Was digging around my google webmaster tools account and stumbled upon what looks like a new feature: Google Geo-Targeting.  Geo Targeting is simply put: targeting your website to a specific geographic location.  For example: you own a furniture store in Canada and your website is ends in a .ca extension: People searching from within Bolivia (for example) would not necessarily find your furniture store relevant to them as they want to be able to stop by the store, or order more locally.  If you did own a .com domain and did serve the entire world selling products or services, you should be able to specify that to Google as well, thus not limiting searchers utilizing google.ca, etc.

Here’s how you can set it up:

Step 1. Go to Google.com and setup a  Google Account.

Step 2. Go to Webmaster Tools

Step 3: Under dashboard add your site

Step 4: Google will ask you to verify your site: they will give you a verification code that you will need to upload to the root of your web site.

Step 5: Go back to your google account and hit verify: it may take a few tries, but if you have uploaded the code correctly, it will find the verification file.

Step 6: Click your site under manage

Step 7:  Click tools on the bottom left of the screen

Step 8: Click Set Geographic Target

Step 9: Click Associate a geographic location with this site

Step 10: Choose your geographic target.

That’s it! You’re all set.

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