Can a country level domain perform well in international SEO if all the targeted keywords are related to that country domain?

[Abhi8187]

Hi fellow Mozers,

I  am doing international SEO on Google US, UK, UAE and Saudi Arabia. All my targeted keywords have my country name in it, for example, export companies in France, best import companies in France and so on. Finally, my website has a country level domain i.e. www.xyz.co.fr

_Hence, my questions are: _

1. Is it good have a country level domain in this case or should I go TLDs?

2. Should my Google Plus page be a local business page or company page from SEO perspective?  I have more than 10000 users who have +1 my website.

_Thanks in advance. _

[Highland]

So, just to get on the same page, you have a .fr ccTLD but you want to target US, UK, Middle East, etc. Is that right?

Remember that a ccTLD is a hint to Google that it is targeted towards that geographical region. But, at the end of the day, a TLD is a TLD. What makes a site rank for a given term is far beyond just the TLD. Do you have different pages in different languages? Is that copy well written in those languages or are you simply dumping them into a translation program? Do you have links from the regions you want to target?

There's no reason a .fr can't rank well for any term in any region. I see .co.uk results in the US SERPs all the time. But it does bring up another problem: user behavior. If a UK person sees a .fr they might skip your site, assuming it's French. Then again, they might just ignore the ccTLD and click it anyways. it might be best to get a gTLD instead if you want to go the single site route.

The best solution with geotargeting is always to segment by ccTLD. There's no duplicate content penalties, each domain sends its own hint, and it makes marketing it all easier. Plus users know that domain is for their country/region.

As for Google+... depends on your answer to the question above. If you're going to segment by ccTLD then build a localized page. if not, go with a company.

[Abhi8187]

Hi Highland,

Thanks for your time and giving a very detailed answer.

Yes, I have .fr ccTLD and I am targeting multiple geographies.

Let me make my situation clearer.

For example,we provide export management ( and most of our work come from foreign companies). Hence, if someone in UAE wants to outsource his company exports to a French company and searches in Google UAE " "Exports Management services in France" or " Exports companies in France". Now,  which domain would you prefer?

Now to answer your questions,

1. Do you have different pages in different languages? -- No, our complete site is in English. ( as 95% of our international sales happen in English only)

2. Do you have links from the regions you want to target?  - How do we go about it?  Is their any Moz tool that can help to find the targeted links?

Moreover, regarding User Behavior, in our case, wont a person sitting in UAE click on .fr site considering it to be more relevant and as our Meta Title and Description are in English would it not help him to know here is a French site that has content in English? ( Perfect for his business )

Finally, regarding Google +, I internally checked and our team is telling me that we have a company page, can we create local Google Plus page as we have hardly posted anything in the company page?

[Highland]

I've not done a lot of geotargeting links but I would assume the same rules as normal link building apply but with an eye as to the country of origin. Maybe look at some of your competitors and see where they have links from. Maybe talk to local suppliers and see if they could give you a link. In your case, you want the links to indicate they're in France.

I don't know that a localize Google+ page will help you geolocate. I've not experimented with Google+ in that way.

[vmialik]

_Should my Google Plus page be a local business page or company page from SEO perspective? _

• Local Business or Place
  This is usually the one to go for as it gives the option of giving your phone number which will be tied to your Google Places account. Its for A business in a location with a name Joe's Pizza in Aberdeen or Jean's Pet Shop in Paris
• Product or Brand
  This is used if the product is less geocentric and clearly defined like clothes, cars, electronics and financial services
• Company, Institution or Organization
  Use this category if you are less focused on selling and more of a service provider (Oxfam, Red Cross)
• Arts, Entertainment or Sports
  If you set up a fan page .. here is where to do it. TV, films, music, books, sports and theatre
• Other
  Suffice to say .. you will be asked if the material is suited to under 18 year olds or if there is any alcohol related material (from:http://www.calcouk.com/set_up_google_business_page.html)

This is of first importance, SEO will work the same way for most of these, for more specific SEO advice to G+ Pages see here: http://maximizesocialbusiness.com/google-plus-seo-8351/