Thread: Optimizing Google SERP for specific language?

I've got an interesting problem and could use some discussion and advice.

I have been optimizing a site for a couple of years now, working vigorously on both onsite and offsite optimization. Few days ago a coupe of competitor sites jumped sharply ahead of me which got me checking the SERP on Google based on various parameters. What I found out was interesting.

I am trying to optimize for a specific region/language, but what happens is that my page ranks very well on both the regional google page and google.com (position 3 or 4), except for the targeted language where it lingers around position 10-11. This is unfortunate as the default search for the region searched the result for the regional language. The moment I tell it to search for "english" or "any", my results are way better. The content though in not in english.

I did a quick research and it seems there is little I can do with onsite optimization, and few bits of info I found seem to suggest that Google autodetects the site language. The only two things that might impact this is the domain which is .com at the moment, and the number of backlinks from the regional sites. I have been building backlinks from the sites in the region, but possibly this is not enough. Would a domain change make a visible impact?

Any feedback is most welcome!

It would be better to use local domain name instead com but this is not crucial,
building more links from local domains is what will make it jump in local SERP.
One more thing you can do is to see if google is using meta tag in header for language, if he is using that then put it in the header.
So more backlinks from local I assume .hr domains, you can also use backlinks from local sites whic have .com, .org or other extension, but must be in local language,
also your anchors must be 100% local words.
Hope this helps, good luck!

You must use GEO TAGS!

First you must setup your GEO targeting in Webmaster Tools.

Then you must add some GEO Tags in the Header Section...

For more Informations: Geo Tag Elements

You can generate an GEO Tag with this Generator! ---> Geo Tag Generator

Enter your Placement and the Generator will giving you the right Meta Tag for your Header section.

Thanks Nemanja, your suggestions match my conclusions, but I needed to hear second opinion.
seobunny, I will try your suggestion as well although multiple sources suggest that Google is not giving any weight to this setting. It shouldn't hurt to try of course. I'll keep everyone posted if I see some results, whether positive or negative.
Region in webmaster tools is already set.

You can also try what bunny suggested, this was also what I have in mind with that language(this is different from geo tags),
but I doubt that this will help in your case, because I think it is only serves for google to be sure that certain URL belongs to certain location...
What matters is backlinks from local domains or domains using same language
and also visitors/social behavior on those sites where your backlinks are,
like things, from where they(visitors) are, what they where searching, if they clicked your link, etc....

---------- Post added 01-23-2012 at 12:20 PM ----------

And yes, also important thing is behavior and actions of visitor on your site how they found it, what they do, where they go after, etc...

I forgot to write:

If you added the GEO Meta Tags in Header.... you can validate it here: Geo Tag Validator

To check if this not running... or any other errors..

Its an interesting thing to know about SERP rankings. I need more clear conception about it to know. Hope to get resolve it.

yes, using any local domain extension and building links on some specific extensions would fetch your site to that location.