We have a new client, UK-based but whose clients are all overseas (their
company sources products within the UK and exports them) who wants us
to build a new web site and manage their Internet marketing.
They want this to appear in search engine listings for
English-speaking
foreign countries, such as Ghana, South Africa and so on : UK listings
are actually of no use at all.
The present domain (used only for email at present) is a .co.uk
domain.
Should we set up pages for each country (extremely complex and not
really appropriate since enquiries can literally come from anywhere)
Or would we need to set up a country-specific domain for every country
-- and maybe have it hosted in each country (even worse, I'd say)
Or would we need a .com domain -- and if so, will it matter where it
is hosted?
I'd like a reasonably full and totally reliable answer -- since this client's
entire e-commerce strategy will be based on what is said!

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Request for Question Clarification by robertskelton-ga on 18 Feb 2003 23:19 PST

Regional versions of Google (like http://google.com.au ) offer local
searches as well as the full international search. Is it important to
appear if the searcher chooses their local search?

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Clarification of Question by stevew-ga on 19 Feb 2003 01:17 PST

“Regional versions of Google (like http://google.com.au ) offer local
searches as well as the full international search. Is it important to
appear if the searcher chooses their local search?”

It could be.   However, we have been warned about duplicating content
on different domains, so this may not only be more expensive and
complex, but also it could (we understand) lead to a penalty!

We expect to structure/optimise the site for a dozen or so
product-specific terms (eg 'radio communications equipment') with
secondary focus on the countries.   One idea was to set up a
country-specific page for each target country, but this would
inevitably be quite generic, and since the product areas are quite
competitive, we expect to need a good deal of focus in our content.

Going for a .com domain, provided it can reach all the required areas
on an international search, was our first idea and would be simplest
(we have been told that US ISPs are probably best for this) but we
need to understand (and communicate to our client) the full
implications of the different options.

So, to answer your point further, I'd say that ideally, we'd want to
appear in local searches, but if we need separate domains with
significantly different content, hosted independently, then the costs
and complexity may make this impractical.   The optimum may be
somewhere between this ‘nightmare scenario’ and the simple .com
solution, but we need some authoritive guidance on the matter.

Just some observations from a former ISP owner.

- Get a .com domain name; it doesn't matter in
what country it will hosted, but a US host will
have (generally) better connects to the various
countries.  My ISP hosted several UK sites, and
their UK clients got better connects to the web
site than UK hosted sites.

I would point the .co.uk domain name to the .com
host as well; you might want to promote the fact
that it is a UK company in the future.

- Find the primary search engines used in the
countries that you want to promote the site in,
and submit the site to those search engines.

As Google listings are based (to some extent)
on how the site is linked from other sites, you
will want to get links on other sites in those
countries as well.