Redirect domain or keep separate domains in each country?

[IsaCleanse]

Hi all

Hoping this might be something that can be answered given the number of variables  
My main site is www.isacleanse.com.au (Obviously targeted to Australian Market) and also www.isacleanse.co.nz targeted to NZ.

The main Keywords im targeting are 'Isagenix' for both and also Isagenix Australia, Isagenix Perth, Sydney (Australian cities) and Isagenix NZ, Isagenix New Zealand, Isagenix Auckland etc.. for NZ

The Australian site gets a lot more traffic and Australian market gets a lot more searches - I also have a section www.isacleanse.com.au/isagenix-new-zealand/ on the Australian site.

The question is am I best off redirrecting the .co.nz domain completley to the Australian Domain to give it extra SEO Juice?

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi again

If you want to focus more on the Australian site and the NZ site isn't where you want to place efforts, then you can redirect it - but I would URL map it properly so that pages on the NZ site find their corresponding pages on the AUS site.

But that is ultimately up to you to decide - if the return is not there and you want to focus on one site, then redirect and make sure all pages find their new home. I would also update relevant citations and back links.

I would personally optimize both and put efforts in if you think potential is there - it's just a better user experience - especially for different regions, local search, and audiences.

Hope this helps!

[Mustansar]

I do agree with Patrick,

This always seems to come up in conversations and I try to sway people against this method.

Sure it may work on a small scale, and I have tried this method myself. But the drawbacks outweigh the benefits.

One final (and big) point to that I would like to reiterate. If you really intend to own and run multiple domains and get these sites to show up in the search results, you will have to double your SEO work”… Another good point. Simply ranking on a keyword really does no good when you can do the same on your own site with minimal effort.

[IsaCleanse]

Thanks mate! What I forgot to mention I guess is that I have not updated the NZ site in a while as main focus is on Aus as that drives 90% of traffic/searches. So I guess the question is do i sacrifice NZ site now for the sake of beefing up visibility and traffic of .com.au one which is a LOT more comprehensive

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

I would keep both if you serve two separate regions - that way you can build content and have sites directed to that target audience.

I would take a look at hreflang tags for Google and language tags for Bing. You are also able to country target for both Google and Bing Webmaster Tools if you have separate profiles set up for your sites (which you should!) You should also look into local citations for these websites - I like Whitespark, and it works for both Australia and New Zealand.

Another couple resources for your to check out:
International SEO (Moz)
The International SEO Checklist (Moz)
5 Dos and Don'ts of International SEO (Moz)

There is a lot of information here but it will definitely help you. If you have two regions that you do business for and have unique value to add to each, then I suggest keeping both variations and making a targeted marketing strategy for both - this will help you rather than redirecting your New Zealand audience to an Australian site where it's targeted to Austrailians.

That's my two cents - I hope this all helps! Good luck!