Hi all, My brother is looking to launch a new website. He is based in Australia, however he would like the website to have a global reach (i.e. he ultimately hopes to archive good keyword rankings in global searches). Therefore as a start I have advised him to register a .com domain instead of a .com.au The confusion begins with how Google will treat this site in global searches (e.g. using google.com), instead of say google.com.au For instance, I believe that if the site is a .com but hosted in Australia, then Google will look at the IP address of the host, determine that it is hosted in Australia and assume that this is the target market. So question 1: How will having a .com hosted in Australia affect the potential of the site to rank for his chosen keywords in global searches? I have previously been advised to register a .com for him and host it in the US. However, surely Google will then see from the hosts IP address that the site is hosted in the US, and assume that the US is the target market instead? So this doesn’t really help. Question 2: With Google webmaster tools, you can set the target region for a site. So I could take my Australia hosted site, but tell Google that the UK is my target market. However, 2 problems here. Firstly, again this doesn’t help because what I really want is to host the site where I want and tell goggle that it is not specifically targeted at any one place, but lots! Secondly the small print says that the geo-targeting will only come into effect is someone searches for that region using advanced search. e.g. If I’m in the UK but only want to see sites targeted at Australia, then I have to select this in advanced options (clearly the average web user just uses the standard search box ). How can I give this site the best shot of reaching a global market no matter where it is hosted? Cheers, Dave --------------------------------------- advertise holiday homes
Definitely *do not* set any particular location tracking to the domain in Google Webmaster. As for question #1, I'm sure the fact that it is not a US hosted site does come into play, but I don't think it will be drastic. There are lots of foreign hosted companies, large and small, ranking high for their .com's. If you had the money to spare, you might want to list the site in a couple high profile universal web directories (Yahoo, BOTW & Business.com for example). I'm not entirely sure if that would re-enforce anything, but it couldn't hurt.
The search engines just give a geotargeting boost based on where your website is hosted. It is not a crucial element for ranking in a particular region though. It is more important to get links from websites that are hosted in that area or are somehow related to that area. You should decide what region is your primary target. First get traffic in one area and then gradually expand. For that global website would you make more money with US traffic or Australia traffic?
you are always better to have a host in the country you are targetting, so a .com.au should be on an australian server, for global penetration then a .com on a us host.... having a one host over another will not make you rank better or worse but when they select that radio button on the google web page for the country then you will be pulled up and those on other servers will not be pulled up
How may articles can you submit to Digg per day? I'm very disappointed lately because my account they was banned. They do not say the reason and justy states that it is irreversible. Also, are Digg and Shoutiwre connected? The same day my account was blocked in Digg, my Shoutwire account was banned also.
Better, You could choose .com domain and you can change the Geo targeting for Australia in your Google webmaster tool. EOD you need organic traffic so do not worry about Geo location.