Google sends its crew of crawlers, Googlebot, from america. That’s the place 99% of the crawling originates from. In case you are not allowed to point out your web site to customers based mostly in america, you then additionally can’t present that web site to Googlebot.

You can not present content material to Googlebot when a consumer attempting to entry that very same web page won’t see that content material from the identical area. Google’s John Mueller stated it could be towards Google’s webmaster tips to point out Googlebot the content material however then present a US based mostly consumer a display screen that claims they don’t seem to be allowed to see this content material due to their location.

You are able to do the alternative, present US based mostly customers content material however conceal it from perhaps people in Russia with a disclaimer of kinds, and that may not be towards Google’s tips. Why? As a result of Googlebot crawls from the US, not from Russia.

This isn’t new, we lined it quite a few occasions but it surely got here up once more lately. Right here is the current context:

P.S. by no means use location-based redirects. Google principally crawls from America and you’re taking pictures your self within the foot.

— Billie 🦕 (@BillieGeena) March 1, 2022

That will be towards the webmaster tips.

— 🐐 John 🐐 (@JohnMu) March 1, 2022

The standard suggestion is to publish one thing that may be accessed from the US, and to seek advice from the detailed content material from there. It is not nice, blocking customers is not nice, however legal guidelines/insurance policies are arduous typically.

— 🐐 John 🐐 (@JohnMu) March 1, 2022

So if you wish to block international locations outdoors of the US, you are able to do that, if you need – simply saying. However you can’t block customers from the US.

Discussion board dialogue at Twitter.