domain and c) location of incoming links have been the major factors in geographical rankings. (Possibly with a d) localised content which is substantially different from the other content on your site.)

Do you use canonical? It sounds like Google is getting confused as to which page on your site is a definitive document for a particular search phrase from a particular location.

Since you don't have localised domains and the main part of your single site is presumably principally aimed at your largest market then I would put effort into getting New Zealand-based links to the NZ folder pages, etc. (Somebody mentioned the 'bad' reputation of reciprocal links the other day - this is a classic example of where they can be helpful.)

 

[CCarter]

I would put effort into getting New Zealand-based links to the NZ folder pages

This is the answer. If you want to appear within a geo-location you need links from that location going to the site. So if you are targeting "Chicago, IL" having local directories, local shops, and local bloggers creating content and linking to your Chicago location tells Google the page/section is about "Chicago" and within "Chicago". Same scenario with countries/region.

You have to get local exposure for the content you want to rank in a location.

 

[Danne]

This is the answer. If you want to appear within a geo-location you need links from that location going to the site. So if you are targeting "Chicago, IL" having local directories, local shops, and local bloggers creating content and linking to your Chicago location tells Google the page/section is about "Chicago" and within "Chicago". Same scenario with countries/region.

You have to get local exposure for the content you want to rank in a location.

I agree. I have pointed some 7-8 .ca links to our Canadian alternate but not much is happening. DR50+ links