Expert Advice Needed: Single Domain vs Multiple Domain for 2 Different Countries?

[ScorePromotions]

Hi MOZers,

We are looking for some advice on whether to have a single TLD(.com) or 2 separate domains (.ca) & (.com)

Our website will have different products & pricing for each of US users(.com) and Canada users(.ca).

Since, we are targeting different countries & user groups with each domain - we are not concerned about "duplicate content".

So, does it make more sense to have a single domain for compounding our content marketing efforts?

Or,

Will it be more beneficial to have seperate domains for the geo-targeting benefits on Google.CA & Google.COM?

Looking forward to some great suggestions.

[RyanPurkey]

I think this partially depends on resources you'll be able to expend on one vs two sites as gains made on one would have to be repeated in some way with the other site. Dev work on a single domain with dual pricing could be a bit more complicated than two separate domains with one singular price and fulfillment system.

Do you have any data on what customers of yours might prefer? I.e, would having the '.ca' help push conversions?

If the marketing plan is very much content marketing focused, you'll probably be better served by a single domain, but that could change depending on how regionally focused the sites are.

[ftfay]

There is a ton of passion about this topic online, and often between marketing departments in countries.

In a perfect world, for Google, you would have local content (unique by country), local domains (.ca and .com), local addresses and phone numbers, and the physical servers would be in the country.

This has to be balanced against multiple investments, management of the two, existing rank of a domain or domains, plans for multilingual in both countries (spanish, french), expansion to new countries, etc. If you already have a .com domain (or .ca) which is well performing in both countries, don't split it. Build a sub off of it (.com/en-ca, .com/en-us, etc.). Building off of one domain, with folders beneath it, provide nice flexibility for management, and can reduce costs. Additionally, you can target the content well. You may, and emphasize may, lose some SEO value, but this can only be quantified at your business level versus effort. Mozilla shows a nice example of one site with languages per folder. (No you are likely not Mozilla, but you get the point).

Your best efforts are to focus on content, solid architecture, great conversion rates, and ensuring localization of targeting and linking. These will have larger impact than folder v. TLD. (IMHO).