Local domains vs. subfolders?

[LConnect]

I am in the process of rebranding a B2B website for a UK company that has been established on a .net address for ten years.  The CMS is Wordpress.  The company has previously had localised content on .net/de, .net/au extensions for various regions where they have offices (US, Oz, various Europe.)

I am getting varied and at times conflicting feedback from the creative agency, inhouse digital staff, and IT about the best way to proceed with the new website and in particular its future local language versions.

Question 1:  If we change the .net website to a .com address, will 301 redirects safeguard our SEO real estate?

Question 2:  we own the .com extension and have been using it for some back office stuff.  It was purchased because it was advised that the .net did not carry much credibility in the US, is this correct?

Question 3: If we change the .net to the .com which is hosted in the US,  will we wipe our search rankings on Google for the UK and non-US locations?  I saw this post and wondered: 
http://moz.com/community/q/uk-rankings-disappeared-after-us-website-launch

Question 4:  is hosting the regional site best done on a local domain (we own a bunch) or does that not really matter?

Question 5:  If we use a WP plug in and just use subfolders for translating and localising content (US, Germany, Australia),  what is the best way of serving that content for local PR?

Sorry about the many questions

Guni

[David-Kley]

Lots of questions! Whew ok... here I go

Question 1:  If we change the .net website to a .com address, will 301 redirects safeguard our SEO real estate?
Most all your page rank and weight should be trasferred through the 301. If you are leaving most everything else the same, it will also be very simple to redirect, as you can do a mass redirect in htaccess if the URL structure stays the same. If not, you will have to redirect all the pages manually. Yes, its very time consuming, but its the safest way to ensure all your pages go to the right place.

Question 2:  we own the .com extension and have been using it for some back office stuff.  It was purchased because it was advised that the .net did not carry much credibility in the US, is this correct?
Meh, if the site is set up well, and validated through multiple places then there will not be much of a difference. With a .net domain, it’s still possible to achieve high rankings on search engines, but you just have to make sure that you put in the extra effort into your branding methods so that clients and prospects are aware that your website ends with .net and not .com. Most people will type in .com by default without even thinking about it.

Question 3: If we change the .net to the .com which is hosted in the US,  will we wipe our search rankings on Google for the UK and non-US locations?  I saw this post and wondered: 
http://moz.com/community/q/uk-rankings-disappeared-after-us-website-launch
If the transfer and redirects are done thouroughly and to the most complete that it can be, then most likely no. I'm a bit curious as to why you do not have a .uk for your domain extension, particulary if you target the UK. Also, it looks like the guy who posted that had two duplicate sites, trying to rank for multiple countries. Duplicate=bad news for seo. If you launch 2 website that are the same, Google will most likely index the newer one, and the old one will get replaced. This actuall happened to me at an old company I used to work at. We had 2 sites, for 2 different areas. One launched, and then someone took th eother site live without changing out content for the new area. Old site got knocked down, new site got pulled up.

Question 4:  is hosting the regional site best done on a local domain (we own a bunch) or does that not really matter?
Local like how? Please elaborate what your intentions are and focus area would be. (what domain for what area)

Question 5:  If we use a WP plug in and just use subfolders for translating and localising content (US, Germany, Australia),  what is the best way of serving that content for local PR?
Why not just use Googles own translator, rather than a plugin?
http://support.jimdo.com/tutorials/apps-and-plugins/how-to-add-google-translate-to-your-website/

[LConnect]

Hi David

Thank you for the input - to clarify:

Question 4:  is hosting the regional site best done on a local domain (we own a bunch) or does that not really matter?
Local like how? Please elaborate what your intentions are and focus area would be. (what domain for what area) ==>> our intentions are to be found online.  We have a huge competitive landscape and some of our larger competitors spend fortunes on PPC.  So my question is,  will hosting our site in Australia on a .au domain  rank it higher than relying just on subfolders?

Question 5:  If we use a WP plug in and just use subfolders for translating and localising content (US, Germany, Australia),  what is the best way of serving that content for local PR?

Why not just use Googles own translator, rather than a plugin?
http://support.jimdo.com/tutorials/apps-and-plugins/how-to-add-google-translate-to-your-website/  ==>> the quality of automated translation does not work for us due to our sector and we need human translation and localisation for language as well as tone of voice, culture etc.

I hope that makes sense.

Guni

[David-Kley]

So my question is, will hosting our site in Australia on a .au domain rank it higher than relying just on subfolders?

If it was me, I would. By having that extension you are stating clearly what your intended target area is. Additionally, this could save you money if you do run local country ads, due to the ads being of higher quality and relevance. Just be very careful that you do not have duplicate content index-able across multiple sites. Make it unique for each area and country