Website Traffic

[Dandan2]

so my domain for my website is .co.uk and within Google I set it up as a UK only website. Can anyone explain why 35% of my traffic is from the U.S and only 15% from UK.

Is there anything I can do to reduce the traffic from the states?

Fyi my site has only been live since 10th Feb 2015

Thanks
Daniel

 

[fisicx]

Blocking all US IP addresses would do it.

Just because you told Google it's a UK only site doesn't mean Google isn't going to display the results on Google.com. Does it really matter if you are getting visits from the US? Can't you monetize those visitors?

 

[Dandan2]

Do owners generally just put up with it?

It's a bit annoying that's all

 

[Mkcoy]

You can set your preferred country in Google webmasters tools.

 

[fisicx]

It's a bit annoying that's all

What's annoying about it?

The whole point of the internet it that it's available to everyone (with a few exceptions). The geolocation just indicates to Google that you are targeting the UK but that doesn't mean everyone else can't access your content - which is what's happening. What you can do is use the traffic from the USA to your advantage - make some money out of them.

 

[EcommerceTools]

Listen to fisicx

Don't get frustrated over traffic coming from the US. Instead come up with some ways to monetise those visitors.

First question is what is your site about? Do you offer location specific services or are you an eCommerce website?

- If you are an eCommerce website do things like offer discounted shipping to the US, install multi currency to change all your products to USD for your American visitors etc etc

 

[adamo]

Why is this a problem? As mentioned, why not refer users across the pond to yourwebsite.co.uk/us/? This could be a separate site/landing page for US visitors, whilst retaining the SEO value of your root domain (rather than having us.yourwebsite.co.uk).

Whatever you do, it definitely doesn't warrant blocking US visitors completely - what if Google's bot has an American IP address for example?

Just out of interest, what type of website do you run?

 

[SEOEnroll]

If U want to get more traffic coming from UK then U need to make sure that majority of your backlinks are coming from .co.uk.. And talking about the US traffic try monetizing the US traffic & I can suggest you ways to monetize only after seeing your website.. PM me the URL of ur website..

 

[neils3]

There is a normal scenario where a business wants to sell to UK customers only.

You can set your geographic target to UK using Google Webmaster Tool, this article should help you out. About half way down - http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2191991/google-webmaster-tools-an-overview

Hope that helps

 

[Dandan2]

Thanks for the feedback all!

 

[kingblinguk]

If you want to target UK more, then post in some local listing or classified sites to promote your business.

 

[Matt Thorpe]

Focus on creating more content that is UK specific if you want to encourage more UK customers. Google is all about relevance so, if you site content is very broad, then it will attract people from all over the world. Undertake some more localised keyword research as a guide.

If you would like some more advice then PM me.

 

[ZAP]

anything I can do to reduce the traffic from the states?

Curious...

Why not wanting USA visitors?

 

[magentostore]

yes!
There are always a way to do.
Fix Geographic location and do a local listing in Google + with address of the same state you want to use to generate traffic.