Help! Choosing a domain for a European sub-brand when working as a partner in North America
-
Background:
Let's say there's a European company ABC.com, they have some presence in the US already for a lot of product brands in a certain space (let's say they make widgets). ABC Co gets 1,600 searches a month and all of that volume centers around the widgets they are known for.
ABC Co purchases a company that makes gears, let's call it Gears Inc (gears.com). Gears Inc. was known for making gears in Europe, but their brand is not known in the US (search volume 0).
Ideally, I would keep the Gears Inc. brand and build up the presence in the US, separating it from ABC Co. ABC Co wants to maintain their brand and eliminate Gears Inc. But we've received permission to keep the Gears brand for bringing that product to the US ... we will have an uphill battle building up the brand recognition, but at least it won't get lost in what ABC Co is already known for in the US. (ie: we don't want calls for widgets).
Domain Situation:
ABC Co. has redirected gears.com (DA 1) to a subdomain: {gearmakers}.abcco.com (DA 66) ... they have agreed to place a landing page under that 301 that links to the regional domains (theirs in the EU and ours in the US/North America). They are unwilling to let us use or purchase gears.com OR 301 gears.com directly to our domain.
What we're trying to do:
- build Gears Inc. as a recognizable brand
- when someone searches "gears inc", this domain would rank first
- create a simple "brand domain" that a less-tech-savvy users could easily navigate to
- needs to have recognition in US, Canada and Mexico
I don't know if this helps or provides anything more?
The question is what do we use as our domain name?
Any feedback is appreciated!
-
When selecting a domain for your European sub-brand while operating as a partner in North America, coherence and accessibility are paramount. Opt for a domain that reflects the essence of your European identity yet resonates with North American audiences. Consider incorporating elements like geographic indicators, industry-specific terms, or brand keywords to enhance visibility and relevance, like wiredale.com related to electronics or tools. Prioritize simplicity and memorability to facilitate easy recall for potential customers on both continents. Additionally, ensure the domain aligns with your brand's values and long-term objectives. Collaborate with your team to brainstorm and evaluate options meticulously, aiming for a choice that fosters unity and recognition across borders.
-
Your question is quite convoluted, so I hope to answer it correctly :-).
My first thought when reading your question was: "Why do they want to associate two so different set of products?".
I mean, I fully understand that you are moved by SEO consideration, but - honestly - SEO should not enslave business considerations and logic.
Widget and Gears are two totally different kinds of products and, especially, they have very different kind of buyer personas. In other words: the buyer personas targeted by the widgets website not necessarily are interested in gears.
Plus, also on an entity level, there's no connection between widgets and gears, hence also for Google would be hard to start understanding for what entity set is relevant the website if it is not presenting itself as a broader ecommerce store.
So, strategically, I would not start with SEO (bear with me...) as the main channel for the new gear website, but on branding, creating a dedicated website in a dedicated unique domain name.
Hence, I'd create campaigns to support the launching of the new website and line of products, so to create a solid backlink profile from the start, which will obviously help in rankings.
Said that, I would take advantage of the visibility of the Widget website for announcing the new Gear one (I suppose the widget site has a news section and an About Us section, under which you can create a landing page explaining what other "companies/websites" are part of the "Businesses company owning the Widget website".
-
I'm sure I didn't quit follow everything you mentioned on here but honestly a subdirectory (aka abcco.com/gears) would be what I would do. They are already pointing the domain to a subdomain, can they change it to a subdirectory? That directory could utilize the domain authority of abcco.com and when people go there it could look different than the main abcco.com brand or have a little of the ABC co brand to give gears some credibility but be unique enough to be it's own thing.
If you have to use a unique domain name you'd need to do some research on the gears they sell and keywords surrounding. I tend to look for domains with some brandability behind them (not sure brandability is a word).
GetGears.com or something like that.
Hope that 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
-
Can I use rel="alternate" language tags on multiple domains?
On a page with the domain "www.example-1.com.br" (for pt-BR) I will include the following tags: That will work?
International SEO | | Ewerton.RD0 -
What's the difference between 'en-gb' and 'en-uk; when choosing Search engines in campaign set up?
Hi What's the difference search engine wise and which one should I choose, i presume GB since covers entire British landmass whereas UK excludes Ireland according to political definition, is it the same according to Google (& other engines) ? All Best Dan
International SEO | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
HELP: Incorrect Meta Tag description showing for the wrong search results
Hi Guys I'm stuck here! I have update the hreftags, updated the sitemaps. I have 3 top level domains and my zenory.com site is showing for the home page the wrong meta tag description, as you can see in the attachement the meta tag is showing the new zealand site meta tag description which is for zenory.co.nz Anyone know what might be going on here? I have also fetched the home page through WMT as well and its still returning the same results any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks
International SEO | | edward-may0 -
Sub-domains or sub-directories for country-specific versions of the site?
What approach do you think would be better from an SEO perspective when creating country-targeted versions for an eCommerce site (all in the same language with slight regional changes) - sub-domains or sub-directories? Is any of the approaches more cost effective, web development-wise? I know this topic's been under much debate and I would really like to hear your opinion. Many thanks!
International SEO | | ramarketing0 -
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 -
Getting A Sub Domain To Out-Rank The Main Domain
Hi, We have a prospective client who currently have a sub domain setup for each language, they all have the same content as the main domain. The problem is that the main domain is written in English (but not UK English), and they want the UK sub domain to outrank it (it's the other way round at the moment). Effectively, there are duplicate content issues here and as a result it looks like Google have chosen to keep the main domain (as it has more authority) and lower the UK sub results in its rankings. Is there a feature in webmaster tools where you can target subdomains to a location (I know you can do this with a main domain). Additionally, any other tips for the above would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance,
International SEO | | jasarrow0 -
Chinese domain offered for sale!! Very suspicious
We have been approached by a company offering us a chinese domain we would like to own, they are based in China but provide no company information and only their escrow account for us to transfer the funds. My first reaction is to run a mile but we have been asked to see if we can secure it from these people any urgent advice would be greatly appreciated as we have never done a transaction like this as the overseas domains are a new venture for us. Any guidance really appreciated.
International SEO | | loopylu030 -
The best SEO practice for a .hk domain
We are currently working on a project which involves 3 separate .com domains in relation to a UK company selling/renting residential, commercial and investment properties within the UK. We are now working on producing a .hk site for the overseas customers. Can anyone advise what the best practice is for a .hk domain and where best to start? Should the domain be hosted in that geographical location for example? We are relatively new to this so any advise would be greatly appreciated.
International SEO | | SoundinTheory0