International SEO positioning - ccTLD

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The challenge is that you don't have the option of using the initial ccTLD to reach other countries, as you can do with gTLDs (an acronym for “generic top-level domains” such , .org, .net) since they are not associated with a specific country.

A gTLD domain can be used to reach different countries by enabling subdirectories or subdomains for each country that can be geolocated using the Google Search Console .

Unfortunately, some businesses are not aware of these options and try to target other countries by enabling subdirectories for different countries with a ccTLD that is already geolocated in another.

We can see an example below, with a US version on a subdomain under a .co.uk (ccTLD that is already geolocated to the UK by default).



Because of this, when expanding into new international markets, businesses that already have a ccTLD (rather than a gTLD) will need to choose between several options, usually between geolocating for the new markets using specific ccTLDs for each one or creating a new gTLD that allows for the creation of new country options in subdomains or subdirectories that can be geolocated, reusing the same one.

The first option will require more work to grow the popularity of each uk phone number list individual country-focused ccTLD.

The second option will require - if you want to consolidate the existing country version with the new ones into a single domain - to perform a migration. On the other hand, you can enable the gTLD additionally, only for use in the new markets, avoiding a migration of the initial version. Using a single gTLD with geolocalized subdirectories for several markets will help to geolocalize to several countries in a way that is usually more efficient and easier to manage.

5.- Assume that Google allows segmentation by continent with domains such as .asia or .eu or “eu” values ​​in the hreflang tag
Google does not (at least not yet) allow regional targeting at the continent level, regardless of whether you use top-level domains like .eu or .asia that are treated as gTLDs or by using values ​​like “eu” for Europe in the hreflang tag because Google uses the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code to specify regions.

It is important to keep this in mind when deciding to set up with a .eu domain to target European users, as it might be more optimal to use a gTLD with specific subdirectories that can be geolocated through the Google Search Console and tagged with hreflang annotations to target each European country on an individual level.