Thanks. I agree that it makes it a bit more difficult to read. I had planned on putting "Human Capital Management (HCM)" in the meta description and page title, but will likely use just the acronym in the body. Since that's easier to read, maybe I should do the same in the URL by placing the acronym at the end of the phrase instead of the beginning. That eliminates the readability issue and incorporates the acronym. While people mostly use the acronym, there are so many keywords in the phrase and I don't want to miss out on that.

What do you think?

Thanks for your fast response.

-Alex

I know that Google understands various acronyms. Example: If I search for CRM System, it knows i'm searching for a customer relationship management system. However, will it recognize less known acronyms? I have a page geared specifically for SAP data archiving for human capital management systems. For those in the industry, they simply call it HCM. Here is how I view my options:

Option #1: www.mywebsite.com/sap-data-archiving/human-capital-management

Option #2: www.mywebsite.com/sap-data-archiving/hcm

Option #3: www.mywebsite.com/sap-data-archiving/hcm-human-capital-management

With option #3, i'm capturing the acronym AND the full phrase. This doesn't make my URL overly long either. Of course, in my content i'll reference both. What does everyone else think about the URL?

-Alex

Alan,

I agree with you and Ash. Providing we are willing to commit the proper resources to support separate efforts like this, I think that the ccTLD is the way to go.

-Alex

Ash,

Your response was very informative. Thank you. It looks like you've got a nice amount of international experience. That's great! If the branded TLD in each country is available, should I stick with that vs. Company.com/Country?

-Alex

Drew,

Your logic is sound. I will keep this in mind. I don't want to bite off more than I can chew but the company is willing to give me the proper resources to ensure that each individual brand is given the proper attention. At this point it's really going to come down to me asking them if each brand is THAT important. I agree that it would be more resource/time/cost effective to manage one vs. many.

Thanks Drew!

-Alex

Alan,

Thank you very much for your response. I will not be linking from every page. I will ensure that those links are housed in the "About" or "Contact" sections as recommended. I would like each entity to operate as its own brand. Each entity is responsible for their own production & marketing efforts so it would be good for them to be totally separate.

I plan on approaching each website as its own. I will not throw up a few pages and expect results. There needs to be an ongoing effort for each entity.

Thanks again Alan.

-Alex

Situation: My company has 8 subsidiaries. They each have their own niche (IT, Electrical, Roofing, etc...). We also have offices in multiple countries (If that's even a factor).

Questions:

1. Should I establish a web presence for each one? (www.SubsidiaryOne.com)  I would then link to these sites from www.ParentCompany.com. The other options are to do something like www.ParentCompany.com/SubsidiaryOne or SubsidiaryOne.ParentCompany.com. We are trying to build the brand of the parent company so I figured that housing everything inside of the parent company domain would help me meet my goal. Each company will have its own unique content, products, blogs, etc...

2. Should each subsidiary have its own social media presence (Its own Google+, Twitter, FB, etc...) or should I house them all under the umbrella of the parent?

Thanks, Alex