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I recently had a website translated into Spanish and am looking to promote it in the Spanish (Spain, not latin america) search engines.
How difficult is it to register a .es or get hosting physically located in Spain? I want to make sure that the site is considered as being Spanish specifically.
Are there other ways to accomplish this as well?
Also, is there an updated list of Spanish directories? I've read the older 'primer' but I'm curious if there's anything more current.
Thanks for any suggestions -
Matt
A .com address con rank equally well in Spanish SE's as long as it has Spanish hosting, for which there are no restrictions.
There are in fact more .com Spanish websites than .es ones, due to the above restrictions.
The Spanish hosting will only help you on the big SE's, by the way. For example on Google, it will only help when a user chooses the "Pages from Spain" option, which in my admittedly limited experience happens approximately 20% of the time.
In my looking around I came across a site saying that the .es will have all those restrictions removed in June or July of this year. I'm thinking of maybe pre-registering one, but I'd also like to not have to wait that long.
It might be worth it though, if a .es will help give the site a boost.
I've also seen .com.es which I believe is open to anyone to register. I might go with that one.
Sticky me if you can't post a name here.
The Spanish market is totally accustomed to .com sites and although there may be a slight advantage in terms of image if you have a .es, it will be very, very slight.
The real advantage is having Spanish hosting, due to the geo-targetting of the major SE's.
I hadn't heard about the change of restrictions for .es domains and much less that it was to happen so soon. Can you give more details on what you've read?
I can't verify this, but I read it on a European domain registrar's site.
In summary it is saying the following:
Phase 1 - Runs from 7 June 2005 08:00 to 7 July 2005 08:00 - Public bodies can register appropriate domains
Phase 2 - Starting in September 2005 (actual date to be specified) and lasting for 45 days - Other organisations including buinesses can register appropriate domains. Looks like you still need to have some sort of intellectual property right over the name to do so.
Free for all - Starting in November 2005 (actual date to be specified). No restrictions over registration of domains except that the organisation registering (person or business) must have an interest in and links with Spain.
Registration now costs 25 with no administrative charge. Previously costs were 60 and 60 respectively.
Annual renewals also dropped to 25
