Umlaut in domain

[media-surfer]

Hi,

My client wants to expand it's business to Germany and logically we need a domain name to match. We've found a great one and regsiterd several variants to it.

However I just found out that in Germany it is possible (while here it's not) to register a domain with an umlaut. My question is: will google assign more value to:

schädlinge.de than schadlinge.de when users search for schädlinge?

If yes, how large will the difference be? (I will use an umlaut in the title etc)

Kind regards,
Jason.

[NakulGoyal]

Based on the SERPS in Google US for your keyword, it looks like you don't need it. Just using it in the page title should be enough. Further, if you do need it at a later date, you could technically have an inner page like schadlinge.de/red-schädlinge if needed and so on.

https://www.google.com/search?q=schadlinge

I hope this helps.

[media-surfer]

Hi Nakul,

thanks for your swift reply. I don't quite understand your reasoning. Let me first clairfy that since the buisiness expands to Germany, we are looking to target google.de

I did find google understands my intent but searching for schädlinge or schadlinge yield in different results. The domain name is supposed to give a boost in rankings for en exact match with the searched keyword.

Could you please further clarify?

Thanks

[NakulGoyal]

Jason

Yes, that changes. If you are targeting / going to target google.de eventually, it makes complete sense to acquire schädlinge.de.

I checked ranking data on Google.de for both schädlinge and schadlinge and what's interesting is that "schadlinge" is actually considered a mis-spell of schädlinge.

Are you currently only targeting Google US or other countries other then Germany?

[media-surfer]

I'm currently targeting Google Netherlands. Germany would be the expansion territory. It's a webshop that is going to offer it's products trough a separate German version of the dutch store.

could you please explain why it makes sense to purchase the schädlinge.de domain? (because it's registered by a domain farm and will probably be expensive)

I did find when searching for German terms with the umlaut, domains without them included score excellent (usually top 3.) This to me, would make sense since it was not always possible (even in Germany) to register domains with the umlaut included.

[irvingw]

If you are mostly targeting Netherlands than buy a .NL extension not DE. Secure both if expanding.

I would prefer with the amlaut if it is a German site being targeted in Germany, so it is better because people typing into google.de will be using the amlaut and this is the proper spelling for this word. That is assuming you can get a domain name with amlaut characters registered.

Will it make a big difference in rankings, probably not much so if it's a matter of getting a available domain name for cheap or paying a lot of money to purchase it off of a seller I would go with the cheaper route.

You can also look for a alternative domain name that has schädlinge with the amlaut in it and is available.

You will of course be using the amlaut in the site content and can use it in directory and filenames as well so you're still showing Google and the user what they want to see.

Use the word with the amlaut in the title tag and the meta description.

[media-surfer]

Thanks for your response,

the new domain name will be purchased and used exclusively for the German store. I will try to obtain both with and without the umlaut, but the first only if responsibly priced. 
(since the domain is just for ranking purposes)