Is it safe to redirect our .nl (netherlands) domain that we have just purchased to our .com domain?

[donaldsze]

Hi all!

We've recently developed a German version of our website with German translation and now we have just purchased a .nl domain, but with this one, we want all of the copy to remain in English. Is it ok to redirect our .nl domain to our current .com website or will this give us bad SEO points?

Thank you!

[trainSEM]

Yes, doing a 301 redirect from your .nl to the .com site will be fine, but why are you doing that?

Are you going to advertise in Holland and show the .nl URL? If so, users might be unsettled if they end up at the .com site. If it is just 301'd and that's all you do, then hardly anyone other than a person guessing your URL will even use it. You might not even rank in Holland.

There are no bad SEO points for the .com site, but you could be losing the chance to rank on Google.nl. I don't think Google.nl will note the 301 and therefore show the .com as well as a well-SEO'd .nl site.

You could put English content on the .nl site, preferably a rewritten version of the .com site. The key is to get .nl links to the .nl domain (if not 301'd). Make it a Dutch site as much as you can - get listed in Dutch directories, get Dutch citations, etc.

[Chris.Menke]

If you made the .nl site the same as the .com com site, you could also cross-domain rel=canonical each page over to the .com site, which would leave visitors on the .nl site but assign all value over to the .com.  As Ash said though, putting unique content--either Dutch or English--might me your most effective option.  It may be even more effective if you host it in the Netherlands, too.

[Houses]

The 301 shouldn't be a problem but as stated it might be odd if used on advertising and then people end up on a different domain. It will help you snap up domain name so no-one else can use it though.

If you don't want a duplicate nl site in Dutch, you could keep the nl domain to a single page with Dutch content and then suggest Dutch visitors visit your main .com site. Would be worth having a contact page with address in Holland too.

If you make the nl site a re-gig of your .com site, make the content as different (and appealing to Dutch visitors) as possible.

Although many Dutch can speak English, they can't all, especially older generations so bear in mind when thinking about just serving English content.

[donaldsze]

Thank you so much for all of your responses.

I thought the redirect would be the easiest option for now but then we would want the contact page, and preferably the homepage, to have the Dutch telephone number, email address and map (of the Amsterdam office).

At the moment, translation for the .nl website is not an option, but this is something we are thinking about for phase 2. Our .de domain has been translated, and for now, we just want to get the .nl domain up and running!

Is there a way we would be able to have a dutch homepage, with the correct telephone numbers and map, but then redirect to the rest of the website on .com?

Building links to .de and .nl will be something to think about in the future but for now we just want the sites to be indexed and accessible to users from their respective countries.

Thank you!

[Houses]

I would add a link from the home page to the rest of your content (the .com site) but make it clear that people will be taken to a new site.

Redirects not required.