Ranking gcctld?

[JoshAM]

I am working on a new site that uses a .io TLD.  I have just started working to get the domain to rank for its own name.

What are some others experience with ranking and SEO for gcctlds?

[CleverPhD]

One quick suggestion.  Make sure in Google webmaster tools under site settings that when you verify the domain that you properly specify your location.  I am betting that you are not based in the middle of the Indian Ocean!

Also there is a great answer here

http://moz.com/community/q/do-domain-extensions-such-as-com-or-net-affect-seo-value

[JoshAM]

Great tip!  I had setup webmaster tools, but not checked this setting.  My location was set to the "-" by default.  I changed it to US, does this mean that if I want to target international traffic I won't be able to?

Is this the same in bing?  Going to look now.

[CleverPhD]

Here is the Google info on what the Geotargeting does

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/62399?hl=en

They would look at the extension, but also where you are hosted, location information on the site (eg your address) etc.

As far as who you target with the settings

"The tool handles geographic data, not language data. If you're targeting users in different locations—for example, if you have a site in French that you want users in France, Canada, and Mali to read—we don't recommend that you use this tool to set France as a geographic target. A good example of where it would be useful is for a restaurant website: if the restaurant is in Canada, it's probably not of interest to folks in France. But if your content is in French and is of interest to people in multiple countries/regions, it's probably better not to restrict it."

So, it depends on what users you want to target.   If you truly want to be international, do not set it.   I bet if your site is in english and your are hosted in the US and your physical address is in the US, Google will show you as a US site.

[john4math]

.io gets used a lot around the world as a general TLD, so Google no longer assumes that it's a site targeted to the British Indian Ocean Territory (here is their help center file on this).  Your site will be treated similarly as any other gTLD.  This is probably true for Bing as well, but I couldn't find any documentation about it.

If you're not US-specific, I'd leave the country targeting blank in Google/Bing webmaster tools.  Either way I wouldn't expect it to make a huge difference.  Just know that Google doesn't think you're trying to target the British Indian Ocean Territory based on your TLD choice.  As CleverPhD pointed out, they use a bunch of other factors to help determine this as well.

[JoshAM]

Both of you have great advise and appreciate your help.  Have you ever worked on getting a gccTLD to rank or competed for keyword targets with a gccTLD?

[john4math]

Wish I could help you out more here, but I don't have much experience in this realm.  All of my work has only ever been on .coms.  Sorry!

[CleverPhD]

Matt Cutts must have been reading this thread - check it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJqZIH_0Ars

He mentions using .io as a "non geographic" specific domain.

[JoshAM]

Awesome!  The dev community has been using .io for a while, so it is natural that it gets considered a gccTLD.  Really good to here him mention it.

[JoshAM]

As an update I am seeing a very slow start to getting the domain to rank in the top 200 results for its own name (riley).  By this time with a .com I would usually have seen my site somewhere in the top 100 without much effort.  Although, I haven't started a new domain from scratch for a competitive key work like "riley" in a while.  I will continue to build links and eventually do more marketing when the site if further along.

Let me know if anyone else has had some of the same experiences with gccTLD rankings.

Thanks!