Country Code TLD effect on rankings

kontentdruid · Aug 8, 2019

Hi

I haven't seen much written about this from an SEO perspective. If you use a country code TLD rather than a .com/org/net will that make it harder to rank in major markets such as the US or even globally?

I've seen .io as a very popular TLD for hi-tech and startups, and .co from Colombia is also popular. Curious if anyone knows/thinks/feels that using a country code TLD could hamper your ranking efforts if you are not targeting the country whos code you have used.

For example if i have no interest in ranking in Colombia but I use a .co rather than a .com am i losing/giving up rankings?

TIA!

mistigri · Aug 8, 2019

you're not loosing or gaining anything with .CO domains, google consider it same as .com/.net/.org etc

kontentdruid · Aug 8, 2019

if you say so

Valii · Aug 8, 2019

From my experience, country code TLDs plays a significant role in ranking sites for given countries. You can analyze the top 10 results for some Australian keywords and you will notice that most of the domains have .com.au TLDs, hence this is why you will find valuable keywords with low competition. Australian Government doesn't allow people to register domains with this TLDs without having a company or brand registered in Australia.

Nut-Nights · Aug 8, 2019

If you can buy the country top level, I am going to say go for it. I am using .in for the Indian market, and there is som advantage for sure.

shags38 · Aug 9, 2019

Google will assume that the ccTLD (country code TLD) indicates that the country code selected is where the emphasis of your market targeting is for eCommerce sites - as such it will often give priority ranking for your primary keywords in SERPs in that country. It does not mean that you won't rank in other countries (globally) but it is that much harder to do so than with a .com domain (with all SEO factors being equal). In the old Google Search (WMT) Google used to let you nominate your target country of choice (or 'not specified' for global) but with a ccTLD this preference was automatically disabled, confirming Google assumes that is your country of focus. I do not believe there is this kind of preference setting in the new version Google Search.

What I have done successfully for about 8 years now with two different niches is I have duplicated the eCommerce sites with a ccTLD and with a .com - both versions hosted in the ccTLD country - ccTLD must be hosted in country of origin, the .com can be hosted anywhere (if U.S. was your focus then there are advantages in hosting that version in the U.S. - primarily faster page load speed).

Google allows duplicate eCommerce websites if they are targeting different countries .... they do not penalize for doing that - I have 2 sites ranking in page 1 in their niches in Australia and the very same content sites with .com domain names ranking page 1 in the U.S.

So with a small amount of work in copying the first site you can use that data to load into essentially any number of additional sites under different ccTLD's.

So firstly determine which is you primary target market - if you are outside the U.S. then a ccTLD makes better sense, smaller market but easier to rank .... and then get a .com domain, duplicate your site (change internal links if necessary) and give the big market a try

kontentdruid · Aug 12, 2019

shags38 said:
Google will assume that the ccTLD (country code TLD) indicates that the country code selected is where the emphasis of your market targeting is for eCommerce sites - as such it will often give priority ranking for your primary keywords in SERPs in that country. It does not mean that you won't rank in other countries (globally) but it is that much harder to do so than with a .com domain (with all SEO factors being equal). In the old Google Search (WMT) Google used to let you nominate your target country of choice (or 'not specified' for global) but with a ccTLD this preference was automatically disabled, confirming Google assumes that is your country of focus. I do not believe there is this kind of preference setting in the new version Google Search.

What I have done successfully for about 8 years now with two different niches is I have duplicated the eCommerce sites with a ccTLD and with a .com - both versions hosted in the ccTLD country - ccTLD must be hosted in country of origin, the .com can be hosted anywhere (if U.S. was your focus then there are advantages in hosting that version in the U.S. - primarily faster page load speed).

Google allows duplicate eCommerce websites if they are targeting different countries .... they do not penalize for doing that - I have 2 sites ranking in page 1 in their niches in Australia and the very same content sites with .com domain names ranking page 1 in the U.S.

So with a small amount of work in copying the first site you can use that data to load into essentially any number of additional sites under different ccTLD's.

So firstly determine which is you primary target market - if you are outside the U.S. then a ccTLD makes better sense, smaller market but easier to rank .... and then get a .com domain, duplicate your site (change internal links if necessary) and give the big market a try

Thanks for this informative reply - now i understand this more. As for a followup question, my client is targeting global market but is inclined to try out a .co or .li for marketing/branding reasons. I am concerned that we might limit ourselves globally if we dont use a .com and instead use a .co (which is colombia), but we are not targeting colombia rather the entire world. Thoughts on this?

SERPhustler · Aug 12, 2019

If you want to go global, top TLDs would be best but if you're trying to dominate a particular country, country-specific TLDs would be a real advantage.

shags38 · Aug 19, 2019

kontentdruid said:
Thanks for this informative reply - now i understand this more. As for a followup question, my client is targeting global market but is inclined to try out a .co or .li for marketing/branding reasons. I am concerned that we might limit ourselves globally if we don't use a .com and instead use a .co (which is colombia), but we are not targeting colombia rather the entire world. Thoughts on this?

Personally I would go for a .com for a physical product and branding

Country Code TLD effect on rankings

kontentdruid

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mistigri

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kontentdruid

Senior Member

Valii

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Nut-Nights

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shags38

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kontentdruid

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SERPhustler

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shags38

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