Honestly, this is one topic I really don’t know too much about. Google lets your Geographic target for your web site in Google Webmaster Tools. But what if you have a ccTLD, a country specific top level domain such as .fr (France), and you want to not target a specific country?

The Google help document on this topic says:

I checked one site I have in my Webmaster Tools account, the only site with a ccTLD and it didn’t let me specify a different country. So I assume only certain ccTLDs or TLDs can set “unlisted” as an option to target all countries? Or am I missing something?

Google said, “If you want to ensure that your site is not associated with any country or region, select Unlisted.”

It does appear that only certain ccTLDs let you change the geographic target, like a .co TLD. And you can change it to unlisted in order to not set a geographic target.

There are a couple threads asking how long does it take once you set the “unlisted” marker. The threads are at WebmasterWorld and Google Webmaster Help.

The WebmasterWorld thread has Tedster saying:

I am not sure if anyone else has experience here, but I’d love to know how quickly Google picks up the geographic target change, specifically for using “unlisted” as an option.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google Webmaster Help.

Update: Google’s JohnMu did point out a solid distinction between setting unlisted or not: