Are provincial third-level domains bad for SEO?

[22Eighteen]

My prospect's domain ends in ".on.ca" (Ontario, Canada).

The structure of their site is companyname.on.ca (main page) and all other pages are sub-folders (companyname.on.ca/page-name-1

All pages are no more than two levels deep.

I'm wondering if anyone knows if the provincial sub-domain (.on.ca) presents an SEO challenge?

[Xiano]

I've never come across any issues with using a variety of TLD from a purely SEO point of view. I would argue that they can have some effect on CTR (which could indirectly affect your rankings) if you have competitors that use "more important" TLR with the same subdomain, e.g. yourdomain.co.uk vs yourdomain.com, but in your case, with a company name, this seems less likely to be an issue. While I would recommend getting hold of the other domains (if they haven't already) and redirecting, I would suggest migrating to a different TLD if they have used the original domain for a long period.

[effectdigital]

Google haven't extended this documentation to cover provincial third-level TLDs but if you look here:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en

... there's a table on the page (scroll down) which you might find quite useful. It outlines the various pitfalls of different types of local-specific URLs. I'd expect this kind of stuff to hold true for the newer provincial TLDs

[Xiano]

I may have misunderstood, but I don't think 22Eighteen was asking about having multiple sites with different TLDs targetting multiple areas, I got the impression that this was a single site that happened to have a provincial TLD.

[effectdigital]

You are right but my POV is that although it's a different situation, the same limiting factors might come into play. Event with just one site with one region based TLD, these points from Google are still valid (mostly, some can be ignored):

Country-specific domain

Cons:

• Expensive (can have limited availability) - still relevant but also since this cost is already paid, of little concern to OP
• Requires more infrastructure - this is irrelevant as it's just one site so loads of infrastructure won't be needed
• Strict ccTLD requirements (sometimes) - still relevant but also since this cost is already paid, of little concern to OP

-

Pros:

• Clear geotargeting - this is highly relevant and could, IMO, if Google had written the documentation correctly - also have been listed in the cons pile
• Server location irrelevant - n/a
• Easy separation of site - n/a

So the main thing to focus on here is this statement from Google on country-specific domains:

"Clear geotargeting"

... now "clear geotargeting" can be highly beneficial, it can give your site and pages more 'relevance' for a specific area. But it's a double-edged sword! If you have international ambition, it can be a limiting factor (that's really what I was getting at) and it could make ranking internationally, very difficult indeed. It would mean that when OP does decide to go international (if that time ever comes) OP will either require a network of domains which could be costly in terms of setting up all the required infrastructure

So although OP's setup might be ok 'for now', later it could become an unwieldy leviathan which proves to be... not very scaleable. Or at the least, not so easily scaleable

So OPs decision is, does OP want to have some local gains now at the cost of having a more difficult time later when OP scales the site, or is OP unwilling to make that trade?

And think of this: Google have pretty much stated numerous times that 'locked' geo-targeting (to one specific area, either through TLD choices or Google Search Console) can make it much more difficult to rank outside of the specified area. One could make the assumption that for provincial TLDs, if Google starts interpreting them in a similar way - it could be hard to rank even outside of the local province. That could be a real thorn in OPs side later, though right now it might matter much

The truth is no approach is intrinsically 'good' or 'bad' for SEO. It entirely depends on OPs goals, KPIs and ambitions (to which we are not currently party)

[zeehj]

To echo what's been said:

• no clear SEO downside of you using the TLD .on.ca

• there may be benefit to procuring other TLDs for your domain name, particularly if:

• .com is available,

• you serve other provinces or other countries (and not just Ontario), and

• your search competitors tend to use non-provincial TLDs (e.g. .com, .ca, .org, etc)

[22Eighteen]

You're correct.  As a Canadian, I wouldn't be concerned with a county level domain.  For example: thismotel.ca but a .com would be better as they also attract customers from outside of Canada.

But they have a provincial second level domain.  .on.ca.  (thismotel.on.ca), no site can be found under just thismotel.ca and a search for WHOIS on CIRA results in this message "The domain name requested has usage restrictions applied to it."

Based on my research they've likely had this domain since before 2010 as now most provincial level domains are reserved for government institutions.

I'm thinking they will likely need a new domain for user experience alone, but I don't know if the fact they have a provincial second level domain has hindered them in the past with their SERP rank.

[22Eighteen]

Thank you.

[effectdigital]

Not a problem

[effectdigital]

"most provincial level domains are reserved for government institutions" - I didn't know this, very interesting bit of info there!

It would be very hard to say if they had been definitively hindered but IMO it's seeming more and more likely