.cn domain vs. .com/cn/ folder structure

[JonClark15]

Hey Moz Community,

I'd love to hear your response based on some real world data around leveraging a .cn domain vs. porting the site over to a sub-folder structure (ie. com/cn/ structure).

Currently, the site lives on a .cn and is fully translated/localized in simplified chinese - which is the ideal state. As part of a website redesign + cost analysis there is a discussion around moving all global content under a sub-folder structure using href lang, GWT combination to define country content.

My question is around China specifically - does a .cn have a signficant impact on ranking? I've read conflicing reports. Secondly, how do Chinese users react to a non-.cn domain? I would imaging the click-through rate performance from SERPs is much lower.

Thoughts? Comments?

[vmialik]

Hi Jonathan,

Tom has a great response here: "In terms of Baidu, having a chinese domain, like .cn or .com.cn and having Chinese servers certainly helps - but it is not a necessity in terms of ranking on the search engine.

However, proving that you have a Chinese presence, specifically a physical Chinese address, can be a real game-breaker, especially for PPC.  You basically need to have a Chinese registered address to advertise on Baidu for PPC and Paid search.  Your application will be halted until you do."

http://moz.com/community/q/how-do-china-perceive-a-com-cn-address

Hope this helps