To be ranked in a local SERP (search engine results page), the search engine, whether it’s Google, Bing, etc., has to be able to recognize the location of your website; the simplest and most obvious way is too look at the domain name extension.
Generic TLDs, which include .COM, .ORG, .NET, etc., are the choices working most successfully when a business wants to be ranked internationally; although choosing a ccTLD may limit chances of ranking highly in other countries it will ensure sites rank higher for the country relating to the chosen ccTLD. In fact, the ccTLD version will possibly rank above the same website with a .COM extension in the local version of Google.
And let’s not forget, competition will be less as the target market is reduced, no international competitors.
Walk the walk, talk the talk
The Google search engine will initially consider the domain extension of a site, as its aim is to always provide pages that are geographically relevant to the audience, so it will steer .FR pages towards French users. Other areas it will investigate, if the ccTLD is considered generic, i.e. .ME, .TV, is the content language, contact address and telephone number. To determine the target of a website with a gTLD Google will also use the IP address; with this in mind, if you are focussing on a German audience with a .COM address it would be wise to contact your hosting provider with regard provision of an IP address that corresponds to the country being targeted.
It is important to remember that if you are offering your site in a local language you employ a native speaker for translation; this is not the time to save money by using an online translation tool. All pages, titles, and meta descriptions and meta tags will need to be in the language of the country you are targeting to benefit fully from the country-specific search engines. Keywords in the relevant language are essential for ranking, and although there are several countries with English as their first language, there are still many differences, for instance the US would talk about freeways, sidewalks and pants, whilst in the UK it would be motorways, pavements and trousers.
Users do read URLs to determine where a website is located so it is vital when purchasing your ccTLDs to take the language differences into account; it would be pointless owning football.de and filling the website with content in German, why? Because in Germany they play fussbull, or more accurately Fußball, equally football.us would fail as the Americans play soccer.
Credibility
Despite .COM being king, users are still inclined and feel more confident engaging with a website local to their country; in certain situations this makes perfect sense, why live in Germany and look to buy a car from a .COM website.
Registering a ccTLD requires applying to local authorities, there are restrictions applied and by going through this process it proves a certain commitment and loyalty to the country.
Google dominates the world of search engines, providing search results targeted for specific countries; but never assume that all countries are dominated by Google. The Czech Republic uses Senzam, China uses Baidu, Japan favours Yahoo, Russia uses Yandex, suggesting that ccTLDs are definitely preferable in countries that don’t favour Google.
Link building
If you own numerous ccTLDs you will need a separate link building strategy for each of the country-specific sites you maintain. For websites with ccTLDs it is much easier to acquire links from other local businesses; it is also the case that many country directories will only accept submissions from local sites. Ensure your links come from the correct country; your visitors will have more time and respect for your site if your links are local, rather than numerous links from the US.
Having numerous ccTLD sites may require more effort, but the benefits will certainly
outweigh this.
Site architecture
When building a website there are three options for targeting multiple countries:
• Sites created on separate ccTLDs – displaying different content according to language, currency and preferences of the audience. Hosted in the relevant country so search results display it quickly. This option is ideal for SEO purposes but is expensive, with set-up and on-going maintenance costs.
• Create country-specific subdomains of the main domain – Wikipedia is a good example of this method with subdomains, en.wikipedia.com, fr.wikipedia.com, etc., the drawback is any trust value is divided, thus reduced per subdomain compared to separate ccTLDs. Your TLD will be in competition with ccTLDs in local SERPs but, this is a cost-effective option with only one site to develop and maintain. Hosting each site in the relevant country, with the correct IP address, will improve search engine ranking.
• Create country-specific subdirectories of the main domain, e.g. name.com/uk – all content is your TLD with subdirectories targeting different countries/languages. Unfortunately, this is by no means a SEO friendly option, users are more likely to land, spend time and purchase from a domain with their country extension, i.e. .FR, .DE, .CO.UK. This is the cheapest option to maintain and possibly the only choice for smaller businesses.
All three bring their own advantages and disadvantages, and each represents a different level of investment; any decision made will depend on budget and available IT resources. In my opinion, big brands with deep pockets would benefit substantially from using the ccTLD relevant to the country they want to target, increasing trust, respect and loyalty with each particular audience.
A warning to hackers
Domain hacks is a popular reason for choosing ccTLDs, combining the domain name with certain ccTLDs to spell out the full name of the website, i.e. goo.gl, fold.it, youtu.be. The obvious choices are .AL, .AS, .CO, .IN, .IS, .IT, .ME, .US, but remember; Google only considers three of these as generic, .ME, .CO, and .AS. Generic TLDs have the Geo Targeting feature enabled in Google Webmaster so a site is able to target a specific country, i.e. a .DE website cannot target France.
But be careful, if your brand name is part of your SEO, for instance, ‘superprofit’, choosing the .IT extension and calling yourself superprof.it, is going to fail; you will be ranked as ‘superprof’ located in Italy.
And finally…
SEOmoz is a US based organization providing SEO software and what SEOmoz doesn’t know about SEO, isn’t worth knowing. With this in mind, you may be interested to watch this informative video concentrating on SEO and ccTLDs. Despite being over a year old, it is still highly relevant and full of useful advice.
Generic TLDs, which include .COM, .ORG, .NET, etc., are the choices working most successfully when a business wants to be ranked internationally; although choosing a ccTLD may limit chances of ranking highly in other countries it will ensure sites rank higher for the country relating to the chosen ccTLD. In fact, the ccTLD version will possibly rank above the same website with a .COM extension in the local version of Google.
And let’s not forget, competition will be less as the target market is reduced, no international competitors.
Walk the walk, talk the talk
The Google search engine will initially consider the domain extension of a site, as its aim is to always provide pages that are geographically relevant to the audience, so it will steer .FR pages towards French users. Other areas it will investigate, if the ccTLD is considered generic, i.e. .ME, .TV, is the content language, contact address and telephone number. To determine the target of a website with a gTLD Google will also use the IP address; with this in mind, if you are focussing on a German audience with a .COM address it would be wise to contact your hosting provider with regard provision of an IP address that corresponds to the country being targeted.
It is important to remember that if you are offering your site in a local language you employ a native speaker for translation; this is not the time to save money by using an online translation tool. All pages, titles, and meta descriptions and meta tags will need to be in the language of the country you are targeting to benefit fully from the country-specific search engines. Keywords in the relevant language are essential for ranking, and although there are several countries with English as their first language, there are still many differences, for instance the US would talk about freeways, sidewalks and pants, whilst in the UK it would be motorways, pavements and trousers.
Users do read URLs to determine where a website is located so it is vital when purchasing your ccTLDs to take the language differences into account; it would be pointless owning football.de and filling the website with content in German, why? Because in Germany they play fussbull, or more accurately Fußball, equally football.us would fail as the Americans play soccer.
Credibility
Despite .COM being king, users are still inclined and feel more confident engaging with a website local to their country; in certain situations this makes perfect sense, why live in Germany and look to buy a car from a .COM website.
Registering a ccTLD requires applying to local authorities, there are restrictions applied and by going through this process it proves a certain commitment and loyalty to the country.
Google dominates the world of search engines, providing search results targeted for specific countries; but never assume that all countries are dominated by Google. The Czech Republic uses Senzam, China uses Baidu, Japan favours Yahoo, Russia uses Yandex, suggesting that ccTLDs are definitely preferable in countries that don’t favour Google.
Link building
If you own numerous ccTLDs you will need a separate link building strategy for each of the country-specific sites you maintain. For websites with ccTLDs it is much easier to acquire links from other local businesses; it is also the case that many country directories will only accept submissions from local sites. Ensure your links come from the correct country; your visitors will have more time and respect for your site if your links are local, rather than numerous links from the US.
Having numerous ccTLD sites may require more effort, but the benefits will certainly
outweigh this.
Site architecture
When building a website there are three options for targeting multiple countries:
• Sites created on separate ccTLDs – displaying different content according to language, currency and preferences of the audience. Hosted in the relevant country so search results display it quickly. This option is ideal for SEO purposes but is expensive, with set-up and on-going maintenance costs.
• Create country-specific subdomains of the main domain – Wikipedia is a good example of this method with subdomains, en.wikipedia.com, fr.wikipedia.com, etc., the drawback is any trust value is divided, thus reduced per subdomain compared to separate ccTLDs. Your TLD will be in competition with ccTLDs in local SERPs but, this is a cost-effective option with only one site to develop and maintain. Hosting each site in the relevant country, with the correct IP address, will improve search engine ranking.
• Create country-specific subdirectories of the main domain, e.g. name.com/uk – all content is your TLD with subdirectories targeting different countries/languages. Unfortunately, this is by no means a SEO friendly option, users are more likely to land, spend time and purchase from a domain with their country extension, i.e. .FR, .DE, .CO.UK. This is the cheapest option to maintain and possibly the only choice for smaller businesses.
All three bring their own advantages and disadvantages, and each represents a different level of investment; any decision made will depend on budget and available IT resources. In my opinion, big brands with deep pockets would benefit substantially from using the ccTLD relevant to the country they want to target, increasing trust, respect and loyalty with each particular audience.
A warning to hackers
Domain hacks is a popular reason for choosing ccTLDs, combining the domain name with certain ccTLDs to spell out the full name of the website, i.e. goo.gl, fold.it, youtu.be. The obvious choices are .AL, .AS, .CO, .IN, .IS, .IT, .ME, .US, but remember; Google only considers three of these as generic, .ME, .CO, and .AS. Generic TLDs have the Geo Targeting feature enabled in Google Webmaster so a site is able to target a specific country, i.e. a .DE website cannot target France.
But be careful, if your brand name is part of your SEO, for instance, ‘superprofit’, choosing the .IT extension and calling yourself superprof.it, is going to fail; you will be ranked as ‘superprof’ located in Italy.
And finally…
SEOmoz is a US based organization providing SEO software and what SEOmoz doesn’t know about SEO, isn’t worth knowing. With this in mind, you may be interested to watch this informative video concentrating on SEO and ccTLDs. Despite being over a year old, it is still highly relevant and full of useful advice.