Targeting multiple geographic locations on a .com

[webrankings]

How hard is it for a new site to rank in two countries uk & germany on a .com.

I know it's possible but it's not easy for a new site is it?

should we set up a subdomain for the alternate language or just .com/de/blah

Thanks

p.s. I know this isn't new ground but couldn't find a specific answer.

[tedster]

It all depends on what you hope to rank for, I'd say - in some niches it will be harder than others. It may help if you are already an established business, even though the domain is new. You'll have existing assets that you can leverage. My guess is that German ranking will be more of a challenge than UK ranking. German Google is a bit of an odd one.

For the German language content, I'd say go with the directory approach rather than the subdomain approach. Of course if you need to use a subdomain for infrastructure reasons, do that. There's no major advantage to either one. Just get all the "language signals" correct in the mark-up and the server.