Migration from tld's to .com sub folders
-
Hi Guys,
We currently operate five websites, 1 on .co.uk, 1 on .co.nz, 1 on .de and 1 on .com (geo targeted to USA) and 1 on .com/au (targeted at Australia).
Open Site Explorer currently credits our .co.uk with 212 unique domains linking to us, our .com has 130, our .co.nz has 110 and our .de (which is new) has around 10. We have a website on .com/au targeting Australia and we have gained around 30 - 40 links into this sub folder. Our rankings in google australia for this website are fantastic and it would appear to me that we have inherited all the domain authority of our .com.
The UK is currently our most important market and we operate a website on a .co.uk there. Our main competitors there have around 300 - 400 unique domains linking to them. What I am thinking of doing is deploying our UK content onto our .com root domain (which is currently geo targeted at the US which is a really small market for us) and redirecting all of the .co.uk pages at the root folder of the .com and changing the geo targeting of the .com to the UK. Additionally I was going to migrate our .co.nz and our .de websites into .com/nz/ and .com/de/ sub folders. I will also create a new .com/us/ folder for the US.
I can only go off the fact that the only sub folder website we have (.com/au) has been very successful for us. Do you think migration of all of these websites onto the .com domain using sub folders will provide a meaningful boost to our rankings by virtue of having more back links into one domain? Are there any big risks in doing so and how long would you expect the redirects and changes to be picked up by google.
I really appreciate any help and comments on this.
Kind Regards
Conrad Cranfield -
I would be quite wary of this for another reason... You may be getting a better Click Thru Rate than you realise - thanks to the .co.uk - which you will lose if you switch to a .com
Perhaps try testing adwords with .co.uk versus .com and see if there is a difference.
-
Thank you Alan and Felicity for your advice.
-
Conrad - I would not proceed with the subfolders
You started asking this question due to your positive experience in Australia. I suspect your experience has more to do with a less developed e-commerce market than a strong SEO strategy
I have worked the last 3 years in the UK and am now working on australian domains - the level of competition does not compare
-
sorry, it was just the same link to Matt Cutts recomeneding tlds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ets7nHOV1Yo -
What do they allow sorry? The link you sent seems to be dead - Thanks Felecity for your posts too
-
I agree, but you have seen what Google said on the subject, take their advice.
Or if it in the one website, just have the one version for english speakers.
In asp.net this is possible with globalization, that will replace regional stuff like data and currency. and select differences. This is done by detecting the ursers computer settings.(big job)
another problem with subfolders is getting the user to the correct directory, and still haveing your home page rank.There is no easy way around this, except for TLD's that you already have.
I asume you would like to get better rankings by consolidating, i dont think that will happen if you have duplicate content.
There is also the fact that people like to see tehir ownn TLD when making a trans action
-
google allows it, i believe bing do also, but i dont have the ref right now.
Edited to fix link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ets7nHOV1Yo -
unique content for all your sub folders - then enjoy the strength of your domain
-
Thanks Alan - what would you suggest - so many articles I have read say that as long as you use google web master tools to geo locate each and every sub folder site (and the root directory) then google will not treat each site as a duplicate as it is not interpreted to be competing in each regional google?
We would have the html lang type set for each country (eg: lang="en-us" for USA, "en-gb" for the UK etc..) Additionally we would be making sure that all pricing was served up in local currency on each sub site, with local contact details and additionally with localised use of language. However, there would still be quite a large chunck of content that translates almost the same between say UK, NZ and Australian english and even to a lesser degree US english.
With so many opinions out there it is quite confusing!
-
Yes many have, they come here to ask what to do about there duplicate content.
-
Thanks guys for your input - has anyone on this forum deployed a multi-country targeted website on sub folders?
-
May 26, 2011Matt BurgessContent Coordinator at Tourism Queensland
I'm facing a similar situation. I recently asked Tiffany Oberoi (google) at the SMX Conference in Sydney whether she suggested taking our respective TLDs and moving into a subfolder format (ie. example.com/au, example.com/nz, example.com/uk etc).
Her response? Stick with the TLDs. I don't think the geotargetting option in GWT is as reliable as it's made out to be.
Flag01<a class="image-button add-response-button"> </a>
-
He never said that at all.
He said if you have them in different geo tld's. you should be fine.
He never mentioned subfolders. What he did say ios that if they are all in the same tld, they will typically see it as duplicate. let alone on the same website.
no where in that video or else where have i seen him or anyone else say that geo tageting will save you. Every spammer can do that. -
? From what Matt said what we are planning to do is fine (we are not creating 100's or even 10 different sites). As long as we have them geo targeted and regionalised (including currency display) then he is saying we are fine to do what we are suggesting.
-
My understanding is that yes you will still have a problem.
see this video -
Hi Alan,
Is duplicate content an issue even if we have the root folder geo targeted using google web master tools, and all sub folder sites also geo targeted (again using google web master tools)?
We run different lang tags for each site (eg: lang="EN-GB", lang="EN-US", etc...). We also where appropriate use regional spelling and variations of phrases (so for the US site "rain boots", Australian site "gum boots" and for the UK "wellies". However, plenty of the content will be the same across all of the sites. Is this still a problem even with the use of google web master tools to geo target each site?
Cheers
Conrad
-
One probllem you will have with subfoldersis duplicate content, keeping your domains on seperate tld's means you are safe from duplicate content.
-
Hi Felicity, yes in terms of rankings for our targeted search phrases. We rank higher in google Australia than in either Google UK or Google New Zealand for which we have far more incoming links to (to our .co.uk and .co.nz) than we do the actual .com/au sub folder site. There is less competition for these phrases than in the UK, however our competitors in Australia have around 100 - 200 unique domains linking into their sites as opposed to only 30 - 40 into our .com/au sub folder. So it appears to me that the sub folder site has inherited all the authority of the master .com domain.
-
Perhaps your success is to do with less competetion in the aussie market place - I have noticed that websites in australia can get in the top 3 positions with very poor onsite optimisation and few links - of course it varies from industry to industry but I would analyse the backlinks etc of the other aussie websitesfirst -
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
-
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
International SEO | | mkretsinger
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!0 -
Google Webmaster showing error for [hreflang='x-default']
Hi There! Using [hreflang='x-default'] tag to target language specific countries on our site but Google Webmaster showing errors even implementation made as per Google guideline but one thing is not clear and we are not sure, this is the reason behind it. Error is showing up only on those pages where 'Google Parameters' are used. For example : https://www.sitegeek.com/a2hosting?grank=open 'grank=' is defined as a 'Google Parameters' and on the above page 'hreflang' tags are : Also, on page https://www.sitegeek.com/a2hosting [without Google Parameters] same above 'hreflang' tags are taken. But, There is no error on second page URL where no 'Google Parameters' in URL. Therefore, error showing on first URL where 'Google Parameters' are taken. Is this the issue or not? suggest how to remove? -- Rajiv S9vhl3T
International SEO | | gamesecure0 -
Subfolders and 301's
Hello all, Quite simply, I'm stuck. Well, I think I am. We are about to launch a whole new International side of our website. We're an education job board www.eteach.com for schools in the UK and a little internationally. Now that the business is growing we want to make our brand more global. All the big bosses wanted to create a brand new website called www.eteachinternational.com. I managed to persuade them to not to do that and instead use a subfolder approach off of our well established and strong domain www.eteach.com (phew). However, now I'm getting a little lost in making sure I don't duplicate my content. We have a staffroom section on our website which basically has lots of relevant content for people searching how to become a teacher, e.g. www.eteach.com/how-to-become-a-teacher. We also want this same content on the international subfolder, as it will still be relevant content for international teachers. However... Do I have to completely re-write the content (which I'm trying to avoid as it will be very similar) or can I put in a rel=canonical to the already existing pages? So basically (I know this HTML isn't right, it's just for visual's sake!): www.eteach.com/international/how-to-become-a-teacher rel=canonical --> www.eteach.com/how-to-become-a-teacher I understand this gives all the authority to the original page, not the international one, but I'm fine with that (unless anyone can suggest anything else?)
International SEO | | Eteach_Marketing0 -
.cn domain vs. .com/cn/ folder structure
Hey Moz Community, I'd love to hear your response based on some real world data around leveraging a .cn domain vs. porting the site over to a sub-folder structure (ie. com/cn/ structure). Currently, the site lives on a .cn and is fully translated/localized in simplified chinese - which is the ideal state. As part of a website redesign + cost analysis there is a discussion around moving all global content under a sub-folder structure using href lang, GWT combination to define country content. My question is around China specifically - does a .cn have a signficant impact on ranking? I've read conflicing reports. Secondly, how do Chinese users react to a non-.cn domain? I would imaging the click-through rate performance from SERPs is much lower. Thoughts? Comments?
International SEO | | JonClark150 -
My site is not showing on google.com ?
My website is not showing at all on google.com searches under search terms. It is showing if i search for my domain (xyz.com) but not by keywords. Searching by keywords and search terms shows my website on yahoo , bing and non US oogle as google.co.uk or google.com.pk on first page. Would appreciate any help in trying to understand why this is happening? The website is medicare.md. if you search for term "medicare doctors PG county maryland" it is #1 in bing and yahoo but not even showing on google.com first TEN pages, although not banned. Interestingly if you do that search on google.co.pk it is #4. Quite Puzzuling !! Would appreciate any help or advice . Sherif Hassan
International SEO | | sherohass0 -
MozCast.com - What happened on the 27th? Hottest day of the month!
MozCast.com - What happened on the 27th? Hottest day of the month! Anyone got any idea of what changed in the Algo on this day? Cheers.
International SEO | | activitysuper1 -
Risks of Migrating tld's to sub folders
Hi Guys, I am thinking of migrating our .co.nz and our .co.uk websites into sub folders on our .com website (eg: .com/uk and .com/nz). Do you think this is a risky strategy in regards to our performance in the localised search engines or should the centralisation of all these websites and their link authority into the .com help us move up the rankings? We are thinking of doing this in the next week, we have some really good rankings for the local googles, however we also have plenty of phrases sitting just on page 2 and I was hoping this might help boost them onto page 1? Has anyone else had experience migrating tld sites to sub folders on a .com and if so what was your experience of the impact on search rankings in the local googles and the timeframe that these changes took to have an effect? Did you have any negative results?
International SEO | | ConradC0 -
Geo Targeting for Similar Sites to Specific Countries in Google's Index
I was hoping Webmaster Tools geo targeting would prevent this - I'm seeing in select google searches several pages indexed from our Australian website. Both sites have unique TLDs: barraguard.com barraguard.com.au I've attached a screenshot as an example. The sites are both hosted here in the U.S. at our data center. Are there any other methods for preventing Google and other search engines from indexing the barraguard.com.au pages in searches that take place in the U.S.? dSzoh.jpg
International SEO | | longbeachjamie0