Build on Country Specific Domain Or Use Existing Site?

Google's John Mueller offers advice on the multiple considerations prior to choosing how to build out an international presence online

(Search Engine Journal)

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Google’s John Mueller provided answers to the problem of whether to create international sections within an existing site or to build entirely new sites. I asked an international SEO his opinion on this matter and he shares insights on what he feels is the best course of action for SEO.

Use ccTLD for International Sites?

A person asked the question about the best way to expand internationally.

He explained that they have a strong search visibility presence in the United States but that they wanted to expand to other countries.

Because the main site is so strong there is a perception that the site could give a head start to international versions built within the dot com version of the site, since those versions would not be created on a non-established domain.

But there are many valid reasons for building new sites on domains that match the countries they are targeted toward.

These kinds of domains are like the .uk, .de and .jp and are called Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLD).

Google’s John Mueller Discussing International SEO

The person asking the question related his situation:

“…we are starting to build out into Canada and UK. And we are kind of at a crossroads today.

Should we go ccTLDs or keep it under just the dot com?

We are a real estate company so our pages are pretty location-specific.

We’re probably going to end up in about a dozen countries…

So may thought process is being able to take advantage of being able to target locally in Search Console with the ccTLDs, where I can’t do that with the global dot com.
…So I was just wondering, is there an advantage
of going one way or the other? Or is it easier for Google one way or the other?”

Multiple Considerations for International Business Expansion
Google’s John Mueller answered with no hesitation that there are multiple considerations and then listed those considerations.

Mueller answered:

“I think there are multiple things that come into play.

One is probably also the aspect of having multiple sites versus having one really strong website… If you’re talking about a dozen different locations, maybe that’s less of an issue. Maybe that’s something that works out.

The other thing is with geotargeting, we do use that when we recognize that people are looking for something local.

So either way that you go, I would try to make sure that we can figure out what geotargeting to use for the website.

And ccTLDs is super obvious. So that’s I think a good approach.

Subdomains is an option.
Subdirectories would be an option.”
URL Parameters for Indicating Different International Sections
John next discussed what not to do, calling out the use of URL parameters to indicate the country a section is targeted towards.

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(Search Engine Journal)