They are proposing removing all these domains and placing a mega site on one new domain to cater for all markets.
Yes, I'm horrified too! ;)
I've told them no, don't do it. I've given various reasons but they have requested third party research to support these reasons. Can anyone point me in the right direction of reports, research or articles that support the idea that multiple domains for multiple countries is a good idea?
Saying that ebay, amazon, google, etc all do it is not good enough.
[edited by: Fruit_and_Veg at 11:39 am (utc) on July 6, 2007]
I have a client who has multiple sites for multiple countries all hosted on the particular country domain, widget.co.uk, widget.fr, etc, etc.
Is each site hosted in its respective country i.e. .co.uk in the UK, .fr in France etc or are they all hosted on one server?
If on one server, in which country are they hosted?
How are the rankings for each domain now?
Personally I feel they are going against the flow of what is happening of geo-targetting with the search engines at present and I have been going down that route for the past 7/8+ years separating country specific sections from the .com site to its own country domain.
I have some 150+ sites, many of them with country specific domain names, and wherever there are reasonable hosting costs I host in its own country.
As to any specific research I have no idea, possibly Neilsen etc? What I can tell you is that our business enquiry levels have risen substantially when clients perceive they are dealing directly with the country involved rather than going through a generic .com however I do have all these domains linked direct from the .com therefore the .com is the all encompassing generalised core site with the country specific domains as the local much more in-depth sites.
Of course, everyone's mileage will undoubtedly vary.
The public in some specific countries is very keen on sites that use the local ccTLD. In other countries, it does not matter. The UK and Germany are examples of these countries. You can probably get some more specifics from previous postings.
One thing to consider is whether or not to translate "widgets" into the local language. If it's a generic term, you probably want to do so. A company name, not. There may be some generic terms you'd prefer to keep in English, or register both. You will have to consider the language and culture of each country individually.
I'd be very careful with translation, and make sure to get somebody who is: 1) A native 2) work in, or familiar with, your industry 3) quite literate and creative with language. Of course, this goes for ANY translation you do, but particularly so your domain name. A literal translation will not do - it needs to consider everyday usage and culture.
I have tried searching in the forum but unsure of the exact terms to use. Searching for things like 'consolidate tld into one' doesn't result in much and 'one tld' is too much. Any links to key threads?
No actual research been done on this then?
I doubt you'll find much on consolidating multiple ccTLDs into one site, as it's a kinda dumb idea. That seems to be your own conclusion, as well - now you just have to convince your company that it's a dumb idea. So, focus on the merits of keeping things the way they are, rather than trying to find somebody who made the mistake your company is about to make. :)
