Can a.co.uk or .de rank well in the US results?

[errorsamac]

I managed to get two great domain names (one .co.uk, one .de) that has my targeted keyword in it (for example, widget.de or widget.co.uk). However, my audience is mainly based in the US. If I develop sites on these domains, do they have a chance to rank well in the US SERPs, or will they rank lower than .com/.net/.org sites (all things being equal).

[tedster]

This is a good and timely question - especially since Google seems to be doing more and more to localize as well as personalize results.

All things being equal, I'd say the answer today is no. Even hosted in the US, my sense is that a .co.uk or .de will have to do a LOT more to compete on searches from the US. Keyword in domain is something of a help, but it's not all that big a deal. I'd prefer non-keyword.com to keyword.de if I wanted to complete in the US.

I'm willing (even hopeful) to hear contradictory viewpoints.

[foolsgold]

I seem to remember a while back Google saying that the content, rather than tld or hosted location had more effect. But I am not sure I go along with that totally as I reckon all three are involved , but to what degree I am unclear.

Try getting your sites hosted in US, add content, get links from target (US) country from relevant sites and write content for national audience, use their 'language', not just English!

[kidder]

No - I have a bit of experience with the different extensions and they don't do well in the US as a rule.

[tedster]

I know Matt Cutts has mentioned that the geographical location of inbound links can also be a help -- but it is a tough road,
I think, no matter what.

[djmick200]

Im no expert, I can only share what I see from my own end but it may shed a little light on the question posed.

mysite.co.uk does well globally, including the USA, I have many top 5 listings including top spots that manage to sit above large authority sites. I actually just checked a few searches before I wrote this and what Im writing is still the case.

The site is hosted on a dedicated server which is located in Germany and the has been online since 2001.

I have alsways found this subject very interesting and have read many posts and more times than not I seem to experience something other than what is being discussed. Another example being a .com hosted in the UK, again I have #1 spots on US SERPS.

If I can share any other info just ask :-)

Mick

[soapystar]

but does the search term have a geographical slant?..that is to say if your a .de with a site about bmw then i would expect a .de to be able to compete in the us....however if its a .de trying to compete on a non-geographical search then perhaps you lose out far more..

[glengara]

Allinanchor results for generic terms differ on the various Gs with "local" sites featuring, looks like "local" links with the correct anchor text get a boost; same thing applies to US sites on G.com from the States BTW....

Djmick200 are you accessing G.com via a US proxy?

I found the results quite different from the ones I got accessing it from Ireland...,

[Simsi]

Tedster:

All things being equal, I'd say the answer today is no. Even hosted in the US, my sense is that a .co.uk or .de will have to do a LOT more to compete on searches from the US. Keyword in domain is something of a help, but it's not all that big a deal. I'd prefer non-keyword.com to keyword.de if I wanted to complete in the US.

I'm willing (even hopeful) to hear contradictory viewpoints.

While I think you may well be right, it's not logical that Google should decide a domain with a certain extension be penalised. They must be fully aware that many business deal with import/export and have an offshore customer base. Similarly, one concept of the Internet is designed to assist service providers broaden their lines of communication.

It's just not a logical progression. But if they do it, they do it. Just that one would assume, if the long-term goal is to deliver SERPS purely on quality content, it will become less of a problem as the technology behind their algorithms gets more intuitive.

[djmick200]

Djmick200 are you accessing G.com via a US proxy?

yes, i searched various keywords/phrases over several proxy sites.

[djmick200]

I looked a little more into this.

site 1: mysite.co.uk - as I mentioned above location etc
site 2: site2.com - hosted in the UK
site 3: site3.com - hosted in the UK (the .com example i mentioned above)

mysite.co.uk is about 100's of widgets
site2.com is about a niche of five widgets - the five widgets are on site 1
site3.com is about 1 red widget - not on site 1 or 2

when searching for pink widget (one of the five niche widgets) site 1 & 2 are competing and the results pan out as follows:

via proxy google.com:
mysite.co.uk - #2
site2.com - not in first 40 results

.de
mysite.co.uk - #6
site2.com - not in first 40 results

.com.au
mysite.co.uk - #2
site2.com - #31

.co.uk
mysite.co.uk - #3
site2.com - #1

when searching .co.uk pages from the UK:
mysite.co.uk - #1
site2.com - #4

Interesting to note that for two months site2.com was ranking globally and showing the same results to the current .co.uk ones, at the start of May the reverted back to how it is now. Also pink widget I guess would only be known/popular in Europe and perhaps Australia & Japan.

On the other hand site3.com would be known globally and shows the following results.

when searching for big red widget (site3.com) the results are as follows:
.com (via US proxy)
.de
.com.au
.co.uk
All #1
plus #1 on .co.uk pages from the UK

Of the three sites site2.com is NOT listed in webmaster central and is not as old a domain as the other two though it does have more targeted IBLs for pink widget than mysite.co.uk - both pages are optimised very differently too.

Take from that lot what you can :-)

[WebWalla]

Do a search for [parliament] on google.com. Plenty of non .com's in the top 10.

My own belief is that ccTld's will get equal treatment.

[Mobro4000]

also, remember your target audience. the average american will click away at full speed at the sight of a .de comain.

they're the enemy, right? i say this jokingly, but it is something to consider.

[edited by: tedster at 1:54 am (utc) on May 25, 2007]

[Halfdeck]

While I think you may well be right, it's not logical that Google should decide a domain with a certain extension be penalised.

TLD and IP are not factors that improve ranking. They are used in combination to decide domain locality. For example, if the TLD was .com but the IP is UK based, then Google will assume the domain is based in the UK. If domain has a UK IP then the fact that it also uses a .co.uk TLD will not improve ranking.

Ranking depends on the keyword/phrases involved. One site, for example, ranks on the third page for "seo" on Google.co.uk but doesn't show in the top 100 on Google.com (US) due to heavy competition for that keyword in the US local space.

On the other hand, not many US sites are desperately trying to rank for words like "parliament." That leaves the SERP wide open for UK sites to break through.

Another example is a big corporate site that bought thousands of links to rank #1 for a two word phrase, targeting UK local results specifically because the largest piece of traffic for that term comes from the UK. The domain whois is US/Brandname but is hosted in the UK with a .com TLD. The site showed nowhere in Google.com (US).

[mattg3]

A .com in english hosted in Germany with worldwide IBLs since 1997 is according to Google only interesting in Germany.

So I suggest you put up a .my in hebrew up in the Ivory Coast and get IBls from Chile.