Geo-Restriction Impact on Search Rankings User Engagement Test

This article is about something I’ve recently noticed: a trend among some companies focused on the USA market to return a 403 error response status code for users from other countries.

My hypothesis is that companies should not restrict access to their USA site for international users. Instead, they should allow users to navigate the site and guide them logically toward an end conversion point that is non-crawlable, retaining them as much as possible. For example, leading them to a checkout page, which is usually not crawlable. There, we can inform the user that the services or products are not available in their location and politely provide options or direct them to the appropriate website for their region.

All traffic and engagement from non-conversion targeted countries would contribute positively to the site’s performance in the targeted USA market.

Here is a link to the post and related discussion.

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Search Rankings User Engagement Test

Objective: To determine if restricting access to a specific country  (India) impacts the search rankings of a website in the USA.

Background:

• Initial Observation: I have seen sites restricting access to their USA-specific domain (ccTLD) with a 403 error from the rest of the world.
• My Suggestion: Instead of outright restricting access, I propose allowing users to flow naturally through the site and engage with it until they reach a restricted page. There, they would be informed that the service is unavailable and offered alternative options or redirects.

Hypothesis: Traffic and engagement from countries outside the USA help improve search engine positioning in the USA.

Method:

• Environment Setup: I will use an existing section on my website for Schema Markup Generators. This section has historically attracted traffic mainly from India, followed by the USA, and ranks highly for several long-tail keywords.

Traffic Restriction: Use Cloudflare to restrict access to the entire site from India.

Monitoring and Metrics: Over a period (initially set to a month), monitor the search rankings of the long-tail keywords that are currently ranking around the first position. Compare the changes in rankings before and after the restriction is implemented.

• Analysis: Assess whether there is a drop in search rankings in the USA following the restriction of traffic from India. Consider other factors that might influence rankings to isolate the impact of the restriction.
• Starting date: 30.07.2024

Expected Outcome:

• To observe whether there is a significant impact on search rankings in the USA due to the reduction of traffic from India.
• This will help validate or refute the hypothesis that international traffic and engagement contribute to better search engine positioning in the USA.

Conclusion:

• If the hypothesis is correct, this experiment could inform SEO strategies, suggesting that international user engagement should not be restricted.
• An update will be provided after the monitoring period to share the results and any insights gained from the experiment.

Additional Notes:

• Traffic Quality: For this experiment, traffic quality from India will be considered consistent with that from other regions, so the focus will remain on the overall impact of geo-restriction rather than individual traffic metrics.

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