SEO Multi Store Problem

[neill82]

Hi,

Looking for some advice please.

I have a website. example co uk which is targetting UK. I want to make a French website as I get a lot of sales from there, so I want to have fr example co uk - In Google International Targetting, it will not let me change the target to France (As its a cctld) so it says I am targetting UK.

I only own the co.uk of my domain name. The .com and the .fr are both not available (.com is taken by no one just offer to buy it)

So I am wondering, will this be a huge problem with SEO? What should I do? Should I buy exampleuk fr (looks a bit silly) or would it be ok to use the fr example co uk. I don't want to mess up anything as my uk website is showing good on google :/

I had to leave out the dots in the web address as it wont let me post as it considers them links (its just example tho)

Hoping someone has some advice

Thanks

 

[Edith@TerraNetwork]

If you want to target France, I'd recommend to get a .FR domain, even if it's different to your UK domain name. I would however not add "uk" to the .FR domain as that's likely to confuse. Could you add any neutral words like shop / online (or equivalent in French) to obtain a .FR domain?

Or you could go completely different, there are many domain extensions now available. Generic eg .CO; or something like .COMPANY, .DIRECT, .ONLINE. .SITE etc. Although for country specific targeting, .FR will be best.

 

[neill82]

HI,

Thank you for your reply Edith

Yes I could get exampleonline fr or similar and that could work. The only issue with that is my "brand" is example co uk so I thought it might confuse people. I would promote a lot via social media.. I was planning on having example co uk redirect my french customers (via geo ip) to my fr example co uk , thus promoting just example co uk

But obviously, if the co uk wont do well on Google France that is a non runner.

Boohoo have a dot com but they have fr boohoo com and de boohoo com etc. But com is a generic tld, hence my problem with the co uk :/

 

[Amy POPContent]

I'd agree with Edith here - I'd get a separate .fr domain, and I'd leave out the 'uk' bit. It's better to have a brand that's more flexible if you can.

I agree, .com is a bit more flexible - but the best way to do it is to just have a .fr domain IMO

You should definitely link the 2 sites however, maybe just in the footer, then at least it will be obvious to Google the 2 are related and give some trust to your new website.

Another thing I'd say is to invest in a translator rather than having a program do it - this can help massively with both rankings and sales

Amy

 

[Amit Shah]

hello,

First of all, I fully agree with Edith@TerraNetwork Comment. I want to another one that you can also create a sub - domain (sub example Co UK) on your primary website and implement franc audience related content and everything.

I think it will also help you. it will pass domain authority, audience can easily identify business with brand name in the URL.

Hope, it works for you.

 

[neill82]

HI,

Thanks for the replies.

Amit, I could make a sub domain no problem, but will that not affect my website in terms of google? As I cannot target a co uk domain to target France in Google;s Search Console? Fr example co uk would be ideal, but google will think thats a UK website due to the co uk no?

So for example, pretend I sell school bags (to give an example of why I want to keep my keyword) to target France on my co uk domains... my options are:

1: fr schoolbag co uk - But wouldn't google think its a UK website? (Even though its in EURO)
2. schoolbagfr fr - french cctld?
3. schoolbagfr com - and target France with it?
4. schoolbaguk fr - Targetting France

Which do you think would be better out of those 4? schoolbag com is taken (btw schoolbag is just an example to give you, the website I have is something like that hence why my UK website is great for Google UK as it includes the keywords people search)

Thanks for all the advice

 

[justinaldridge]

International targeting with a country level TLD is a PITA, especially since Google removed the ability to target another country, as you have now found out with your .co.uk domain.

However, I'm surprised no one has mentioned it already but since the beginnning of last year there is a facility available to help with international targeting and it's the HREFLANG meta tag.

You can read more about this here:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en

It's an important tag and very important that it's implemented correctly.

With this tag you can even have multiple versions of your site in the same language but targeting different countries without suffering any duplicate content issues.

In your case you should implement this tag to link the UK and FR versions on a page level basis. It's a signal to the search engines that you have alternative versions of the pages in French, or any other language that you choose.

We have implemented internation targeting across various websites and by far the best option from an SEO perspective is to have country level TLDs:

example.co.uk
example.fr (or as close to this as possible)

The next best option is language folders:

example.co.uk
example.co.uk/fr/

As a final option sub domains are the way to go if the above aren't possible:

www.example.co.uk
fr.example.co.uk

And then have these linked using hreflang tags.

Hope that helps.

 

[Amit Shah]

As a final option sub domains are the way to go if the above aren't possible:

I have already suggested that. Thanks for appreciation and sharing something new things "HREFLANG" tag.

 

[Amit Shah]

Amit, I could make a sub domain no problem, but will that not affect my website in terms of google? As I cannot target a co uk domain to target France in Google;s Search Console? Fr example co uk would be ideal, but google will think thats a UK website due to the co uk no?

1. I could make a sub domain no problem, but will that not affect my website in terms of google? - Yes It will not affect, if make with proper guidelines.
2. As I cannot target a co uk domain to target France in Google;s Search Console? - You can setup another webmaster tools and target fr in search console for your subdomain.
3. Fr example co uk would be ideal, but google will think thats a UK website due to the co uk no?
May be you are right or wrong? Not be able to answer this questions. I didn't have any proven example.

Your question answer which is "fr domain co uk" sub-domain question, I have research and found something. I haven't read full page cause of time limitation. I am sharing the URL with you, Please check it out for the batter ideas. hope, It helps you.

support [dot] google [dot] com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en

Main Point: Carefully consider your choice of URL

If you want to go Through with the second option which is new domain purchase, I will select "schoolbaguk fr" Or "ukschoolbag fr" domain.

 

[neill82]

Thank you very much for your detailed reply

Leaves a lot to think about. I had a look at the Google link, and it does say

"Geotargeting settings. You can use the Country targeting tool in Search Console to indicate to Google that your site is targeted at a specific country. Do this only if your site has a generic top-level domain name."

When I try in there to change fr example co uk - it does not give me the drop down. Only lets me select "United Kingdom" - I am very worried that if I have fr example co uk and example co uk targetting UK in Google, it would count it as duplicate content (Even though fr example co uk will be in EURO and French)

I might go with exampleuk fr and do a redirect with GEOIP? So I will promote example co uk and when someone from France visits, it will automatically redirect them to examplefr fr.

I hope I am making the right choice here. What do you guys think?

Anyone think this idea is the best? I don;t have the $30000 that the com people want so cannot buy the com domain

 

[justinaldridge]

If you implement the hreflang tags on your site you don't need to worry about any duplicate content issues. You just need to follow the guidelines and implement them correctly. You'll then be fine to create the version under the fr domain.

 

[StevePoster]

I have a website. example co uk which is targetting UK. I want to make a French website as I get a lot of sales from there, so I want to have fr example co uk - In Google International Targetting, it will not let me change the target to France (As its a cctld) so it says I am targetting UK.

For your example.co.uk you will need to have a French page within your site in which represents as your French language page. This site page will reach target users from France but optimize as well.