There are many articles on domain structure for international sites. Many, if not all, recommend the use of ccTLDs due to the geo signals they send to Google; but I’ve read very few articles that substantiate this type of claim with any research or evidence. Is this recommendation outdated? With every passing year, Google gets better at reading and setting geo signals. By introducing hreflang and improving Google Webmaster Tools (recently rebranded as Google Search Console) with regards to setting target countries, it’s so much easier to get geo signals right than it was a few years ago.
With the recent changes Google has been making, I am left questioning whether or not we really need ccTLDs to target other countries. Do they have a positive impact on rankings? If they don’t, why would you use them? If you can set geo signals via webmaster tools or hreflang tags, is it better to consolidate your link equity with one domain and separate everything with subfolders?
I wanted to look at the market data concerning ccTLDs and their performance on different international versions of Google. I wanted to know whether ccTLDs demonstrated any tendency of outranking sites with gTLDs (as defined here) that had a greater DA or PA. If ccTLDs did demonstrate this trait, then perhaps there is merit in selecting them over subfolder structure. If not, and the ranking of websites on SERPs shows the general trend of order by DA/PA, then surely there is no reason to structure an international website with a ccTLD and the best option is to consolidate all links on one site and geo target the subfolders. I understand that there is more to this decision if we take into account the user's preference to interact with local domain websites. We'll touch on that point later. For now, I just want to focus on how Google seems to treat ccTLDs.
The SERP Research
The hypothesis
ccTLDs don’t supersede PA as a ranking signal. I believed that if I gathered a decent sample size, the general trend would show that ccTLDs didn’t tend to outrank sites with a gTLD and higher PA.
Local link ratio doesn’t correlate with high rankings. Rand’s research suggests local links have a positive impact on a sites ranking on local search engines. Does the ratio of local links correlate with a higher ranking? If they do, then this could lead us to believe that a consolidation of local links on a local ccTLD would support successful international SEO. If there is no correlation, then this would further support that there is little ranking benefit with this regard to using a ccTLD, as we can receive local links to a gTLD.
A local IP address doesn’t improve rankings. There still seems to be some opinion in the community that hosting a site on a local IP address will help rankings on local versions of Google.
Methodology
I wanted to gather data for competitive terms from several competitive markets. The first task was determining which markets to select. I made a decision based on the markets that have the highest B2C spend per digital consumer. I initially picked out the top 10, then selected five from those based on which sites I was able to work with (linguistically). The markets selected were: U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and Italy.
Next, I selected the keyword categories that I would use to analyze SERPs. I picked out the sectors based on the biggest digital B2C market sectors in the U.S.. From the top 10, I selected five: clothes, toys and games, computer and consumer electronics, furniture and home furnishings, and auto parts.
Then, I decided to identify 10 keywords for each category in each market. Keywords were selected by inputting a broad keyword into AdWords for each category (say, "game"), filtering by search volume, and selecting the highest search entries that had an average AdWords suggested bid of higher than £0.05 which would provide terms that had high search volume and commercial relevance.
This was done for each category in each market.
I collated data from the top 10 pages ranking for each SERP, giving me a total of 2,500 web pages to analyze. Searches were conducted for each keyword on the local version of Google (e.g., google.it) using the SEO Global Chrome extension from RedFly Marketing, allowing me to see the search results for a local user.
Analysis of data
Once the keywords were selected for each market, I collected the following data from each SERP:
- Ranking position
- URL
- Domain structure
- Domain authority
- Page authority
- Page title
- IP address location
- Local link ratio
From this information, I would also collect the following on each web page entry on the SERP:
- Is there an exact keyword match in the domain?
- Is there a partial keyword match in the domain?
- Is the exact keyword used in the URL?
- Is a broad keyword used in the page title?
- Is an exact keyword used in the page title?
Each entry was given a yes or no for the questions above, which would allow me to compare domain performances on a like for like basis with regards some of the basic on-page SEO elements.
Once this data was collected, I started to identify the following:
- Whether the ccTLD was outranking a gTLD that had a higher PA
- Whether the ccTLD was outranking a gTLD that had a higher PA, where both the ccTLD and gTLD in question had matching on-page SEO implementation for the keyword in question
Research limitations
Let’s start with the obligatory "correlation does not equal causation." Nothing discovered in this research will definitively prove or disprove ranking factors for international SEO. However, I believe that this kind of research does throw up interesting data, and any SEO trends and correlations discovered through this type of research can set us on our own path to research further and look for more concrete signals to prove or disprove these results.
I had a decision to make regards whether to measure ccTLD ranking over TLDs with a higher PA or a higher DA. I decided to go with PA. Predominantly because I’m looking at the ranking performance of a page, not a website. DA has a direct impact on PA, but if we measured performance against DA, I think we’d be less likely to get a true picture (e.g., blogs on subdomains, and small sites with a keyword in the domain ranking with their home page).
The resources available for this research (i.e., me) meant there was a limit to the volume of SERPs and web pages analyzed. My limited linguistic skills meant I couldn’t analyze SERPs from a broader language base (e.g., Nordic and Japanese), and I could only collect data from the top 10 rankings for each SERP.
Also, ideally the data would have been drawn from the SERPs over one day. I collected the data manually. (I could have set up a crawl, but at the time I didn’t have the knowledge available to do that.) So, it was taken over the course of around six weeks.
Finally, I mentioned that I compare the rank of pages based on like for like on-page SEO. Due to time restraints, I was limited to a handful of what I deemed to be key on-page SEO signals. Therefore, it’s open to debate as to whether the signals I selected are the key signals for on-page SEO.
The results
Discussion
ccTLDs are not outranking gTLDs. Graphs 1 and 2 demonstrate that the majority of ccTLDs are not outranking gTLDs that have a higher PA. Graph 1 shows that 46% of ccTLDs reviewed outrank a gTLD with a higher PA. However, when we only count "outranking" to occur when both the ccTLD and the gTLD have the same basic on-page SEO (e.g., keyword in title, URL and/or domain), we see that the percentage of ccTLDs outranking gTLDs falls to 24 percent.
This information doesn’t definitively tell us whether or not a local ccTLD is a ranking factor in national SERPs, but it does indicate that it’s probably not a signal that generally outweighs PA. That being the case, from a purely SEO perspective (not considering online consumer psychology), a subfolder must be the best domain structure for the majority of international sites. Unless you or your client is a major brand with a large budget, the resources required to launch several ccTLDs and build enough authority for each to make them visible in their respective search engines makes a ccTLD an unwise selection.
A Local IP address doesn’t pack a punch. Again, this research can’t definitively determine whether an IP address does or doesn’t provide ranking signals for national SERPs, but Graph 5 suggests that if it does, the signals are weak. Of the 474 ccTLDs with a local IP address, only 19 percent were outranking a gTLD with a higher PA. This figure suggests that an IP address has little direct impact on rankings, even when combined with a local ccTLD. That said, it's worth checking out this article on IP host location from Richard Baxter, which presents a different finding.
A Local link ratio has no relationship with high local rankings. While Rand’s research indicates local links have an impact on local search results, a local link ratio doesn’t have a relationship with high rankings. There doesn’t appear to be a benefit of setting up a ccTLD to gain local links for an international market. Local links can be earned for any domain and any structure, whether ccTLD or subfolder.
Implications for international SEO
It is difficult to make an accurate, broad statement on best practice for international SEO. Every market is likely to be slightly different with regards the way that users interact with content, as well as the way that search engines crawl and rank web pages. You also have to take into account that if you’re working with a client on SEO for different international markets, goals and resources will vary. Toys "R" Us does very well in the SERPs we analyzed with a ccTLD structure, but then they have the resources available to support multiple domains and earn local authority and PR for each domain.
The research looked at SERPs for five countries and 2,500 web pages. The results for each country did vary, and while analyzing 500 web pages for each country doesn’t represent a sufficient sample size to make a sound opinion on each, it does lead me to believe that the choice of whether to use a ccTLD or a gTLD for an international market could vary depending on the market in question. More information is available here on the data collected from each country. To summarize, here are the findings:
I’ve omitted the U.S. from the second table, as there were only two web pages with a ccTLD from the 500 analyzed. That confirms what many of us would have suspected or known: ccTLDs aren’t widely used in the U.S. With hindsight, it probably would have been more interesting to swap the U.S. with a different country for analysis.
The information above suggests that maybe there is some variation in how sites rank in different international search engines. It’s also interesting to note that ccTLDs are more popular in some markets than other, which could have an impact on the user relationship and interaction with a website depending on it’s domain structure.
Consumer psychology and ccTLDs
Let’s put aside what I’d consider to be some of the ranking implications behind a choice of domain structure. There’s another consideration to be made when it comes to selecting a domain structure for an international site: Does a local domain have a positive impact on consumer psychology and the choice of buying or browsing on one site over another?
As with the SEO argument for a ccTLD, there are plenty of articles and research that suggest consumers prefer to shop on an eCommerce site with a local domain rather than a generic domain (U.S. excluded). Eli Schwartz recently wrote an article summarizing research he’d conducted on the searcher perception of ccTLDs . The post provided some really interesting results. However, I didn’t necessarily agree with the approach taken with one of the questions put to respondents regarding eCommerce and the impact of ccTLDs on purchase decisions.
In the study, Eli asked each respondent this: “Of the links below, which is most likely to offer the most reliable express shipping to your home?” The respondent was then asked to select either a website with a .com domain, or one with a local ccTLD. The results are interesting, but if we’re looking for insight into eCommerce buying decisions, I think it’s a bit of a leading question. If you ask the respondent a question like this, and give them the choice of a local domain or a generic domain, they’re likely to answer yes to the ccTLD. However, I don’t believe that this indicates that the ccTLD is used as an aid to make a purchase decision. It tells us if you strip all other buying aids from the process, boil it down to the choice between one domain and another, the respondent selects the local domain. Real-life buying decisions don’t work like this.
Following on from my research on international rankings, I wanted to try and create a real life test environment where respondents pick one website over another to purchase a product.
Test 1 – Impact of domain structure when a consumer is browsing an ecommerce store
Using CrowdFlower and UsabilityHub, I created a test for U.K.-based respondents. First, the respondent was presented with the following information:
“You're looking to purchase a new laptop. You've done your research and found the make and model that you'd like to buy. You find this laptop on two eCommerce websites. Based on the page your about to view, which site would you buy the laptop from?”
The respondent was then presented with the following two eCommerce sites:
Both sell the same laptop with the same specification, same price, same delivery and same returns offer. The key difference between the two is that one is hosted on a .com domain and one is on a .co.uk. The design and layout for each is different, but I’ve attempted to create a real-life situation, and you’d never be choosing between two eCommerce stores with the same design.
Two hundred sixty-two respondents participated in the Dabs vs. Laptops Direct selection, and 174 of these respondents provided feedback on why they made their decision.
The results are as follows:
As you can see, none of the respondents selected either website due to the domain structure of the store. Choices were predominantly made on a preference for less ads or clutter, product information, usability, or branding. It seems clear to me that when the consumer is browsing an eCommerce site, the domain structure plays no part in their purchase decision. Although not tested here, localization indicators such as language, currency, delivery, and returns policy will arguably dictate whether or not you stand a chance of winning their business rather than the domain.
Test 2 – Impact of domain structure when consumer is browsing the SERPs
After I’d reviewed consumer decision-making while on the webpage, I wanted to see if ccTLDs were a genuine factor in consumer psychology on a SERP when the user is making their browsing decision.
In the next test, U.K. respondents were presented with the following text:
“You're looking to find an eCommerce site that sells car parts. You go to Google and search for 'car parts'. You see the following results page. Which website would you click on first?”
The respondent was presented with a SERP for car parts, making sure that one ccTLD of four websites (the third organic result) was available in the organic results. As you can see, the second organic result, a gTLD, contains U.K. within the domain:
The following heat map shows the websites selected by the respondents:
The 200 respondents were then asked to give a reason for their selection. The results are as follows:
It does seem that a ccTLD can play a part in the browsing selection for a portion of the audience. Eleven percent of the respondents indicate they made their selection because the website was based in the U.K., although they don’t specify how they made that assumption (i.e., could be ccTLD, meta description, etc.). Five percent of the respondents specifically mention the local domain as the reason for their choice (although they seem to be confusing the autopartsuk.com as a U.K. domain). Seventeen percent of our respondents made the website selection based on their belief that the website was based in the U.K.
The research also shows how important the meta description is in the user-browsing decision, something that I think often gets overlooked by SEOs. In fact, 30 percent of our respondents indicated they made their selection based on information provided in the meta (mentioning things like free delivery, range of stock, and discounts). I think that when we get a website ranking for a really important keyword, SEOs can be a bit like the football (or soccer) team that’s just scored a goal. We’re so engulfed in the success of scoring that we switch off at kickoff, letting the other team score straight away. There is a danger that we think we’ve won when one of our web pages ranks well, when in fact that’s just part of the job. We still need to compete for the user’s attention once we’re on the SERP, and entice them to click on our website instead of the competitor's.
Do Google’s new ‘branded breadcrumbs’ change the significance of ccTLDs?
We’ve seen that a number of users make a SERP selection based on their assumption that the selected website is based locally. At present, the domain structure is used as a key indicator of a websites location. However, as part of the mobile algorithm update, Google’s announced a move from a URL display to a branded breadcrumb that will remove the domain structure from the SERP. On mobile, from a location perspective, the domain structure will no longer influence a users SERP selection. The 17 percent of respondents making the selection based on location will look for other information to aid their decision.
For now, on mobile at least, the SERPs present a level playing field for ccTLDs and gTLDs with regards to consumer psychology. The meta description is even more important in enticing the click.
Conclusions
For me, the research shows that choosing a ccTLD as the domain structure for an international site shouldn’t be the automatic decision that it seems to be for many. While further research is required, I don’t believe that a ccTLD domain structure has a big enough impact on rankings to warrant selecting this option over a subfolder, which allows us to consolidate links and boost DA and PA on all of our international content. We can geotarget subfolders via webmaster tools and hreflang tags, and as a local ccTLD doesn’t seem to supersede PA as a ranking factor, we should act accordingly and launch international sites with the highest PA possible (i.e., subfolders).
The research on consumer psychology does show that a ccTLD can have a positive impact on SERP user selections. However, meta descriptions can also be used to promote local service and delivery. The changes announced by Google for mobile SERPs will remove URLs from the selection equation, and we've seen that when a user is on a website, they pay little attention to the domain location.
While I feel this is the right advice for most brands, it’s probably not the right advice for all. If you’re working with a large brand, you might have the resources available to earn the marginal gains in every facet of what you do. If further research shows that ccTLDs do have some ranking impact, no matter how small, and that improves your ranking by one position for each keyword, then the impact could result in a significant amount of extra traffic if you’re working for a large eCommerce customer.
I'm really glad you wrote this data up so we can point to it when this comes up. I had this *exact* question at the office today ... I leaned the way you went - that a geo-targeted subfolder on a good, established site was much better than "starting over" with the .com.au
That being said, it's the .com Everything is about the .com I would love to see the results from above but without .coms - only focusing on ccTLD vs everything else. I think we have to assume .coms will continue to win the consumer behaviour & trust studies but what happens beyond that?
Hey Matt,
Yeah I've often been asked by clients which way to go with the structure. As the post suggests, I lean towards subfolders but it can get tricky when they're using a ccTLD and want to start localising for different markets. When that's the situation, the choice is between ccTLDs and setting up a generic domain with subfolders. Challenge is that if they have their site on a ccTLD, it's usually because the .com for their brand was unavailable, so the choice is between ccTLDs and 'everything else' (other than .com).
Actually the research suggested that, with regards user psychology, ccTLDs are more popular with users than .com. It'd be interesting to see, if .com and ccTLDs were stripped from the SERP, whether the domain would influence searcher behaviour (although not sure how useful it would be from a marketing perspective as I can't imagine there are any SERPs that aren't dominated by ccTLDs/.com).
As a Canadian, I would agree with the psychology research; unless I know a certain .com is a global site, I assume it's US-only and look for the .ca equivalent.
Also, thanks for the data on this. A few years ago my employer started foraying into more regions and wanted their web presence to follow. I proposed sub-directories as a "let's start small" measure so we could leverage our main site's authority. Given the data you've presented, I think we might want to stick with that longer term (although we might still buy up the ccTLDs and redirect them).
Thank you Liam, I loved this research because it also give us a great reference to keep around.
I also would have liked to see the proportion of people who decided to click two or more listings on the given SERP and check the reasons why they decided to do so. I know that, for the purpose of the test, you were looking at the first thoughts by finding which organic listing people decided to click first. But users usually click on more than one organic result. I am pretty sure that the order and frequency (e.g. 1:ccTLD, 2:ccTLD, 3:gTLD) in which ccTLDs are being clicked over gTLDs (or the other way around) would provably reveal specific opportunities or preferred domains in a particular market.
Hi Paul, that would make for interesting research for searcher intent and how users make SERP click through decisions. Maybe something to try next :)
A great post. Dealing with a question where intuitively we all think ccTLD's are too much effort without any science to support us. Adds confirmation to my view, you must relentlessly try and stay with one domain.
Quite interesting facts and figure. It addressed very important concerns regarding to the local and international gTLD.
This is quite a good in-depth study, I guess one thing you need to bring into this thought process with new domains is budgets and how international websites are set up from a development point of view. Sometimes it is a whole lot easier to use a .com.au website in comparison to using a .com due to localised dev budget and ease of change on the website. Also if the site is established DA will not be a huge issue if the site has been around for a long while.
Thanks James, yeah I agree there are other elements to factor in, development being one of them. The best option really all comes down to budget and the competitiveness of the specific online market in my opinion.
Great post and meticulous research. I've been doing my own research on ccTLDs vs sub-folders vs sub-domains in the SERPs, and I agree that there is no clear indication that any one format can outrank the other. A brand can use any structure for their site(s) to build out their international SEO strategy. Yet there is more at play here than only website structure and user click-through rate behavior - there are many factors that could contribute to a brand's ability to perform well in global searches. So I agree with your conclusion that ccTLDs should not be the automatic option that companies choose; companies should carefully research which URL structure will fit their business best.
Great Post Liam! would like to add a factor that sometimes plays a role in deciding between the 2 options - having international sites on different ccTLDs allows the outsourcing of SEO services to different companies each to a different domain - which in turn allows to minimize the risk of one of them doing some damage and also to track the SEO Impact of each company as each has it's own "sand-box" to play in.
Great information!
Do you think the results would be similar on all search engines? Do other search engines popular in other counties (such as Baidu or Yandex) use ccTLDs for ranking, or are can they read geo signals as well as Google?
Hey Liam, Thank you for such a great explanation of this topic. In regards to ccTLDs and your research: I feel you may have taken your study out a little further. Perhaps other countries where English is not the primary language, such as Japan, South Korea, China, Russia, Nigeria, etc.... Many people in these countries come from cultures that put greater emphasis on country loyalty. A lot more censorship in the form of blocking outside websites also takes place. I think you would have found that ccTLDs hold greater importance to users in those countries even when you consider advertising and other elements.As for Google's branded breadcrumbs: I abhor google's choice of removing the URLs from mobile search results. google is creating a lazy culture that makes users too dependent on it to find the sites they need. Of course branded breadcrumbs could be an actual strategy to make users more dependent on google search. All-in-all very goo article, just a few suggestions. Thanks!!
Great post!
Hey Liam,
great post - I've always preferred the .com domain with country specific subfolder and hreflang tags but great to see some in depth analysis on this.
Unrelated question, you used usability hub to get a preference between the two lap top sites but what did you use to get the corresponding reasons as to why each person made their preference? I am wanting to do something similar on Usability Hub but can't see how/where I can get tester feedback?
Thanks!
Colin
Hi Colin. I used UsabilityHub test sets in combination with CrowdFlower to get the survey set-up that I needed.
I would have thought that a large proportion of people using the Internet would not know the difference between the suffixes and their relevance. The use of the term 'meta' and the structure of the questions in some of the surveys above make it look as though the demographic being surveyed are more SEO savvy. I am under the impression that people would rather click on a .com as this tld seems to confer more trust than the others. Do you agree
I understand your point. I actually made a mistake and forgot to include a link to the original results to the surveys. Respondents were asked open-ended questions. Answers were then grouped under the relevant response category. So, if a respondent explained that they used the product range mentioned description with the result to make their choice, this was categorised as 'product range mentioned in the meta'. Equally, the respondents didn't use the term 'organic' to explain their choice. They'd simply say that they always choose the first result after the ads, which we obviously know as the first organic result. The results wouldn't be able to determine whether or not the respondents were SEO-savvy.
You can see the results from the car parts SERP survey here and the ecommerce laptop survey here
From the research, I'd suggest that many people do know the difference between ccTLDs and .coms, particularly in countries outside the US. Certainly outside the US, a proportion of users seem to prefer a ccTLD as they believe it implies that the business is based locally. I don't believe that users believe .coms to be more trustworthy than ccTLDs. In places like the UK, Italy, Spain, etc. local ccTLDs are commonly used by many large businesses.
Great article Liam,
This goes in line with what I've seen for many global sites. It's interesting how difficult is to get clients to reconsider the use of ccTLDs, I guess the SEO community is the one to blame :)
Thanks Blas, glad you enjoyed it. There's definitely a case for both options. I don't necessarily think the community as a whole is to blame, but there are quite a few articles online that suggest a ccTLD is the best (or only) way forward for an international website and don't fully discuss the major drawbacks of a ccTLD (being required resource).
I feel like I am being daft here but is your graph 6 not backwards? i.e. ranking should be from 10-0 as you are trying to illustrate if increased local link proportion improves ranking (and improved ranking is a lower number)
This is a really great study. Thank you for that.
Regarding the "Consumer psychology": I guess this part of the equation depends heavily on context.
Examples:
If you are in the UK and find a shop in english language on a generic domain (lets say www.shop.info), chances are good it will not be shipping to the UK. The cTLD .co.uk gives you certainty that the shop is country specific.
Quite opposite: If you are in Germany and find a shop in german language on the same generic domain, chances of shipping to Germany are 99% or higher. if you find that same shop from the german speaking country of Austria, you are probably out of luck (shipping from Germany to Austria is very expensive) and will have to look for your cTLD (.at).
So, as a online-shop owner the use of cTLDs depends heavily on the context and psychology of your actual customers.
Hi Torben. In the study I decided to take all other localisation aspects out of the equation, isolating ccTLD as a factor. I agree that things like use of language, currency options, delivery information, etc. will all play a part in the consumer's decision making process. I think that the research does indicate that when the consumer is actually browsing the website, the domain doesn't influence their decisions. They don't use the domain structure to second guess whether the ecommerce store ships to their destination. I'd hypothesise that they use other indicators to make a quick judgement call.
Looking for help regarding ccTLD's for multiple countries. My site xyz.com has domains for .de, .nl, uk, etc. The content has all been properly translated but for some reason google in their specific country is picking up the .com and not their respected site with the correct TLD.
Example: when i search google.co.uk for my site, xyz.com appears and not xyz.co.uk
Any insights?
Very useful article!
Hm, I've an interesting question. Firstly, sorry for my English.
Assume that I have some medium website. The situation is following:
1. Site has ccTLD domain name .ru - (Russia)
2. But really site was developed and aimed to other neighbor country - Belarus (where I from). And Belarus has own ccTDL domain which is named .by
Google Webmaster Panel tells me that I can't change country region for my site, cause it already marked as Russia region (ccTLD .ru). At the begining of launching it seemed, that Google a little bit boosted my site and all was good, but with time going on and now it seems completely else.
So I've started to think that negative effect in SERP due of incorrectly selection and using of domain name.
What do you think my friends, doesn't it looks like a problem that hurts SEO?
Now I need to decide: change domain name to my local ccTLD (.by) or change domain to TLD (.com)
What do you think, my friends?
Interesting study, Liam !!!
We would not know really say which is better. I personally, as a customer, do not look at whether the page that interests me is .com or .co.uk, although it is true that whenever we choose ccTLD domain will be to my country.
On the other hand, as the creator of a website for my business, if it interests me that is international, I always will choose the gTLD domain because it seems that people trust more than a page such as a .com or .fr. if you are from UK.
I really liked your article.
Although it is late I have read and very well !!
I have a question Liam
There is a website (suppose)Xyz.com. Now i have ranked it with Hong Kong keywords e.g. Web Design Hong Kong, Video SEO Services Hong Kong.
Now We have open our business in Dubai. How should I promote my web design services in Dubai. For that I guess I will have to change the content of website. Change the meta tags for on page as well. I can loose my rankings as well for Hong Kong keywords. What should i do now? Please provide me a solid suggestion.
Wow. That's massive amount of valuable information. Thanks!
ccTLD and gTLD are all quite new to me. Should learn slowly...
I liked, That's massive amount of valuable information. Thanks Liam
This is an incredibly useful piece on a rarely covered topic! Nice work!