Domains for regional websites

[markc-197183]

Please take a look at 7city.com

This landing page contains links to:

www.7city.co.uk

www.7city.ae

www.7city.com.sg

and our US website which is also www.7city.com

It is programmed so:

If you are a first time user and type www.7city.com you go to the landing page above. If you then click on AMERICAS, it sets a cookie and directs you to  http://www.7city.com/home .  When you revisit www.7city.com in the future as the cookie is set you will be automatically sent to the AMERICAS website i.e http://www.7city.com/home.

Our US websites is nor performing well on organic ranking compared to other regional website.  Is the above technique hindering our organic ranking in the US.

Also, I have been led to believe that you get a higher ranking if the domain is specific to a country. Is this true? Does 7city.com receive higher ranking than if I created it as 7city.us for example?

Many Thanks

Mark

[SEM-Freak]

Within webmaster tools, where have you geo-targeted 7city.com? The other will automatically be set to their respective countries. Make sure you set 7city.com to the US. This might help.

[markc-197183]

Thanks Geoff I've done that. Hopefully it will make a difference.

[JamesNorquay]

Hi,

Some factors you need to think about:

1. Set the GEO location in webmaster tools.

2. It may be worth using a USA based host for this website, I notice it is hosted in Dublin currently.

3. Are you using links from USA based sources of UK sources?

I hope these points assist further.

[john4math]

If you're having issues with Bing as well, the directions for geotargeting are here: http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/webmaster/archive/2011/03/01/how-to-tell-bing-your-website-s-country-and-language.aspx

[markc-197183]

Thanks John. Yes I haven't done this for bing yet.

[markc-197183]

Hi James,

Thanks for your reply.

1. I've just done this

2. The websites hosted on Amaxon AWS. I thought it was where the domain was registered was important not where it was hosted.

3. Not sure what you mean could you explain further?

Many Thanks

Mark