Member Avatar for timhysniu

Hi there,

My web site is has a lot of content that is related to places overseas and not in North America. Target audience on the other hand is in North America.

I'm wondering does the geolocation of backlinks affect the quality of my pages, PR and poularity from Search Engines?

In terms of targeting my audience this is hard enough, since most visitors are as likely to search and find content in 'overseas websites' as in 'North American' web sites. Google does sort results to location closest to you I believe, so that makes advertising in North American websites a better choice. However, advertising overseas may be less expensive and I would get backlinks of higher quality (bigger PR, more traffic) for a lower price.

Note that I'm only interested in increasing popularity with Search Engines and not necessary trying to get target audience traffic (for now at least).

My assumption is that by having a lot of quality links coming from overseas, I might increase popularity of my web sites for North America as well as overseas.

I'm brainstorming as I type, but if anyone could elaborate a little on finding that right 'balance', I would really appreciate it. I find this really really important topic, although some of you might say --it's probably not that important.

Thanks,
Tim

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by lajocar

Dani AI

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Short answer: the country a backlink comes from is only one signal among many. For broad, non-local ranking and overall domain authority, relevance and editorial authority matter far more than geography. For country- or city-specific results, location- and audience-matching signals carry extra weight.

Building on points from the thread: is right that niche relevance is valuable; ’s suggestion to focus on the site itself is sensible; and ’s warning about paid links is important — artificially bought links often lack editorial context and can be low value or risky. A geographic backlink from a highly authoritative, topically relevant site will still pass meaningful weight. A cheap overseas link network, even with a high visible metric, usually does not.

Practical guidance for the tourism example: if the aim is North American search popularity, prioritize English-language, North American editorial links and sites read by your target market (travel blogs, local press, travel forums, regional tourism organizations). Also earn a spread of authoritative international links to raise overall domain authority. Make linkable assets (unique guides, original data, region-specific itineraries) that naturally attract contextual links. Avoid sitewide/footer/paid-network placements; paid links should be marked rel="sponsored" or nofollow per current best practice.

How to test and measure: pick a representative page, run two outreach tracks (NA-focused vs overseas-focused), and monitor impressions, clicks, and ranking changes by country in Google Search Console and Analytics. Track referring-domain quality (editorial placement, topical fit, traffic) rather than just raw PR or single metrics.

Bottom line: aim for relevance + authority + audience alignment. Geography helps for local targeting, but content fit and editorial links win for broader search popularity.

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Member Avatar for stymiee

Geolocation would only be a factor in country-specific or local search. It will not affect the main SERPs. It will also never affect PR as that is strictly a link popularity indicator.

Member Avatar for timhysniu

Geolocation would only be a factor in country-specific or local search. It will not affect the main SERPs. It will also never affect PR as that is strictly a link popularity indicator.

So in other words, it's ok and smart to continue to get backlinks from non-North American web sites for a better price just for sakes of link popularity/SERP. Or not? Any ideas?

Sounds too good to be true since if PR and SERPs improve then so does the traffic.
But then my question would be, why would this SEO strategy not be popular?

Member Avatar for stymiee

Because it doesn't work. Those links you buy have little value. You need links from related website preferably from ones that rank well for the terms you want to rank well for. And with Google starting to crack down on paid links don't be so sure those links have any value.

Member Avatar for canadafred

Here is another option and good advice.

Don't waste your time with artificially empowering your content externally.

Member Avatar for timhysniu

Points taken.

I understand the part that I need to target quality web sites that are similar to mine and that rank well.

My only question is whether two sites that rank similarly for chosen keywords are of different quality for google based solely on geolocation.

What if for example the web site is tourism related. Do you get backlinks from Z host country or North America where your market is, or it doesn't matter...

But then yes you are right, that would be enpowering the web site artificially.

Member Avatar for lajocar

I don't think that Geographical location of websites that link to your is bad for PR.

The more related (niche) links you can get, the better.

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