Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
We are in the process of launching an Ireland, French and Italian lang versions ( so content will be different- okay i know ireland is english lang still but we have made it a plain bones site compared to our main uk site).
How shall i proceed? what's the best way?
1. Use .ie , .it and .fr domains ( 1 of my comp does this)
2. use subdomains. france.mysite.co.uk etcetra
3. Use .co.uk site but have a link that changes text and currency to the chosen language and euro currency
If i opt for 1 or 2, will it still be okay to keep the sites hosted on a USA server, i prefer to keep it together.
and lastly, - i know this is a often asked question- my current.co.uk is hosted on a US server- is it hurting my SE rankings?
At the moment, im leaning towards option one.
I do not know of any country where you'll need both, but in France, all things are possible.
Different language sites will not be a duplicate content issue, but same language sites will - you need to think carefully how to manage the UK/Ireland issue, to deal in two currencies, but avoid duplicate support content.
For google at least when one searches from France ( a machine on a french IP ) even if one specifies that one wishes the results to be from the entire web as opposed to just pages in french or pages from France ..one will always get results that are heavily weighted in favour of those hosted in France ( although some may not be dot fr's )..this even applies to searches for keywords or keyword groups that are composed of non french words ..
thus ..If when you search from the UK for an english word your site is the number one result ..when I search from here you may appear on page two of serps ( unless you are hosted in France ..) the originating IP address of the search is very closely linked in all search engines to the physical location of the hosting IP ..
From a commercial point of veiw ..if you are selling anything french people have much more confidence when ordering from dot fr's which have a french address ..the requirements for a dot fr have been relaxed recently ..but the restrictions on domaine names , what your site may contain etc are still very much more draconian than many other countries ..
this link may help [afnic.fr...] ..it is in english ..much of the afnic site is undergoing revision so some areas are in french only at the moment ..
Bear in mind that if you wish to sell to France you will have to contend with a different level of VAT ( there is more than the one ..but the average is at 19.6% ) and they apply to some goods which are exempt in the UK ( books for example and childrens clothes ..there are many others ..talk to HM customs to be sure of your field ) ..also you will need to have a support service capable of reading understanding and replying to enquiries from France ..( which will not be written using the kind of french you may have learned ..even at university doing a degree in modern french in the last 3 years )..
And do not use an auto translation system for anything on your website nor it's support ..email or otherwise
bon chance ;-)
[edited by: Leosghost at 2:13 pm (utc) on Sep. 30, 2006]
as Quadrille points out US server space is cheaper than most french server space ..there are some companies in France who now offer better deals than the UK hosters ( most of whom I personally find expensive ) ..however you can mitigate those effects by buying some space in France for "landing" and then using SSI etc and other ways such as hosting all your images at cheaper servers in the US in order to keep your costs reasonable ..the act of pulling some of your non text content from outside France will not affect your rankings nor page load times etc if done well and with carefull thought as to the construction of your pages ..
Bandwidth is a factor as included bandwidth in France is generally much lower than in the US and overunning it can cost you heavily ..so think carefully ..or convert very very well ;-)
