The effect of using country top level domains - WF members experience?

[OneHourTranslation]

Hi,

When it comes to local versions of promoted websites, many SEO marketers recommend using country top level domains (e.g .jp, .co.uk) in order to:
1. rank better in local search engines.
2. better chance to attract and get the attention of potential customers who live in the target country.

There is a significant effect - no doubt. The results for a Google query that includes ""&gl=jp", for instance, is very different for Japanese strings.

I'd like to hear from other members about their experience with country-specific TLDs: what was the effect? did you measure ROI ? What were the negative sides of the change ?

Thank you!

[tony-raymondo]

I dunno enough about it, but I know I bought my first .us domain 3 months ago and I still really regret it.

it doesnt rank worth at all

I can't help but think the .us has something to do with it, because all my other websites are ranking

[OneHourTranslation]

Thanks for the feedback. I probably wasn't clear enough - I'm referring to countries that English is not their official language in my question.

[Mark1]

Originally Posted by OneHourTranslation

Hi,

When it comes to local versions of promoted websites, many SEO marketers recommend using country top level domains (e.g .jp, .co.uk) in order to:
1. rank better in local search engines.
2. better chance to attract and get the attention of potential customers who live in the target country.

There is a significant effect - no doubt. The results for a Google query that includes ""&gl=jp", for instance, is very different for Japanese strings.

I'd like to hear from other members about their experience with country-specific TLDs: what was the effect? did you measure ROI ? What were the negative sides of the change ?

Thank you!

I read a book called Get to the top on Google by David Viney. If I remember correctly he agrees that it is best to use the country domains but there are a couple of things to watch out for. First make sure that your web host is in the same country. If you live in England but your web host is a Germany company operating out of England your site may show up on Google as being a German site. It has been a while since I read it so I would definitely research this information again for yourself.

The other thing is if you are from Canada for example I think it may be better to use an American web host or .com as the US has a larger market. I didn't find an answer to this but for me the American market is so huge I would prefer to rank high in that market on Google compared to my own Canada. I guess it would also depend on your business and if your target market is local.

Cheers

[tony-raymondo]

Originally Posted by OneHourTranslation

Thanks for the feedback. I probably wasn't clear enough - I'm referring to countries that English is not their official language in my question.

well i've been experimenting a lot lately with proxies and sucking down the first page of the google SERP from foreign countries.

surprisingly, for many words I don't see much of a change in the SERP based on region. But for some words I do.

by default now, google slants its results per the "region from which the qeury originates."

so is the language and the extension of your website, part of the google sauce?

probably

[alansalton]

the best option for local project use sample domain with .jp .cl or .anycountry

[OneHourTranslation]

Originally Posted by Mark1

First make sure that your web host is in the same country.

Is it still valid today in the cloud area ?

[ddaily]

It does not matter if you use a host outside of the country to which the domain extension relates - Google usually targets your site according to the extension (eg UK for co.uk or Ireland for .IE)

[espresso]

I am no expert but all the cctlds I have used have ranked high bar one (the newest one I am still working on it)
I would recomend using ccTLD however .US maybe different as google.com as the internet is still very much american focused and .com is so big in the USA

[jaysteven84]

yes it helps a lot for SEO if I want to rank in local listing then I choose domain for this country. Also customers feel more comfortable to buy from local website.