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Everyone who optimizes and promotes sites should understand what the region of the site is. For your web resource to better rank in search engines, you need know at least basic things - why you may need a region and how to appropriate it. 

A small proportion of requests in search engines such as Yandex or Google relate to dependent on geolocation. In simple terms, this means that in different parts of the world, the system will offer different answers to the same search query, depending on the location of the user. And if we are talking about the commercial sphere - there is almost every request considered geo-dependent. 

That is why, if you want your site to be in top positions in the local issuance of Yandex and Google, at least, you need to properly assign it to the region. This is a very important thing, because commercial sites without a given region or if it is indicated incorrectly are much more difficult to advance and spend a lot more time on it. This is especially true for sites that closely related to certain geolocation  - for example, they provide regional services or their activities are tied in a particular city. 

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Based on what Google assigns a region and how to set it

Often search engines determine the region of the site themselves. 

If domain zone your site belongs to the regional one and contains the country code (.ru, .by, .ua), then the Google search engine will independently assign a priority for ranking the country and change it in any way will not work

Как Гугл определяет регион сайта по домену

If the domain zone is neutral (.com, .net, .info), but the company's activities cover a certain region, then earlier it could be set using the Google Search Console webmaster panel. To do this, in the “Search traffic” section, you could select the “Targeting by countries and languages” item. Next, go to the page for linking the site to the country, click on the checkbox next to the “User targeting” field and set the priority region for you by selecting it from the list.

Как в Google указать региональную принадлежность

As of September 22, 2022, Google has disabled the region binding tool as it is no longer needed. For now, this search engine considers other signals to determine regional location. For example, the following information may be used:

  • Hreflang attribute settings. This is a tag that indicates information about the language versions and the region for which the content was created on the site or on certain pages of it.
  • Content on the site should include keywords with place names (name of city or country). Also, the address and phone numbers indicated on the “Contacts” page play an important role in determining the regionality of a web resource.
  • Company location information in Google my business. In order to set the regional affiliation of the site, you must register in this service and go through the data validation procedure. After confirmation, the company will be displayed on Google Maps and, most likely, you will notice an increase in local search positions. 
  • Server IP Address may be taken into account, but this is not the best way to determine the region. It is often found that the country in which the server is located differs from the regional ownership of the site.
  • Regional links they will also point out search engines to the site’s affiliation with any area and help it better rank on geo-dependent requests.

Instructions on how to set the region in Yandex

The Yandex search engine can also independently determine the regional affiliation of your site. Unlike Google, geolocation determined to the city, not just countries. 

Another important point is that if the Yandex search engine cannot assign a specific region or determines incorrectly, it can be set on your own. But before you do this, you need to understand how accurately it should be indicated. 

Everything is simple here - it all depends on the content of the site. For example, if you have an atelier for sewing clothes in St. Petersburg, then it will be pointless to indicate the location of “Russia” - you will simply “drow” among all other competitors. But if this city is assigned to the region of the site, you can easily advance to the first position of the search engine in local output. 

It is worth noting that this scheme also works in the opposite direction. Suppose you have an online magazine with articles that may be of interest to all users in the Russian-speaking segment. In this case, it makes no sense to tie the site to some city. 

  1. So, first way to ask the region to the site is add it to Yandex.Directory and go through the data validation procedure. After a successful moderation of the company, regional affiliation will be assigned and it will be displayed on the Cards and in the Navigator from Yandex. And also the plus is displaying the address in snapp

    Присвоить регион с помощью Яндекс Справочника
     
  2. The second way - indicate the priority region in Webmaster. To do this, go to the section “Information about the site” - “Regionality”. And indicate the priority city / country for you. Using this binding method will also take time to verify the data. Changes take effect within a few weeks. 

    In case you do not want to tie the site to a specific region, you can indicate “No region” in the same section of Yandex. Webmaster.

    Указать региональную принадлежность в Яндекс Вебмастере

Why it’s important to know how to assign a region to a site

If your site has a domain zone that does not display regional affiliation, it is extremely important to inform Google and Yandex search engines for which city or country it is intended, indicating it in the ways listed in the article.

A properly assigned region will allow significantly improve local extradition position. Therefore, be sure to check if it is indicated correctly now, and if necessary, correct.