The Most Common Misconceptions About Picking ccTLD Domains for International SEO
If you run an international business knowing that a significant amount of your customers are based in different countries or speak different languages; then you may want to optimize your domain in this direction. International domain ranking can bring your company on top of organic search results per locale; however, all domain ranking factors that’s been advised on the internet are not necessarily accurate.
Read on to find out the most common misconceptions about international domain targeting and find out what suits best to your business!
Misconception 1: Separate Domains for Each Local You Target
Generally, ccTLD domains such as “example.us” are known as the best way to target specific locales. The two-letter country code indicates in which country a website is registered and it might seem to be the best way of ranking your domain locally. Although ccTLD domains send clear signals to search engines, they are not easy to maintain and each site has a separate domain authority.
When you look into the domain structure of global e-commerce leaders, you may see that they are not using ccTLD domains but subdirectories. Subdirectories are easier to maintain and they consolidate the domain authority. As long as you make sure that using geo-targeting factors like subfolders, content language and local backlinks to the URL efficiently, ccTLD domains are not needed and you can build one strong website around your domain!
Misconception 2: Domains with Keywords Perform Better
Many business owners wonder whether including keywords in their domain name has a positive impact on SEO ranking or not. Well, the answer differs and it is all about the context.
Let’s say you are an online retailer that sells designer bags. Does putting the exact name of the bag model that you sell into your domain name rank you higher than the domain of the actual designer brand? The answer is clearly no. Actually, it is quite likely to make your online brand seem less trustworthy in your customers’ eyes. Hence, keywords in domains should be effective when used wisely.
Use keywords relevant to your subpages: A study found that 63 per cent of the top page results were for websites that included keywords in their URLs with the following formula: businessname.com/topic-topic
Instead of using keywords in your domain, try to include them in your domain path and make sure that this URL path makes your customers land on a relevant page. Now all present and correct!
Misconception 3: More Domains I have, Better Ranking I Get
When a customer misspells your domain name, they should be still reaching your website. That’s why covering common misspellings of your domain is certainly a good idea! However, if you’re buying domains as much as possible and placing inadequate content under them; it is not optimizing your international SEO contrary to the popular myth. As a matter of fact, it is harmful to SEO due to the fact that it is blocking your actual marketing activities and slows down the loading speed of your website which is not a good sign for search engines. Long story short, make sure that you only cover common misspellings of your domain, it is enough to keep the traffic going in the right direction!
To find out more tips & tricks about domain best practices, keep on following!
