Website in English targeting different countries - is it worth investing in .com?

[LeszekNowakowski]

Hi,

I was wondering...

Let's say there is a company in Norway and It sell tours in Norway. Website is only in english, content stays exactly the same for each country (as the website is for people looking for tours in Norway). The domain is registered with .no ccTLD. Main target is USA, Canada and Uk and couple of other countries in Europe. Would the website benefit from having .com instead of .no?

Thanks!

[katemorris]

Yes. Simply put, all else being equal, if you are targeting an multiple country international audience in which your offerings do not change, you should have a general TLD rather than a ccTLD. I can't say that you will start ranking better for sure, but it'll help in the long run.

[IsaCleanse]

Hey Kate

What would you suggest for a .com.au domain that is now looking to expand into UK?

Would you suggest uk.domainname.com.au or www.domainname.com.au/uk/ ?

Is there a best practise for this?

[LSIversen]

I would definitely use the .com domain.

Honestly, in your situation a .no doesn't make that much sense. The site is about Norway, sure, but your language is English and you're targeting basically every other country than Norway. If you're using a ccTLD, it's fair for a consumer to expect the language on the website to match the cc - which is not the case here.

So a .com would absolutely be the way to go, in my opinion.

[LeszekNowakowski]

Thank you Kate for response.

[LeszekNowakowski]

Hi LSlversen,

thank you for your response.

But don't you think that people looking to book tours in Norway expect to do it on the website located in Norway (domain-wise)?

[9digital]

Hi Leszek,

Your target markets/audience will not come to google.no or any other search engine with .no extensions to search. Search engines they will be searching on will be with .com, .ca and .co.uk etc. so it certainly makes sense for you to invest in .com or some other generic domains like .tour etc. if available for your industry.

[LSIversen]

Hm, actually no. It's an interesting dilemma, but I would still prefer the .com.

You are too focused on your product - and not enough on your target audience. They are not from Norway - therefore the .no is wasted.

[katemorris]

You can't geo-target a ccTLD to another country outside of the ccTLD's country, so depending on your business needs, you might need a gTLD like .com. Check out this strategy tool and let me know what result you get. I can recommend further from there. http://outspokenmedia.com/international-seo-strategy/

[katemorris]

Actually, if the page is the most relevant to the users query, any TLD can rank well in Google.com, Google.co.uk, etc.

This is not a matter of user preference. It is a matter of indicating the the search engines what your target market is. A ccTLD indicates that you want to only target one country. That is not the case here. But they can rank with a .no to users in the other countries, it is just harder.

[LeszekNowakowski]

So lets have this example of another nordic country: Iceland

If you type "tours in iceland" - 90% pages that will come up will have .is ending. Yet they are still ranking internationally. If we were to launch a .com in Iceland, would it have an advantage over the other ones(assuming that everything else is equal)?

Why they are all using ccTLD? Is it lack of knowledge?

[katemorris]

In theory, all else being equal in terms of relevance, page quality, and ranking page strength (which it never is), yes. Your page would be from a site that is not targeting a specific country, so it should be marginally more relevant. However, as stated above, it won't MAKE you rank better for sure. There are a host of other factors.

And yes, it is lack of knowledge and geo-centricity. You all see .no more often, so that is the go to in the other business owners heads. Lack of knowledge is the primary problem though.

[LeszekNowakowski]

To sum up: preferably go with .com. Itself it wouldn't have a big impact but in long run and with good SEO strategy in place it should actually help with ranking.

On the other hand if i go with .no and do the same work, the effect should be generally the same, right?

[katemorris]

Yes, but that is if none of your competitors ever move to a gTLD. It's one of many factors. The right thing to do is bite the bullet and move it now. But I would not expect much of a short term gain.

[LeszekNowakowski]

Thank you!

Have a lovely day

[IsaCleanse]

Hey Kate

Really appreciate you taking the time to respond and help out!

So for a business that is currently operating in USA, Canada, Australia, NZ and opening in UK and Germany soon with further expansion on cards how would you tackle this scenario:

I already have a .com.au that ranks #3 on Page1 of Google for highest traffic keyword
I have a .co.nz that ranks #5 on Pg1 for highest traffic keyword

Now looking to do do a .co.uk howver someone has pinched it. Do you suggest going for:
.com/uk/ 
uk.domainname.com (and keep reusing subdomains
Or a .co.uk domain?

Just as an FYI  and to throw futher spanner in the works.... my .com.au domain ranks on #2 for Page1 of Google UK for my target keyword as its currently not very competetive

Any feedback is helpful!

[katemorris]

Did you visit that tool? Can you let me know the result?

[IsaCleanse]

Hi Kate - here's the results - essentially its suggesting a number of options for URL structure similar to ones I am tossing up between but still unsure which is the best option in short or long term?

---

Keep in Mind:

1. The site content in each country must be different.
2. Don't use IP detection for country targeting, but ask your customers to set a cookie.
3. Only use people native to the country for outreach in order to minimize cultural differences.

Action Items:

1. Pick the URL structure for your international growth and stick with it. Keep in mind that the structure needs to include both translations and geo-targeting. We recommend one of the following options:
   • ccTLD and subfolder:
     www.domain.co.uk/de/product
   • ccTLD and parameter:
     www.domain.co.uk/product?lang=fr
   • Subdomain and parameter:
     ca.domain.com/product?lang=fr
   • Subdomain and subfolder:
     ca.domain.com/fr/product
   • Subfolder and parameter:
     www.domain.com/ca/product?lang=fr
2. Translate your content. Don't machine translate; while manual translation is costly, it's the best for your brand and user experience.
3. Put your HREFLANG in XML sitemaps.
4. Use the Language Meta tag for Bing translation targeting.
5. Set up Google Webmaster Tools Geo-Targeting.
6. Set up Bing Webmaster Tools Geo-Targeting.

[katemorris]

The structure is really going to be up to you. The differences in terms of what helps ranking are so very small today that it is better to choose based on user preference and your own.

For consistency, it would be best to get a .co.uk that is on brand, but that route takes a ton of work over time. My favorite route is a subfolder (/uk) off of a gTLD in most instances.

If your .com.au is already ranking well, expect that to keep happening until the UK subsite has had a chance to strengthen. And make sure your content is different!