.com versus local domains
-
Hi all,
One of my clients has local domain websites in various parts of the world (co.uk etc. etc.) and there has always been a discussion about where a move from local domain (the current set-up) to a targeted .com domain (i.e. .com/uk) would benefit from a SEO perspective.
The main reasoning (seo-wise) that keeps coming up is that there'd only be one domain to link to which would help with link juice being passed around. Any thoughts as whether this would actually be the case or if this possible benefit would be outweighed by other cons?
Recent moves (local to .com) from a few websites (the Guardian newspaper in the UK being the most recent one off the top of my head) has made me start thinking about it again!
Diana
-
This is very much a question we have been considering for one of our sites and I very much agree with Chammy, that it is very much a resource issue. If you have the resource to provide unique content for each separate domain, build links, do social activity for each one then local domains are perhaps the way to go.
For us, trying to maintain multiple domains would have been too labor intensive and we found that consolidating all our activity into one global .com site has had a positive benefit in that there has been an upturn in overall search traffic, likely caused by consolidation of all the ranking factors to one domain.
-
Hi Diana
I went through this same discussion with a client of mine. Only the other way round - ie should he go to local domains rather than the .com that he has. I did a lot of research and came up with the conclusion that local domains are great IF you have lots of local resource to support the site - for local content, local links, etc. If the resource is there then the main benefit is that people in each country often favour visiting sites with a country domain.
Otherwise, If the resource is not there then you are better off with a .com domain where the focus can go towards building overall authority for just 1 site rather than many - as you say, it helps with the link juice. Languages can be placed in subfolders (/de/ etc) and that way Google will know to return the correct version in the country Google version.
Hope that helps - good luck
-
I don't think consolidation is the best path. I would take a close look at this article from Google's guidelines, and pay particular attention to their recommendations for ccTLDs and geotargeting settings in WMT.
-
Where do you want to get most of your traffic from? If it's from the say the UK i'd say you should go with the .co.uk domain (plus you can redirect the .com to any visitors can still find you better).
Obviously there is a bit of a set up involved but I think you gain access to those local searches which can help. Still worth researching all options
Best of luck what ever you go with.
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
-
/en-us/ Outranking Root Domain and other hreflang errors
I'm working with a new site that has a few regional sites in subdirectories /en-us/, /en-au/, etc and just noticed that some of our interior pages (ourdomain.com/en-us/interior-page1/ ) are outranking the equivalent ourdomain.com/interior-page1. This only occurs in some SERPS while others correctly display the non-regional result. I was told we have hreflang tags implemented correctly in the meta information of each of our pages but have yet to research deeply. Should we even have a /en-us/ version when our root domain is the default version, in english, and targeted to US primarily? Any help would be appreciated as I am a little lost. Cheers, Andrew
International SEO | | AndyMitty0 -
Human Translation versus Google Translate for Ecommerce Products
Hi all, We want to put our products on our ecommerce site into another language. I have always been under the impression that running text through Google Translate is a no no, not only for the user experience, but also it is a Google tool and I am assuming that Google would notice that it is not translated by a human. I don't know if it would incur a penalty as such but it most likely would not be favoured as a human translation Can anyone confirm their experience or impression on this? Thanks!
International SEO | | bjs20100 -
Duplicate content on .co.uk and .com TLDs with different domain authority
What's the best approach to take for a site that has identical content on the .co.uk and .com versions of the root domain? The .co.uk version has a significantly higher domain authority (54 vs 32 according to Open Site Explorer - see attached screenshot). But it's an international company with its largest customer base in North America and customers in over 60 countries. The company does not intend to localize content. My initial thought before seeing the domain authority was to 301 redirect the .co.uk to the .com domain to consolidate all the link equity under one international TLD. However, I wondered if the higher domain authority for .co.uk would be passed on if we did this. I figured that a non-UK audience would be more likely to trust a .com site. I still think 301 redirecting .co.uk to .com might be the best strategy in the long term. But is there likely to be a dip in rankings and organic search volume in the short term until .co.uk is replaced in the index by .com? I'd really appreciate your thoughts on this. CbVnfSO.png
International SEO | | Torchbox0 -
High domain authority for shady link directories
Hi there, First of, I'm new to the moz community and I love it already! So much to learn and to do for getting better and better at SEO. Really helpful! Okay, my question. If I analyze (top 5) sites with the open site explorer some of them have a link profile consisting just of link directories. How come they rank so high with just link directories backing them up? The directories often are just ongoing lists of links without any form of content. But the authorities of the directories (page and domain) are often between 40-60 or even above! How come they get such high authority? And do I have to use them for my linking profile or will it hurt me? On moz I learned not to use those directories because it's quality > quantity these days. But it almost seems as if this is not true because only half of the top positions in my keyword-market actually make use of more then just link directories. I must say that I operate in the Dutch markets so maybe different rules apply in the Netherlands? Thanks in advance and kind regards, Luuk van Dongen
International SEO | | VanDongenOnline1 -
How is the effect of an abbreviated domain?
Hi, i am looking to register a domain name for an island in the english/spanish spoken part of America. The names for xxxxisland.com are already registered but xxxxisla.com is free. Does it has any effect on my SEO when i use a shorter version of island respectively the spanish name for island? Thanks
International SEO | | reisefm0 -
Good or Bad? - buying a .com domain name that is already branded under a different county code like .nl but a different business model completely
For example - www.example.com (I purchase) and www.example.nl (is in use and well optimized but a different business model) Seeing that this business (example.com) will be based here in the USA and theirs (example.nl) is in the Netherlands and they are both completely different models, is this ok? They are well optimized for the name and it will be a little bit of a challenge to outdo them here in the US as far as the name goes, but the name is really good and the client wants it!
International SEO | | Cyclone1 -
SEO for Subdomains for different languages .com/fr, .com/es
Hi All, I was wondering how best to to approach optimisation of a site that exists on a single .com domain, but has different subfolders for different languages. The site is a .com and it has subfolders for French, Spanish, Russian and English. The business is situated in France and the vast majority of clients are French and English speakers. I've read that it's possible to geo target these subfolders using webmaster tools however I believe this is an inferior method of optimisation than having tld's. Just wondered if anyone had experience of htis and could provide any advice ? As they won't be rebuilding the site for another year or so I wondered if there were any quick wins? My second question is to do with how best to set these campaigns up within SEO Moz. would it be better to track at a subdomain or subfolder leverl (for different languages)? If someone could advise I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks, vantresca
International SEO | | vanvallejo0 -
International Hub site: .uk vs domain vs subdomain
Financial company with 2 sites: 1- Mybrand.com for the US market.
International SEO | | FXDD
2- global.mybrand.com is the hub for international with selection for 10 languages: drop-down allows selecting between mybrand.jp, mybrand.fr, etc Now we have the opportunity to redesign the site from zero and I am exploring to get rid of the subdomain for the global site What would be your preference to use as the international hub? a) mybrand.co.uk: I have to use lawyers to get the URL from squatter b) mybrandGlobal.com : URL easy to get, and can be geo targeted using google webmaster tools. Cons: It might not rank as well as .co.uk in the UK, which is our biggest market c) global.mybrand.com-- pros: keep using it because it is aged and has some authority. Google might now see subdomains as part of TLD, thus making it a valid way to separate international from US .. Cons: SEO best practices advice to avoid subdomains because it might not pass full link value across domains. There is not really different content the subdomain, it is just the hub for international Thanks in advance for the help0