Choosing the best domain for international website section
-
Hi, i made a question before but the answer not clarified me yet:
https://moz.com/community/q/which-is-the-best-xx-or-com-xx-in-general-and-for-seo
I mark as answered inadvertently.
I want to know what you think about choosing ".es" or ".com.es" for create a section for Spain and redirect them from the homepage. Same for Mexico.
I think that is not so important for SEO, but i am not completely sure about other factors.
Big marks like Toshiba use:
http://www.toshiba**.es**
http://www.toshiba**.com.mx**and Cocacola:
http://www.cocacola**.es**
http://www.coca-cola**.com.mx**".es" for spain and ."com.mx" for mexico?
-
Thanks.
IP base redirection is many times inaccurate. The IP address is perfect, especially in regions like Europe. IN addition to that, immediate IP based redirection does not allow Google to crawl other country content as Google bot only crawls with a US IP address.
As for hreflang, given your answers, it's not of use to you because either you are targeting countries without multiple languages or don't have the means to translate everything. OR your business is best for geo-targeting only (different product offerings, etc) and are not focusing on countries with more than one official language.
hreflang is only intended for use between pages of the exact same content that have been translated. If your products change or there is something else different and that depends on the country, geo-targeting is needed. Since that content changes and there are not multiple languages needed for each country, you do not need hreflang.
Based on your business, or your answers in that tool, you should either launch ccTLDs or use the main domain and use country based subfolders.
- domain.com/es (Spain)
- domain.com/mx (Mexico)
A ccTLD (.com.mx) is a strong signal for targeting to that country, but it is a brand new domain, and totally separate from other domains. This means you have to work harder to build up both domains, but given the right amount of work and dedication, these will be a stronger signal of targeting that country. That's why top companies pick those.
However, if you want to utilize the strength of your current gTLD (which I assume is generic ie .com, .net - not country focused), a folder structure that is based on country will allow you to use the strength of the main domain. You will need to ensure each subfolder is claimed in Google and Bing Webmaster Tools and geo-targeted. The ccTLDs do this automatically but subfolders have to be set up manually if they are targeting a country.
I hope this helps!
-
Hi, thank you for your answer. Here is my report:
http://i.imgur.com/D7QBwZT.png
I dont understand, why we don't have to you use hreflang and IP redirection ?
-
So you want to know if you should use country targeted top level domains (ccTLDs).
I can't say for certain if that is the right answer for you. It depends on your market, your products, and your resources. Check out the tool I built here: http://outspokenmedia.com/international-seo-strategy/ and report back with what result you get.
And never redirect based on IP address. Promise me you won't do that.
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
-
Proper SEO structure for Franchise/ Franchisee websites
Hi Neighbors, Franchise website design and development can be difficult, there’s no doubt about it. I had to find the right balance between a unique and unified brand identity, and a localized experience that accurately reflects the individual franchisees and their efforts. Due to the many benefits, I have structured the to read _domain.com/location _ domain.com = TLD /location = subfolder (location page) I have also built a customized CMS (e.g. Drupal) and have given each location access to manage their location page (subfolder). To accommodate local SEO optimization, franchisees have complete control in terms of optimizing their location page (subfolder). Title tags, meta description, Alt tags, etc... Will any local optimization performed in the subfolder (location page) be stiffened because it was not done in the TLD but in the subfolder ?
Local Website Optimization | | Jeffvertus1 -
Best domain setup for network of locations
Hi there! I am looking for some industry expert weigh-in on best practices to how to best approach the business scenario described below to bring in some outside confirmation of our approach for a client. Tim runs a business,timsbusinesswebsite.com. Tim's business has between 15 and 30 individual locations in large cities across the United States. Unfortunately, the approach to each individual location's digital marketing has been inconsistent. Some have a unique URL for their location (e.g.timsbusinesswebsite.com/new-york-city/) Some have a subdomain (e.g.chicago.timsbusinesswebsite.com) Some have a separate domain altogether (e.g.timsbusinesswebsiitelosangeles.com) Which of these three approaches would best build the best foundation for the business in local and national rankings from an SEO standpoint and why?
Local Website Optimization | | searchcityusa0 -
Client wants to rebrand but insists on keeping their old website live as well...
I am working with a client in the dental space that has an existing (11 year old) website for his practice. His domain is tied to his last name, which he would like to get away from because he plans to sell the practice in the next couple years. Backstory: Prior to taking him on, he was working with an SEO agency out of India that were built him quite an ugly backlink profile. Once we discovered it, we immediately notified him about the risk of a penalty if left alone. He was riding high in Google SERP's so of course, it was of no concern to him. Needless to say about a year ago he was inducted into Google's "manual penalty club" for suspicious links. His site vanished in Google and all! Hooray! But no, not really... We met with him to discuss the options, suggesting we clean up his backlink profile, then submit for reconsideration. Based on the time we told him it could take to make progress and be back up and running, he wasn't very excited about that approach. He said he wanted us to rebuild a new site, with a new domain and start fresh. In addition, he wanted keep his original site live since it is tied to his already thriving practice. To sum it all up, his goal is to keep what he has live since his customers are accustom to using his existing (penalized) website. While building a new brand/website that he can use to build a cleaner backlink profile and rank in Google as well as to sell off down the line without having his name tied to the practice. Question: Being that he has an existing site with the company NAP info throughout and the new site will also have the same NAP (just a different domain/brand), is there a "best way" to approach this? The content on the new site would be completely unique. I understand this approach is iffy but in his situation it makes sense to some extent. Any feedback or ideas on how to best handle having two sites running for the same dental practice? If any part of my question is confusing or you need further details to help make a suggestion, please fire away and I will be happy to give as much detail as possible. Thanks Mozzers!
Local Website Optimization | | Bryan_Loconto1 -
Is this website optimized? Parallax web design for SEO.
Friends, I'm hoping to get some feedback on optimizing a website. It's a parallax web design so there's really only one title tag and meta description. I don't want to stuff the on-page content with keywords that don't flow with the copy/branding. What are some additional opportunities to optimize this website? It's not ranking in SERPs and has a low DA. Here's the URL, please take a look and let me know what I could be doing - https://saintst.com/ Thanks!
Local Website Optimization | | GarrettDenham0 -
Breaking through strong competition domains
We are trying to rank this domain: https://citychurchbloomington.org/ for this phrase churches in bloomington in. We recently had updated our domain name from citychurchfamily.org to citychurchbloomington.org because 1) it made sense for the organization, the end-user searching, and to help our rankings. Currently we are at position #4 on page 1 but have three sites ahead of us: churchfinder - in the last year this site came out of nowhere and slowly made its way up to the top spot high rock - this church had held spot #1 for many years and we've struggled to challenge it's place on the search results and are somewhat unclear why sherwood oaks - this site had been in spot #2 for many years and at times we've been able to challenge it's position but its held fairly tightly at spot #2 in the past, #3 since churchfinder rose up in the last year We've done competitive research and made some changes to our meta title, description, and h1 tag on our site but we're looking to make our next move to try and break into this top tier of results. I'm asking the community here for any insight/suggestions into what kind of move we should be exploring or making at this stage to move up. Sincerely, Andrew
Local Website Optimization | | a_toohill0 -
Why am I not ranking although my domain authority is higher than competitors with same relevancy?
So I am trying to rank the domain http://jamesriver.org for the term "Churches in Springfield, MO" Not sure why we are not ranking as well as we ought to rank. I have a few assumptions, but wanted to see what other have to say to get better input. Below are some details about the us: We have done a brand name change in the past 2 years - James River Assembly to James River Church We have two locations: Ozark, MO - which has been there for a very long time and Springfield, MO which is a newer campus We have higher domain authority than others that rank higher for the term We have a new website that was launch about 3 months ago We have a location page for each of the 2 campuses I am wondering what factors might be at play in our lesser rankings even though we are relevant to the term and have higher authority than those that are ranking much higher than us. Thanks for any help you can provide.
Local Website Optimization | | chris.oursbourn0 -
Is my competitor doing something blackhat? - Cannot only access pages via serps , not from website navigation /search
Hi Mozzers, One of my competitors uses a trick whereby they have a number of different sitemaps containing location specific urls for their most popular categories on their eCommerce store. It's quite obvious that they are trying to rank for keyword <location>and from what I am see, you cant to any of these pages from their website navigation or search , so it's like these pages are separated from the main site in terms of accessing them but you can access the main website pages/navigation the other way round (i.e if you select one of the pages from finding it in serps) </location> I know that google doesn't really like anything you can't access from the main website but would you class this as blackhat ? / cheating etc ... They do tend to rank quite well for these alot of the pages and it hasn't seem to have affected pages on their main website in terms of rankings. I am just wondering , if it's worth us doing similar as google hasn't penalised them by the looks of things.. thanks Pete
Local Website Optimization | | PeteC120 -
Where should I 301 redirect my current domain to given this situation?
My company currently owns three apartment complexes. They are within blocks of each other. Only one of them has a website (believe it or not). The one that has the website ranks fairly well, but only because it has been around for a long time. There have not been any intentional SEO efforts. I have stumbled across a wonderful, keyword rich & location specific, domain name but I have a question. Here's the scenario: We have: Apartment Complex 1 - www.apartmentcomplex1.com (longstanding website) Apartment Complex 2 - No website. Apartment Complex 3 - No website. We are considering buying the domain: www.KeywordRichDomain.com. The new URL structure would be: www.KeywordRichDomain.com/apartment-complex-1 www.KeywordRichDomain.com/apartment-complex-2 www.KeywordRichDomain.com/apartment-complex-3 Should I 301 redirect www.apartmentcomplex1.com to the new root domain or should I redirect it to the appropriate sub-folder of the new domain? Putting myself in the user's shoes, if I were expecting to go to the apartmentcomplex1.com domain, I would want to land on the sub-folder because it's relevant to what I was looking for. However, I don't think people will directly type in the old URL. I think people will be searching for apartments in the area and I want all three of our complexes to show up. By redirecting the good domain to this new root domain, it should help us start out life pretty well in the SERPS. (my assumption at least). Thoughts?
Local Website Optimization | | MeasureEverything0