Managing international sites, best practises
-
This question follows on from my earlier question http://www.seomoz.org/q/how-to-replace-my-co-uk-site-with-my-com-site-in-the-us-google-results
My client owns www.blindbolt.co.uk for the UK site and www.blindboltusa.com for their US site. They will shortly be having a new site for Australia.
They have just acquired www.blindbolt.com and have expressed an interest in using this as the main hub for all of their sites, i.e. http://uk.blindbolt.com, http://aus.blindbolt.com.
The current, existing sites (e.g. www.blindbolt.co.uk) could be 301'd to the new locations.
Could I have your thoughts please on whether to go down this route of having international subdomains , vs keeping the sites on separate top level domains? What should I take into consideration? Is google smart enough to return different subdomain results in different countries?
Many thanks!
-
It's really tough to predict. I think Eyepaq covered the basics well - you'll consolidate your link-juice, but you may harm your UK-specific ranking slightly. Whether the consolidation offsets the loss really depends a lot on your link profile, how Google treats your UK site (sometimes, English content, even across countries, is seen as partially duplicated), and your market focus.
If 80%+ of your market is US-based, you're not ranking that well in the UK, and you don't have the resources to really push two domains, my gut reaction would be to favor consolidation. If you have two separate marketing efforts int he two countries and half or more of your sales are UK-based, then you'd be taking a real risk.
I would check out the newish rel="alternate" hreflang="..." option:
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=189077
It's specifically for helping same-language content rank correctly across regions, and Google seems to be pushing it publicly.
-
Recently there was a blog posted on the Youmoz Blog which is worth reading. I think the main idea of this post is that the best strategy for international SEO depends heavily on the company, and the resources they are willing to invest.
The main distintion is made between:
subfolders of one international domain (.com/us/ .com/au/ etc.):
This is the easiest way to maintain different websites. (low cost, easy to use). However, you will also have the most difficulties ranking the right page in the right country.
seperate country specific domains (.co.uk .au .com)
If there are resources available for maintaining separate websites, building domain authority and creating content for all of them, this would be the best option.
subdomains (au.blindbolt.com etc.)
This is the middle way. Harder to maintain than subfolders but not neccissarily more expensive.
I'd advise you to read the blog carefully and also to study hard on best practices in international SEO, since a lot of people have difficulties ranking the right pages in the right countries.
-
Thanks very much eyepaq, some very interesting points.
Thanks for taking the time to reply.
-
Hi,
You can select in Google Webmster tool a geo location for each subdomain. (e.g.. for uk.blindbolt.com you can select Uk and so on.) . Google will know and it will act accordantly with your settings - I've tested this personally and it works well.
However, a dot com domain with a subdomain even if targeted as geo location with Web master tools won't behave as good as a dot co.uk for UK. Also CTR in serps will also be affected as especially in Asutralia a co.au domains ill get more clicks just because of the domain type - dedicated for Asutralia.
Another reason for not going with subdomain is that even if you 301 www.blindbolt.co.uk to the subdomain for dot com you will still lose some link juice and you will have some down times as far as traffic levels.
The positive thing about it, but with a gambling twist is that if google won't treat the subdomains as separate domains (that can happen based on user behavior and additional factors) links to the dot com domain will affect in a positive manner the entire domain and so all countries.
Hope it helps.
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
-
Two Sites with Similar Content
I have a specialized website for hospitals covering a specific topic. This same topic is also applicable to another market but with some minor modifications. I'm thinking about starting a new site to target this specific market and use the same content as the one specialized for healthcare. I will have to make some minor adjustments to the articles to take out the healthcare part and replace with the other industry. If my content is similar between both sites and both authored by me could that possibly hurt my rankings? Any opinions appreciated.
Technical SEO | | MedGroupMedia0 -
Shutting down a site, where do I 301 it?
I'm working with a few international sites that we are going to collapse into one main site. Our current plan is to 301 the 4 other sites into our main site home page. Is this ok? Is there a better way to do this? Thanks
Technical SEO | | MarloSchneider0 -
Multiple Sites Duplicate Content Best Practice
Hi there, I have one client (atlantawidgets.com) who has a main site. But also has duplicate sites with different urls targeting specific geo areas. I.e. (widgetmakersinmarietta.com) Would it be best to go ahead and create a static home page at these add'l sites and make the rest of the site be nonindexed? Or should I go in and allow more pages to be indexed and change the content? If so how many, 3, 5, 8? I don't have tons of time at this point. 3)If I change content within the duplicate sites, what % do I need to change. Does switching the order of the sentences of the content count? Or does it need to be 100%fresh? Thanks everyone.
Technical SEO | | greenhornet770 -
INTERNAL ANCHOR TEXT LINKS
If your site has say 50 pages, and you have a anchor text link from the home page to that page, what should you do in response to last friday, I have 60 keywords in the top 10 and now thye are all in the top 30 at best. PAGE RANK is still 5s and 6s on all of these pages.... NO PROBLEM ON THIS SITE UNTIL LAST FRIDAY!
Technical SEO | | jdcline0 -
Google Custom Site Search
I am an admin on a google custom site search account. I am also the owner of a verified webmaster tools account for the same site. The Custom Search control panel will not let me add URL's or a Site map for on demand indexing, but says "you must submit a sitemap of your own verified sites". Has anyone else has this issue? Does the Owner of the custom search account have to be the owner of the webmaster account, or can the logged in admin be? Thanks
Technical SEO | | SEMPassion0 -
How to move a site slowly
I've got a site that I started back in 2001 (www.jaaroncaststone.com) to sell what I was making, concrete countertops and sinks. Well we're going to be discontinuing the concrete products in a month or so and want to start pointing all the links from the old site to a new one dedicated to a single product (www.jaaron-wood-countertops.com). I don't want to do a full 301 on the old site just yet but can I put a canonical tag on the index and about us pages pointing to the new site now so the search engines start looking that way or should I wait and do a full 301 when the day comes to pull the old site?
Technical SEO | | JAARON0 -
I am Posting an article on my site and another site has asked to use the same article - Is this a duplicate content issue with google if i am the creator of the content and will it penalize our sites - or one more than the other??
I operate an ecommerce site for outdoor gear and was invited to guest post on a popular blog (not my site) for a trip i had been on. I wrote the aritcle for them and i also will post this same article on my website. Is this a dup content problem with google? and or the other site? Any Help. Also if i wanted to post this same article to 1 or 2 other blogs as long as they link back to me as the author of the article
Technical SEO | | isle_surf0 -
Best cross linking strategy for micro sites?
Hi Guys. I created a micro site (A design showcase gallery) away from the main website to attract a lot of links in my space from competitors. It works so well it has become a valuable resource in my industry and I believe I will keep it running and adding content to it. Is the best SEO strategy for the main site simply to link from each page to the main site? Or should I be looking at something else? Thanks, Alan
Technical SEO | | spoiltchild0