Optimising a dot com domain for international datacentres
-
I've just been asked the question and didn't have a great answer, what a great reason to try the new Q&A!
We have a .com domain based in the UK but we'd like to optimise for Australian searches. Are there any tips about useful practices to carry out on the site to highlights it's relevance for Australian users?
-
Use words like: Kangaroo, Fosters, Wallaby, Shrimps, Barbie, Castlemaine XXXX, Strewth?
Ah, the double English problem (rising to the triple and quadruple when thinking about USA and Canada). I can give you a few things but I've not had enough success with any to say they are undoubtedly the way forward.
- Another site
a) Subfolder - /aus/
b) Subdomain - aus.domain
c) New TLD - domain.com.aus
Rather than hash out the pros and cons here's a recent Whiteboard Friday - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/international-seo-where-to-host-and-how-to-target-whiteboard-friday
Also check the comments for some good suggestions and sites.
- Another site
-
There are a few things I would recommend doing to any website regardless of TLD to show geographic relevance.
1. Host your site in Australia. If you are in the UK and have a .com then at least make sure the site is registered with an Australian registrar and hosted on a server in Australia. That should be the first thing to do.
2. Be sure to put your Australian address and contact information on the site. Probably more than just the contact page...put that type of info in the footer so it is sitewide and Google definitely spots it.
3. Buy your .au domain name and 301 redirect it to your .com. I would even buy other .au domain names and redirect them to your .com. Be sure not to buy hundreds of existing sites and redirec them though, as this is creating doorway pages and is considered black hat SEO.
4. Focus all of your link building efforts on .au domain names. Make sure you are in Australian specific directories as well. If you have a location with a physical address, be sure to get into the local directories too.
5. In Google Webmaster Tools under settings you can specify your country and language I believe. Make sure you tell Google you are targeting users in Australia.
If you follow those 5 steps you should definitely increase your relevance in Google's mind to the Australian audience. Good luck!
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
-
Forwarding a .org domain to a .com domain: any negative impact to consider?
Hello! I have a question I've been unable to find a clear answer to. My client's primary domain is a .com with a satisfactorily high DA. My client owns the .org version of its domain (which has a very low DA, I suppose due to inactivity) but has never forwarded it on. For branding/visibility/traffic reasons, I'd like to recommend they set up the .org domain to forward to the .com domain, but I wanted to ask a few questions first: 1. Does forwarding low-value DA domains to high-value DA domains have any negative authority/SEO impact? 2. If the .org domain was to be forwarded, am I correct that an SSL cert is not necessary for it if the .com domain has an SSL cert? Thanks in advance!
Technical SEO | | mollykathariner_ms1 -
Old domain to new domain
Hi, A website on server A is no longer required. The owner has redirected some URLS of this website (via plugin) to his new website on server B -but not all URLS. So when I use COMMAND site:website A , I see a mixture of redirected URLS and not redirected URLS.Therefore two websites are still being indexed in some form and causing duplication. However, weirdly when I crawl with Screaming Frog I only see one URL which is 301 redirected to the new website. I would have thought I'd see lots of URLs which hadn't been redirected. How come it is different to using the site:command? Anyway, how do I move to the new website completely without the old one being indexed anymore. I thought I knew this but have read so many blogs I've confused myself! Should I: Redirect all URLS via the HTACESS file on old website on server A? There are lots of pages indexed so a lot of URLs. What if I miss some? or Point the old domain via DNS to server B and do the redirects in website B HTaccess file? This seems more sensible but does this method still retain the website rankings? Thanks for any help
Technical SEO | | AL123al0 -
Different Domains on Same IP
Hello I'm just wondering how much of a difference it makes having links to a site from 2 separate domains that are on the same IP, compared to if the domains were on separate IPs? Thank you! Sam
Technical SEO | | wearehappymedia0 -
Hyphenating a Domain Name - What would you do?
So I have some chums setting up their own digital outfit. When discussing SEO, naturally domain names came into play. They were looking at 'Gray Digital'. So, initially they jumped to the conclusion that they ought to buy 'graydigital.com' and the .co.uk variant. But a best practice post: http://moz.com/learn/seo/domain - Leads me to think that 'gray-digital.com' may be the better option as far as readability is concerned? Then of course you start thinking - 'should we just make it 'Gray-Digital-Marketing.com' instead?' From your experience, what would you ladies and gents do? Kind regards, John. (EDIT: Having read more around the subject I realise more than one dash is a bad idea. So instead would you bother with the singular hyphen?)
Technical SEO | | Muhammad-Isap0 -
International architecture: Country specific subfolders > domain mapping to tld
Hi Ive got a clients dev saying they are setting up with country/language specific subfolders (as i recommended) BUT now they are saying they want to set up on network.domain.com (for example) and then each language will have its own sub-folder BUT will be domain mapped to the TLD as and when they get them. I have asked them to clarify since sounds a bit strange since thought best to have domain.com then /uk and /us etc etc and sure ok to forward country specific TLD's to these subfolders. Its this new subdomain (network.) thats concerning me and mapping rather than forwarding (or is it the same thing) but anyone know off hand if above sounds ok or also thinks a bit strange or know issues with such a set up ? many thanks dan
Technical SEO | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Multiple sub domain appearing
Hi Everyone, Hope were well!. Have a strange one!!. New clients website http://www.allsee-tech.com. Just found out he is appearing for every subdomain possible. a.alsee-tech.com b.allsee-tech.com. I have requested htaccess as this is where I think the issue lies but he advises there isn't anything out of place there. Any ideas in case it isn't? Regards Neil
Technical SEO | | nezona0 -
Domain tld question
Hi all, I have a question regarding the ranking of exact match tld which is co.uk Currently I have a .com domain with PR of 3 and the problem is that it have one word in front of my desired keyword, so it's not exact match. I have managed to buy an exact match but it's co.uk The questions are: Will a co.uk rank better for UK than .com domain I am reading at SEOMOZ that exact match domain value is getting lower, so is it worth to redirect my current .com domain to co.uk just to get rid of that one word and start all over again with exact match. Thanks
Technical SEO | | VasilTasev0 -
Why the rapid drop in Domain Authority?
I couple weeks ago I switched my website from Drupal to a Wordpress CMS: Martial Arts Austin My rankings have remained the same, but the Domain Authority has plummeted from like 29 to 21. I know this is small fry, but I don't want my business to drop in ranking. The URL's were kept exactly the same, with the internal links and copy also kept the same with few additions. Also, according to Open Site Explorer, the site's stronger pages have now averaged out with the weaker and unused pages so they all now share the same Page Authority - that doesn't seem right. Is there reason for concern? Did I screw something up, or am I making too much of this? Thanks
Technical SEO | | OhYeahSteve1