Other country TLD's for US product

[okiedokie]

We have a product ( Example: Car ) where all of the TLD's for North America (Example: Car.com, Car.net, etc) have been taken.  I've found several for TLD's like .IT, .LA, .AG, etc.  If I purchased those and launched sites under those TLD's in the US on servers here in the US and marketed the same as a North American TLD, do you see any issues with this regarding SEO challenges? Thanks All!

Hugs,

Natalie

[RobertFisher]

Natalie,

My first suggestion is ensure there are no genericTLD's available for your product/service. (.org, .info, .co, etc.). If they are not available, one that is treated by many as a generic even though it is a ccTLD is .io. Even Google looks at it as a generic.

You would then set your geographic target as US in GWMT. Go to your site in GWMT and in the top right corner there is a gear symbol you click on. It will give you three choices and site settings is the one you want. In site settings the first item is Geographic Target. Set if for the US and then rock and roll.

Hope this helps,

Robert

[RobMay]

Hi Natalie,

I would stick to trying to find a ccTLD that is US based, if you are going to be operating in the US. Buying ccTLD for other countries and trying to rank those in the US/CAN marketplace would be, essentially, VERY difficult and require extra long hours of link building strategy (content development, news, media, etc) to even consider ranking a high level ccTLD from another country in the US index, and for a top ranking.

I would not recommend this strategy, even around top level country domains outside the US (These countries also have strict rules and are usually specific to each country) about purchasing ccTLD's from areas you don't reside in, or have an 'administrative contact' address for. The geolocation issues associated with this are a problem too.

UNLESS, you have a company already up and running, buy a ccTLD from another country, are moving your companies based of operations to that country, could release press and news media about the move, and why - doing this will have little benefit and the work involved in ranking it, US based, would be much more than it's worth with regards to an advantage weight.

Also - just to note that KW rich domains don't outrank brand counterparts anymore, as Google has removed weight in their value. Sure they still rank and are here and there in the index, but I seldom, if ever see KW rich domains dominating the search index now. Sounds like it's a new domain, and either way, you are going to have to develop one heck of a digital marketing strategy around it, to build up the sites domain and page authority (links).

Best bet is to find a US based ccTLD and move towards building a brand around it, from within the US. Take the time to effectively build something of value that will WOW people, and have them coming back for more

Hope that helps a little