Cardiff and Belfast cross-border rank tracking for SEO teams: Welsh keywords and .ie domains

What to take away

Cardiff and Belfast sit on different search boundaries

Cardiff and Belfast are not ordinary UK rank-tracking cities. Cardiff sits in Wales, where bilingual results shape what Google returns. Belfast sits in Northern Ireland, where a national border crosses the results page.

The UK and Ireland are separate search markets. Moz's international SEO guide explains why they need different targeting, including hreflang and domain choices. A tracker that ignores the split reports a position the client cannot act on.

Google gives no separate country setting for Northern Ireland. A Belfast query can return .uk domains, .ie domains, or all-Ireland pages. Google's crawler overview describes fetching that follows the URL and the searcher's location, so Dublin pages appear for Belfast users.

Which trackers cover Cardiff SERP features

Cardiff agency work often involves public bodies that publish in Welsh and English. A search for a public service may return a Welsh page, an English page, or both. Counting one URL per keyword understates bilingual visibility.

Semrush sets a location down to city level, with local pack and map coverage alongside rank tracking. STAT Search Analytics, now part of Moz, handles city locations and high-volume daily tracking.

STAT will track a Welsh keyword such as dysgu Cymraeg if you add it as its own term. It will not translate or merge Welsh and English variants. Ahrefs, SE Ranking and AccuRanker behave the same way.

Auto-detection of Welsh results is the shared gap. Cardiff teams wanting one bilingual view must build it themselves.

Which trackers handle Belfast cross-border results

Belfast is harder. A location setting returns the real Belfast SERP, and that SERP contains Irish pages. This is not a tool fault; it mirrors Google's behaviour for the region.

Semrush shows .ie domains in Belfast rank-tracking views and offers no filter there. STAT shows the same mix, but its API and exports let you filter Ireland domains yourself. That workaround costs development time.

Ahrefs has a UK country filter that does not exclude Ireland from a Belfast search. SE Ranking tracks Belfast local packs but leaves organic cross-border results mixed. AccuRanker shows the raw SERP with no filtering.

For agencies weighing API work against manual exports, a buyer's guide to rank tracking APIs for UK agencies covers access models and limits.

Example: one Belfast keyword, two positions

A Belfast agency tracks web design Belfast for a client. With a UK location, the client sits at position 3. With an Ireland location, the client sits at position 12. Reporting only the first number hides both the risk and the opportunity.

What cross-border tracking costs in keyword volume

Vendors sell plans by tracked keyword rows, so cross-border work carries a measurable price. Suppose a plan allows 1,500 tracked keywords. Tracking 500 keywords across Cardiff, Belfast and Dublin needs three rows each, so those 500 consume the full allowance.

The figures are illustrative, but the mechanic is standard. Splitting one keyword list across two cities can double the plan you need, and adding Dublin triples it.

A guide to local SEO rank tracking across the UK explains how to structure UK location sets before you expand volume.

Setting up one account for Cardiff and Belfast

Verify the build before you report.

Features change between releases, so check the version and release notes in your account and date any comparison you publish. Before buying, naming a source for every claim means asking vendors for a dated sample report from Cardiff and Belfast.

Common questions

Which rank tracker is best for Cardiff and Belfast?

Semrush and STAT Search Analytics are the strongest pair, because both support city-level locations and a separate Ireland location. STAT suits teams with data skills, while Semrush adds local pack coverage in the same account.

How do trackers handle Welsh-language results?

They do not detect them automatically. You add the Welsh term as a separate keyword and track it beside the English version.

Do I need separate location settings for each city?

Yes. One UK setting cannot produce city-level Cardiff or Belfast data, and it cannot show the Ireland side of a Belfast query.

Can any tracker filter Ireland domains automatically?

No. Every tracker examined shows .ie domains in Belfast results. Filtering happens through an API, an export or a report you build yourself.