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| Local Domains - Choose wisely! |
| Posted: 03-04-2006 | Views: 135 |
| Author: Christine Anderssen |
In fact, I would go so far as to say that it was probably
considered quite 'cool' to have a .com domain. It gave
the impression that you were serious about your business.
Then Google decided to go local and now most local country
searches would probably go through the version of Google
specific to your own country.
When Google launched my country's local version of Google
(www.google.co.za) I investigated the matter of having
a .com domain versus having .co.za domain and how that
would affect where you would show up in the SERPS (search
engine result pages).
I searched through various forums (on Google itself) as
well as other big forums like WebHostingTalk. I also did
my own tests. The consensus seems to be that you will
only show up in the regional search engine of Google (and
I specifically refer here to using your country's local
Google to LIMIT results to your country's results) if
1) your domain extension (e.g. .co.za or .co.uk etc.)
corresponds with the region, or
2) your IP of the hosting server falls in the corresponding
geographic region or
The implication of this is that if your domain ends in
a .com AND you happen to be hosted physically on an internationally
located server, your .com domain will NOT show up in www.google.co.za
when the search is limited to South African results.
(How do you know whether your domain is hosted locally
or off-shore? There are technical ways to find out but
the easiest would be to ask your hosting service provider!)
Now you might argue that people might not use the 'Limit
to results' option - that they might search
world wide. That might be so, but here is another curveball:
Even when presenting world wide results, the regional
Google search engine gives a preference to local domains.
So here is the bottom line:
- When you have a .com website, make sure that the physical
servers that they are hosted on are located locally in
your own country
- If you have the option (and your business is aimed at
your local market), always register a local domain for
your business website.
If you currently have a .com domain that is located off-shore,
you will NEVER show up in the local results of Google
(if you specifically limit the searches to your own country's
results only), and even when people do not limit the results
to your country only, you will compete against millions
of other .com domains, while your local competitor with
a local domain extension will sneak right up to the top
results in Google because Google gives more preference
to those domains when using its local version of the search
engine.
What can you do about this? I would suggest that you register
a local domain and start migrating your webiste over to
the new domain. You can leave your business cards and
company brochures with your .com extension until you run
out and have to print new ones in any case - all you need
to do is ask your webhosting provider to put a forward
on your .com domain to your local domain name.
It will take a while for the transition to show up in
all relevant search engines and to be frank, this might
not be a painless process! But you need to decide how
important it is to you to show up on the first pages of
the local search engines - there are other ways of marketing
your website too. But if you think that you might be losing
out on targeted traffic, I suggest you bite the bullet
and go for it - rather sooner than later!
Get the maximum benefit from your website: Your FREE course
on how to turn your website into a powerful marketing
machine for local businesses is available now at http://www.cheap-web-hosting.co.za”>tailormade4you-webhosting---cheap-web-hosting-for-south-africa</a><br-/><br><br><b>This-article-is-free-for-republishing</b><br><br>Article-Source:-<a-href=
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