.com or .com.au for Australia targetted site?

by renegadetmj

Posted: 12 years ago 10 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Hi Warriors,

I have a site that is a .com which is exclusively targeting people living in Australia. The site has a series of pages each targetting a different keyword combination in the form of "keyword keyword Australia".

Using SeoBook rank checker I can see that many of my pages rank fairly well for their targeted keywords when searching Google US, however when I run the same check across Google Australia I am not ranking anywhere near as well. (???)

My question is this - to best reach my Australian audience should I be using a .com.au domain for this sort of content?

Any thoughts or comments appreciated

#australia #comau #site #targetted

Joshua Rigley Banned 12 years ago

It'd be a good idea to have both domains, and have the .com redirect to the .com.au. However, I wouldn't know which is preferred.
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JerrickYeoh 12 years ago

Yes.
.com.au domain help you rank better serp in Google because they know you target local.

with .com.au domain , Australia will likely click because they know is own country website.

.com is use to target global and .com.au is use to target Australia only.
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dadamson 12 years ago

Yes, here are the 3 main factors for ranking in Australia.

1. .com.au domain

2. Australian-based hosting

3. Backlinks from Australian .com.au websites.
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- rondo 12 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by dadamson
  
  Yes, here are the 3 main factors for ranking in Australia.
  
  1. .com.au domain
  
  2. Australian-based hosting
  
  3. Backlinks from Australian .com.au websites.
  
  Also set geo targeting in Google webmaster tools.
  
  Personally I don't think au web hosting is that important.
  
  Andrew
  
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Sheryl Polomka 12 years ago

I would think for ranking the .com.au would be best. But...... I believe to have a .au name you do need to have an ABN. Not sure if you also need to have a registered business name or not, but I'm pretty sure you need an ABN.

AU names and hosting are more expensive too
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Targeted Traffic 12 years ago

Your business website should be hosted on servers that are geographically relevant to your target area, if you want to make it to “front page”.
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laurencewins 12 years ago

I am in Australia and I have a .com, not a .com.au because I target everywhere.
However, if you're going to exclusively target the best country in the world, use .com.au but also buy .com and point it at the .com.au so you grab all those people who never think to add the .au part.
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maxxcans 12 years ago

I think it is best to go for .com.au. It is specific, so you can get specific people also.
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sal64 12 years ago

if targeting AUS then .com.au is the way to go.
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officer_iron 12 years ago

If you can get both do it. It's no secret that G likes the domain to be as local as possible. Therefor, .com.au would treat you better for targeting AU
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