Several years ago, registering domains on multi cc TLD's and getting as much content targeted into those regions as possible sounded like a sure fire strategy to scale in a globalized market.
Such a strategy might require some tweaking to localise the content, and perhaps, if necessary, add things like different measures, contact details etc.
Google's last official guideline was written in March 2010 by John Mueller, which goes a long way to encouraging it : [
googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com.au...]
Matt Cutt's recently added to the intrigue with a video focused on the use of specific ccTLD's versus generic, perhaps another sign that Google encourages the strategy. [
youtube.com...]
Some folks may still prefer to stick with a single site, with a folder structure targeted to specific regions. But with this there are disadvantages.
Some folks with a lot of resources, that I speak with, have found supporting multiple TLD's too hard and ditched the strategy by consolidating sites into one. So I wonder if smaller sites with limited resources are thinking the same way.
I'm in two minds as to whether ccTLD's is still a smart thing to do from an economic and ranking standpoint. Given the added maintenance cost and vulnerability associated with promoting and supporting each multi ccTLD's, together with a significant escalation of Google updates leading to threats of penalties, what's the consensus these days ( 3.5 years on ) as to whether this strategy is still alive, kicking and scalable. What's being recommended out there? Thoughts?
