***www.something.de or www.something.com/de***

Whether which address has more power

[asifiqbal]

Hi
Can someone tell me whether which address has more value according to search engine's point of view. If we have one address of
www.something.de
and second address is
www.something.com/de

thanx & regards
Asif Iqbal

(edited by: heini at 10:18 am (utc) on May 15, 2002)

[backus]

I'd say that depends on which engine. US engines I'd say .com, German I'd say .de.

[heini]

Welcome to WmW, Asifiqbal

Generally the most important point in localizing is language, not so much the TLD. Almost all major search engines will classify a site from automatic language recognition.

Nevertheless some engines, like AV, do classify for TLDs.
Local TLDs are however important for submissions to local directories.

Another point is this: if you decide to buy a local domain, you have the chance to get your keywords in the domain name in the local language.

Plus a domain name in the local language often sticks better with the users.

So all in all: a generic local domain is by far the better choice.

[stever]

Heini, I know we've had this discussion before - but isn't the TLD also relevant in this particular instance with google.de - if searches are made for Seiten aus Deutschland, then it has to be .de suffix or hosted in Germany.

[heini]

Asifiqbal, please add Stever's point to the list of arguments pro www.example.de.
Thanks Stever.