Hello Everyone, Would love some input on using .CA Domains. I currently found an available domain that has a popular keyword but with .CA instead. So the question is would it rank well outside of Canada as well? My target market is worldwide. Just as an Example: Would Cake.ca rank better than buying YummyCake.com? I'm rather new to SEO, so would love some input. Thanks!
if you are promoting globally, then i would suggest you to avoid a regional domain. just the domain itself will not get your site ranked high. it all depends on how much work you put in to promote your site online. with the right seo campaign, you can rank either version of the domains just fine. google is lost these days on exact match domains (EMD) where they started penalizing sites having EMDs since last algorithm update. however, i started finding sites with EMDs ranking again on the top so its hard to say what google will do with EMDs in the long run. just get a domain that makes most sense.
.ca will only get found in Canada in natural search's, .co.uk will only get found in the UK, .ie will only get found in Ireland. only .co (columbia's old domain that went private and was given clearance) as far as i know is the only (ex) country specific domain ext that goes wordwide. Though thinking about it there is another small island somewhere but I forget the story on that one this moment. When you search in Germany you will find domains mostly .de Spain will be .es France wil be . fr etc etc. you have to actually search hard to find .ie sites from the UK for another example and know how.
actually .ca and .uk sites will be found on organic searches globally. its just that google by default will consider Canada to be targeted geo for .ca domains but that doesn't stop google to display the organic results in the USA or in any other country. if the site ranks high, it will be shown on other countries. besides, it is possible to change the targeted geography within webmaster tools. search for "immigration canada" for example and no matter which country you live in, you will find immigration Canada's .ca domain to be the #1 result
Ah yes but you always have to have the geo reference in the search query to SEO like your example. That's part of the tricks that can help you find out of territory domains but even then you are still likely to get .com's and local to some extent out doing those regional domains which need those regional specifics to even get a look in. Must get confusing even for the search engines with some searches. I was reading how elated Amit Singhal was that Google had now conquered some fairly basic things that would surpise most. I think in the OP's case unless people we're searching for Canadian cakes the .ca would be hard to get anywhere outside of Canada
While you will find a ccTLD will help with country-specific search targeting, on a global scale it's frankly irrelevant what the domain extension is and just matters on the success on the SEO, really. However, what you have to consider is if type-in traffic and word-of-mouth referrals are important to you. If so, and you're after global search, then .com makes sense. Otherwise, if you are just interested in a specific country (such as Canada, UK or Spain - as examples) then get the relevant ccTLD as people will be used to it. Of course, a .com is familiar as well, but the ccTLD is instantly recognisable as a local site/business. So think about your customers/visitors (this is always important in SEO and any business). There is no "preferential treatment" of .com (despite a myth that persists, usually with spammers), just on a global level it's what people are used to. So if you're just concerned about "search traffic" only, then go with any domain extension. As long as you don't screw up the SEO, it will rank fine.
Well if my memory serves me correctly ryan Google only agreed to give .co (a previous Columbian ext that went into private ownership) true global vlaue. Take a read > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.co Can you remember the whole thing happening a few years back? There is another extn to that is given the same status as it is the territory's main income. Edit on that Wiki page it says there is a video somewhere with Matt Cutts explaining it it says >
Remembered the other it's .tv > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Tuvalu Again down to commercial privitasation
but usually people use .CA for Regional for Canada. but no different from traffic .CA or .COM , it's depend on how you optimize your site.
As extension is not supporting so you shouldn't use .ca domains instead you can use .com you can add some words with the main keyword as well, but that should be related to your main keyword..
He was not discussing preferential SEO treatment. That just doesn't happen. Again, nothing about "SEO value". It's not going to matter whether it's .com, .tv, .info, .monkeyfeet, .ca, etc, to SEO. Read: https://plus.google.com/+MattCutts/posts/4VaWg4TMM5F
Well not according to all reports at the time ryan like> http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/359704/google-approves-co-domain-for-international-use I just saw and remembered there is a third domain that gets such treatment to mentioned on that last link to, it's .me You can try all you like doing SEO on a geo domain like .ca, .de, co.uk, ,fr, .ie and unless the country is mentioned in the search phrase you are not going to rank. Unless Google anounced differently whilst I was busy doing other things LOL There is more on this here > http://icannwiki.com/index.php/.CO_Internet_S.A.S. Including mention of the partnership with none other than Deloitte.
There is nothing in there to state certain domain extensions have SEO benefit. You obviously didn't read Google's words: "Google has a lot of experience in returning relevant web pages, regardless of the top-level domain (TLD)." Yes, big deal, they came gTLD. It won't change anything. Gigantic pile of BS. If it's a global search, then a site will get returned regardless of extension, if it has the global SEO to back it up, just like any .com, .net, .whateveryouwant would need.
Ryan If you search in the UK you will need to specify that country in the search. Natural searches without geographically related words will not return results from elsewhere anywhere if at all in 99.99% of cases. If you search on Google.co.uk in the UK you will not find Irish .ie results, you will not find french .fr results, you will not find Germna .de, you will not find Spanish .se results unless you use the words for those countries in the search term. These domains are to some extent restricted to cover the areas they are owned by the local Governments. Only commecially privatised domains like .tv and .co receive normal .com .net .info, .org like treatment by Google. Google treats geographically orienatetd domains this way and has done since 1998. I was taught ways to use search in Ireland on a Business Course and this was in 1998 and Google was still in it's early days and we got taught how to do country specific searches and nothing much has changed other than for things like .co which took ten years of negotiation to acheive their special treatment at being returned non country specific.
Now I see you missed my point completely. Re-read what I wrote about local and global search in relation to TLDs. In particular, "on a global scale it's frankly irrelevant what the domain extension is". You're banging on about geographically sensitive search, which was the opposite.
It is relevant though Ryan. Unless you use geographically related words like your example > "immigration canada" you are not going to find things from elsewhere. In Canada you won't find a .co.uk if you search for "cakes" or "Fancy cakes" you would only be likely to get those results if you use "UK Cakes" "UK Fancy Cakes" So it still boils down to domains being targeted country specific unlike a .co for example which has as much chance of ranking higher for normal/natural (non country mentioned) search's whereas those country specific ones are not given quite the quite same ride by Google.
Its not about which ccTLD (.ca or any other) domain you have, its about the quality work you put in, the value added to the users is letting search engines know how invaluable your site is and why it should be among the top ranked sites for the relevant keywords in the search results. Yes off course if a business is global its better to go with .com rather than other ccTLD domains or domain hacks. And also yes its bit easier to rank .CA domain in Canada then in other countries, and one should admit this.
You guys are not getting it! You cannot rank well outside Canada with a .ca unless you are .edu .gov (other gov site) or as ryan_uk showed me via PM a company name (maybe EMD but I have seen no evidence beyond a one word EMD "capiche" which is also a company name) it just is'nt going to happen no matter how high ranked you are on Google in your own area. I have proof to show you to but it won't let me post the links strangely. However please do this Go to Goolge.co.uk and also Google.ie Now type "best SE0 to hire" in both and check to see where Phraseological is, then go to do the same on both Google.ie and Google.co.uk for "best SE0 service to hire" and you will see in both cases Phraseological does not rank as it is a .co.uk however my other sites kd-mains.com and tvworlds.com both rank on page 1 as are dot com's. It's a moot point now as even with evidence to show that .co.uk domains can't rank on Google.ie even when on page 1 of Google.co.uk no doubt anomolies like company names that can rank will be added to by equally rare anomolies. Divide and conquer is the name of Google's game...