Old Domain Vs. Local Domains

Better to host regional sites under a single old domain or seperately?

[mameha1977]

I run a multi-region site in the following way:

www.dom.com/us/
www.dom.com/de/
www.dom.com/cn/
www.dom.com/uk/
www.dom.com/fr/
www.dom.com/kr/
www.dom.com/ja/
etc...

The domain name itself has been active and in our name for over 12 years, and has many inlinks to the root www.dom.com and the Japan site. The domain name is registered in Japan. The server is in US however MSN webmaster tools recognises the site as being in JP region. We rank #1 for everything in Japan and very low in English/other languages.

I am now considering moving the regional sites to seperate servers, like this:

US Site = www.dom-us.com on a US server
German Site = www.dom.de on a server in germany
Chinese Site = www.dom.cn on a server in china
etc...

Ignoring the effort and cost to implement and maintain, from an SEO standpoint would this be a wise move or not?

[Webwork]

After posting lots of "domain facts" you have shifted the focus of the dialogue, in the ultimate question, from domains to SEO. Therefore I think the question is probably better presented in the SEO focused search engine forums, here at WebmasterWorld.

The answer I suspect you will get is that localization-ranking looks at a variety of factors, in addition to those you've mentioned as a basic strategy, including evidence of "true locality" (office location data, phone numbers, etc.), location of inbound links (are inbound links coming from sites that are localized to the new situs of the technological localization), etc.

What you are setting up is what I'd call technological localization, i.e., you are moving what you can control by technology to create the appearance of 'local'. EFFECTIVE algorithmic localization will rely on and weigh factors other than those a webmaster can control by pressing a few keys or buttons.

What you have described is a starting point for localization, but it is more the appearance of localization than "really local". Think of all the other reasons that the sites you are competing with in the SERPs are "more local" than your site. Address those factors. I'd start with local language, links from localized sites and a map of everytning else local. Forum? Blog? ?

Hope that helps and makes sense.

I'm not sure how much better you will do posting in the SEO centric forums but you should at least read past posts in those forums for indications of how to rank locally.

[edited by: Webwork at 1:40 pm (utc) on Feb. 20, 2008]

[mameha1977]

OK can the admin please move this to the SEO forum please?

[HuskyPup]

mameha1977 - Just copy your post here:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[Webwork]

I'd suggest you reframe the post / issue, not just re-post it, to inquire about the "other factors" that will come into play as you contemplate this move.