Hosting Change & It's Impact on SERP Performance (with a Side of Domain Migration)
-
Hi everyone,
I've read a lot on forums about the topic of hosting and it's impact on SEO, but I've seen conflicting opinions. I wanted to see if anyone might have a definitive answer for this scenario:
Our parent company is based in the EU and wants to move our English domain to their site -- either as part of the main .com or potentially as a new subdomain. One of those things is going to happen; it's just a question of which one. One issue I have is that they host their .com with content targeting English speakers (mostly in the U.S.) in France, so if we moved our content to their site we'd be going from our existing domain hosted in the U.S. (with the majority of visitors coming from the U.S.) to a site that's hosted in France.
I've read that folders are still usually better over subdomains in terms of passing the strength of the domain on to pages. So... would it be better to have a subdomain hosted in the U.S., or just have folders under the main domain, but that content would be hosted in France?
Our existing domain and the domain we'll be moving to are about even in terms of domain authority and size.
Happy to get any feedback you might have. Anyone come across any case studies on this particular topic that would be helpful?
Thanks!
-
As a followup to the above, do you have any thoughts on exactly how significant a factor server location is today? I know https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192#2 says that it is not a "definitive signal."
However, I'm at a point where IT needs to be convinced a CDN would be worth the investment, so I'm looking for a way to quantify the SEO impact of the server being hosted outside the country of your target audience - which I haven't been able to do yet.
Has anyone seen any case studies/quantifiable info about this online? I know it's difficult to put numbers to a single ranking factor's impact.
Additionally, for geotargeting in the Search Console, today over 60% of the .com traffic is from English speakers in the U.S. We use hreflang tags, but even so, a little over 30% of the traffic is non-U.S., so I would expect geotargeting our subdirectory for the U.S. audience specifically could have a negative impact on the non-U.S. traffic. Thoughts?
-
Hi,
Check the answer of Cyrus Shepard on this question: http://moz.com/community/q/are-cdn-s-good-or-bad-for-seo-edmonton-web - I fear it will be hard to find other quantified data.
"We've done a lot of studies here at Moz and what we've found is this:
- There does seem to be a slight correlation between site speed and rankings (keep in mind that correlation is not causation)
- Our studies have not found a relationship between CDNs and higher rankings.
So the evidence would seem to suggest that CDNs can help your website speed, and it's possible to help your rankings, simply using a CDN by itself is no guarantee."
Hope this helps,
Dirk
-
Dirk,
I really appreciate the thorough response. I didn't know that you could host different folders in different locations. When it comes to server stuff, it's one of my weakest areas. I really appreciate that suggestion. It's likely going to be the solution I bring to the group, and I'll definitely use webmaster tools to geotarget.
They aren't currently using a CDN, but I'll put that on the table as an option to explore.
We use the hreflang tag on our existing site, and I'll make sure the parent domain we're moving to implements it before we move our content in.
Again, thank you very much for the help.
Andrew
-
Thanks for the compliment Egol!
-
Dirk, what a great and generous reply. I learned a coule thing that I will need shortly.
Thanks!
-
Hi
Both questions are not completely related. Technically it is possible to have different hosts for different folders - so it's possible to have yourdomain.com/fr/mypage hosted in France & yourdomain.com/en/mypage in the US (see also http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1848605/can-a-website-subdirectory-be-served-by-a-different-web-server)
If you have to choose between folders / subdomains - go for folders (see also this post: http://moz.com/community/q/moz-s-official-stance-on-subdomain-vs-subfolder-does-it-need-updating)
If you check the signals Google is using to determine which country you are targeting (check https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192#2)
-
1: geotargeting - it's perfectly possible to activate two webmastertool accounts for yoursite.com/fr targeting the French market & yoursite.com/us targeting the US market
-
2. server location - is used as a hint & became less important with the use of CDN's (mainly important for performance reasons). If you use a CDN there should be no problem even when the "main" site is hosted in France.
-3. other hints like address, use of local language: it's probably a good idea to use the content-language metatag in the head of your HTML. If identical pages exist in different language versions - it's probably a good idea to use the hreflang tag to make it obvious to Google which part of the site is targeting which audience. For hreflang - this generator can be useful: https://moz.com/blog/using-the-correct-hreflang-tag-a-new-generator-tool & this tool to check if everything is implemented as should http://flang.dejanseo.com.au/
In your case - I would go to
- separate folder - geotargeted in Webmastertools
- hosted in US - if this not possible: use CDN
- if different language versions of the same page exist across the site: hreflang to make it obvious for Google which part of the site is targeting which language / country - use content-language metatag.
Hope this helps
Dirk
-
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Getting the Proper CCTLDs & Subdomains to Rank in the Proper Countries
We seem to be having a really difficult time getting Google to do what we want in regards to getting proper domains indexed in the proper countries. In regards to English language, we tend to see a tremendous amount of crossover between .com, .in, and .co.uk. And yes international targeting is put in place. For example, both our .com and co.uk websites are in english and when someone enters a search query for one of our particular products, the .com website shows up to users in the UK. The countries with the hardest time are as follows and typically find them competing primarily with .com, but others can interlope as well. **All primarily in English: ** Canada UK India Australia Any ideas on how we can get this aligned correctly to where we can get the proper CCTLD to show up in the correct country instead of the .com?
Local Website Optimization | | GregLB0 -
Preventing multiple market domains from appearing in the local search rsults
Working on an international client, how would you help solve multiple market domains from appearing in the local search rsults?
Local Website Optimization | | Cristiana.Solinas0 -
Getting my Video SERPS Packs
I having issues fully understanding how to get the Video SERP packs. I am owner of a wedding videography company and would love to start getting the video SERPS. I am just not 100% sure how to go about this and everything I have read is not making sense. Any thoughts would be great
Local Website Optimization | | UVdesign1 -
What is the SEO effect of schema subtype deprecation? Do I really have to update the subtype if there isn't a suitable alternative?
Could someone please elaborate on the SEO effect of schema subtype deprecation? Does it even matter? The Local business properties section of developers.google.com says to: Define each local business location as a LocalBusiness type. Use the most specific LocalBusiness sub-type possible; for example, Restaurant, DaySpa, HealthClub, and so on. Unfortunately, the ProfessionalService page of schema.org states that ProfessionalService has been deprecated and many of my clients don't fit anywhere else (or if they do it's not a LocalBusiness subtype). I find it inconvenient to have to modify my different clients' JSON-LD from LocalBusiness to ProfessionalService back to LocalBusiness. I'm not saying this happens every day but how does one keep up with it all? I'm really trying to take advantage of the numerous types, attributes, etc., in structured data but I feel the more I implement, the harder it will be to update later (true of many things, of course). I do feel this is important and that a better workflow could be the answer. If you have something that works for you, please let us know. If you think it's not important tell us why not? (Why Google is wrong) I understand there is always a better use of our time, but I'd like to limit the discussion to solving this Google/Schema.org deprecation issue specifically.
Local Website Optimization | | bulletproofsearch0 -
Choosing the best domain for international website section
Hi, i made a question before but the answer not clarified me yet: https://moz.com/community/q/which-is-the-best-xx-or-com-xx-in-general-and-for-seo I mark as answered inadvertently. I want to know what you think about choosing ".es" or ".com.es" for create a section for Spain and redirect them from the homepage. Same for Mexico.
Local Website Optimization | | NachoRetta
I think that is not so important for SEO, but i am not completely sure about other factors.
Big marks like Toshiba use:
http://www.toshiba**.es**
http://www.toshiba**.com.mx** and Cocacola:
http://www.cocacola**.es**
http://www.coca-cola**.com.mx** ".es" for spain and ."com.mx" for mexico?0 -
Where should I 301 redirect my current domain to given this situation?
My company currently owns three apartment complexes. They are within blocks of each other. Only one of them has a website (believe it or not). The one that has the website ranks fairly well, but only because it has been around for a long time. There have not been any intentional SEO efforts. I have stumbled across a wonderful, keyword rich & location specific, domain name but I have a question. Here's the scenario: We have: Apartment Complex 1 - www.apartmentcomplex1.com (longstanding website) Apartment Complex 2 - No website. Apartment Complex 3 - No website. We are considering buying the domain: www.KeywordRichDomain.com. The new URL structure would be: www.KeywordRichDomain.com/apartment-complex-1 www.KeywordRichDomain.com/apartment-complex-2 www.KeywordRichDomain.com/apartment-complex-3 Should I 301 redirect www.apartmentcomplex1.com to the new root domain or should I redirect it to the appropriate sub-folder of the new domain? Putting myself in the user's shoes, if I were expecting to go to the apartmentcomplex1.com domain, I would want to land on the sub-folder because it's relevant to what I was looking for. However, I don't think people will directly type in the old URL. I think people will be searching for apartments in the area and I want all three of our complexes to show up. By redirecting the good domain to this new root domain, it should help us start out life pretty well in the SERPS. (my assumption at least). Thoughts?
Local Website Optimization | | MeasureEverything0 -
Why My Site is Ranked for Few Hours on Daily Basis in Google SERPs
We have observed Google is shuffling our ranking on daily basis for our website: www.strokesexhibits.com, which is annoying. Almost on daily basis, in evening hours we are in ranking against almost every keyword for few hours (roughly 6-12 hours) but in the morning hours we are back to 50+ to 100+ positions. This is not happening with our domain only but facing same issue with the Google plus pages and few articles which we have on some high authority sites are behaving in same way. For better understanding, please have a look on following stats (Evening Screenshots were recorded yesterday after 8:00 PM, Morning screenshots were recorded after 9.30 AM - GMT +4 Time Zone). all following results are related with google.ae Keyword: Exhibition Stand Evening: 2 Google plus posts are in ranking + One main website page is ranking. Position 2: http://screencast.com/t/Yf2SLQNRJEm Position 4, 6: http://screencast.com/t/sDs2nShaAGr2 Morning: Google Plus pages disappeared + Different main website page is in ranking in back pages. Position 87: http://screencast.com/t/XT8hCEmOY Keyword: Exhibition stands Evening: 2 Google Plus posts are in ranking + One main website page Position 2,3,6: http://screencast.com/t/kF3PaVtwWe Morning: All above pages disappeared from ranking & new pages appeared in back pages. Position 75: http://screencast.com/t/nMTEWJlT Keyword: Exhibition stand design Evening: 2 Google Plus & one main website page is in ranking Position 4,5: http://screencast.com/t/ENUg4Do4i Position 78: http://screencast.com/t/xf8NeMzH Morning: Above pages disappeared and 2 new pages got ranking in back pages. Position 72, 73: http://screencast.com/t/1VidK4cx Keyword: Exhibition companies in dubai Evening: 2 Google Plus pages are on first page + Home page of website on back pages. Position 4: http://screencast.com/t/F3ljdakI3bU Position 8: http://screencast.com/t/evuDLuuL Position 70: http://screencast.com/t/xQ24Mdm9DV Morning: Home page dropped 11 positions + google plus disappeared Position 81: http://screencast.com/t/FD1IxnqL Keyword: Exhibition stand fabrication: Evening: 2 main website + 2 google plus + 1 second brand site + 1 third party website + 1 youtube link – all related to us are in ranking Position 1,2: http://screencast.com/t/kZACVnUS1yG Position: 4,5,7: http://screencast.com/t/JyAKX2bv66t Position 11,12: http://screencast.com/t/2CdJMMHB8 Morning: One page lost by position 1 + One page disappeared and new page appeared in ranking + google plus disappeared + youtube gained ranking of 2 positions + 3rd party link also gained ranking by 3 positions. Position 2, 4: http://screencast.com/t/JwJfa0Je Position 8, 10: http://screencast.com/t/wHup3X6Isu Keyword: Exhibition stand contractor Evening: 2 Google plus links + One main website link on back pages. Position 4,6: http://screencast.com/t/bMJlI7cco Position 100: http://screencast.com/t/twBOwFbR Morning: Google plus disappeared + main website page still on back pages & gained 2 positions. Position 98: http://screencast.com/t/tMXHmkiQWFE Keyword: Exhibition stand installation Evening: 2 main website + one Google plus is in ranking Position 2,4,5: http://screencast.com/t/GfyXZn19 Morning: All 3 pages disappeared & new single page is in ranking Position 3: http://screencast.com/t/i0fdgZvVZwUk Any Suggestion???
Local Website Optimization | | strokesinteriors0 -
What's the best way to add phrase keywords to the URL?
Hi, Our keywords are all our service + a list of towns (for example, "carpet cleaning St. Louis"). The issue I'm having is that one particular site could be targeting "carpet cleaning St. Louis", "carpet cleaning Manchester", "carpet cleaning Ballwin", "carpet cleaning Kirkwood", etc. etc. etc... up to maybe 15 different towns. Is there a way to effectively add these keywords into the URL without making it look spammy? I'm having the same issue with adding the exact keywords to the page title, img alt tag, etc. Thanks for any advice/input!
Local Website Optimization | | nataliefwc0