Choosing the best domain for international website section

[NachoRetta]

Hi, i made a question before but the answer not clarified me yet:

https://moz.com/community/q/which-is-the-best-xx-or-com-xx-in-general-and-for-seo

I mark as answered inadvertently.

I want to know what you think about choosing ".es" or ".com.es" for create a section for Spain and redirect them from the homepage. Same for Mexico.
I think that is not so important for SEO, but i am not completely sure about other factors.
Big marks like Toshiba use:
http://www.toshiba**.es**
http://www.toshiba**.com.mx**

and Cocacola:
http://www.cocacola**.es**
http://www.coca-cola**.com.mx**

".es" for spain and ."com.mx" for mexico?

[katemorris]

So you want to know if you should use country targeted top level domains (ccTLDs).

I can't say for certain if that is the right answer for you. It depends on your market, your products, and your resources. Check out the tool I built here: http://outspokenmedia.com/international-seo-strategy/ and report back with what result you get.

And never redirect based on IP address. Promise me you won't do that.

[NachoRetta]

Hi, thank you for your answer. Here is my report:

http://i.imgur.com/D7QBwZT.png

I dont understand, why we don't have to you use hreflang and IP redirection ?

D7QBwZT.png

[katemorris]

Thanks.

IP base redirection is many times inaccurate. The IP address is perfect, especially in regions like Europe. IN addition to that, immediate IP based redirection does not allow Google to crawl other country content as Google bot only crawls with a US IP address.

As for hreflang, given your answers, it's not of use to you because either you are targeting countries without multiple languages or don't have the means to translate everything. OR your business is best for geo-targeting only (different product offerings, etc) and are not focusing on countries with more than one official language.

hreflang is only intended for use between pages of the exact same content that have been translated. If your products change or there is something else different and that depends on the country, geo-targeting is needed. Since that content changes and there are not multiple languages needed for each country, you do not need hreflang.

Based on your business, or your answers in that tool, you should either launch ccTLDs or use the main domain and use country based subfolders.

• domain.com/es (Spain)
• domain.com/mx (Mexico)

A ccTLD (.com.mx) is a strong signal for targeting to that country, but it is a brand new domain, and totally separate from other domains. This means you have to work harder to build up both domains, but given the right amount of work and dedication, these will be a stronger signal of targeting that country. That's why top companies pick those.

However, if you want to utilize the strength of your current gTLD (which I assume is generic ie .com, .net - not country focused), a folder structure that is based on country will allow you to use the strength of the main domain. You will need to ensure each subfolder is claimed in Google and Bing Webmaster Tools and geo-targeted. The ccTLDs do this automatically but subfolders have to be set up manually if they are targeting a country.

I hope this helps!