Doing French SEO - Questions

Let's say I'm going to create a French website. I heard it's better for SEO to host it on a server located in France (is it?). And I wonder if I should use a French domain registrar (even if it will be a .com) to register my domain or can I just go with GoDaddy? Does Google evaluate the registrar of your domain as well?

Another question I have if links from English websites are totally useless for my French site (in order to improve its SERP in French SEs)?

 

let's say a newbie answer :
1 - is possible to be better to host it on a server located in France but not necessary i think ... the final answer ... no
2 - i don't think Google evaluate the registrar of your domain
3 - links from english websites are not totally useless but from french sites will be the best ( link with your french keywords )

 

The server location will not have a big impact if the domain is already under a ccTLD (i.e. .fr in your case) but since it isn't than it is better to find a hosting that is physically located in France (and uses C-Class IP assigned to France). Another thing that will definitively help is of course have backlinks from French language websites, it will definitively look more natural than having backlink with French keywords in anchor text on a English language website.

 

Search engines do not consider the company you registered your domain with. Feel free to register with GoDaddy.

However, where you physically host the site could give Google indication that your site is based in France. Since your site is therefore more relevant to the French population, Google may give you a boost in rankings for French related keywords, especially in Google France. It also helps if you have the country-specific domain TLD .fr

No links to you site are useless but if your site is for French people, target links from French sites. This is better for your users and will probably be weighted more in search engines as well.

 

Hi ... my cents, links to English-language sites don't seem a problem, as long as the anchor text and description are en francis. Works for me. BTW: come across anyone who can do submissions to francophone directories? Good luck.

 

the server location is not going to put a big impact for your purpose. though english servers are not bad but try to get links from french sites.

 

Hello,

Having a mix of french and english sites, here is my point of view:
- Hosting has no matter in term of SEO
- Register has no matter either
- No link are totally useless as long as you choose a reliable (and therefore french) anchor.

I have plenty of english links pointing to my french sites, and this really helps.

And for your information, I ranked #8 in a French SEO contest because of the links provided by the friends here in DP. Links were totally english, how weird

Regards
Thibaut

 

Thank you Thibaut very much for your answers and congrats on your #8 rank!

I also wonder if a .fr domain is better for French SEO than a .com?

So you have links from English sites. But you use French anchor texts for your links, don't you? And you don't have even a single link from a French site and your site is #8?

 

Thanks

Not really, I don't have the feeling Google bothers about it. And FYI, I have no .fr at all but don't see any difference in term of SEO

Yes, exactly

I did have some French links but most of them were english.
You can check with Yahoo
Simply type link:http://www.pagasa.net/racheumeuneu.php

By the way, french links were faster entering Google.fr and therefore updating the SERPS. English links power came after few days only, causing my rank to drop dramatically for a while. After one week, once the SERPS update was completed, they skyrocketed it
My point of view is that regional SE have few differences in term of indexing. I guess this is quiet normal as you have many more english pages than french pages.

Regards
Thibaut

 

Check this:
If I search from my national Google (Google.si) for 'auto', the first three results will be german sites, with .de domain and czech sites with cz. domain (Germany and Czech are both close to my country).

If I use Google.com, I find only .com and .co.uk results.

So, it is more likely that users, who use Google.fr will find your site, if you use .fr.

I'm not saying this works for all keywords though.