.coms will still definitely help. I'm from NZ and have sites rank in .co.nz with only international inbound links.

.com sites defiantly going to help but try to promote the site using google server of nz .

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Here are few tips to optimize your website for Google.co.nz
- Set your preferred domain in Google webmaster tools
- Get backlinks from target country (though you an get backlinks from websites with .com domain)
- Add your website to local search engines
- Get your website listed on country specific directories
- Get active on communities and discussion boards that are active in target country

Here are few tips to optimize your website for Google.co.nz
- Set your preferred domain in Google webmaster tools
- Get backlinks from target country (though you an get backlinks from websites with .com domain)
- Add your website to local search engines
- Get your website listed on country specific directories
- Get active on communities and discussion boards that are active in target country

Host your site on a NZ server but build global links

What budgetSEO said is correct! Also C rebbeca makes a good point about taking part in online communities in your country. Now this is not just for backlinks but for targetted traffic which is what we are all after at the end of the day.

Try and find a few forums around your topic that are high page rank and receive a fair amount of traffic. This way your SEO efforts won't got missed.

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