The best option when targeting a specific country with your international SEO effort is to have the Country Code TLD as well as having your website hosted in that country, i.e. http://www.bonjour.fr hosted in France.
If you can’t get hosting in the country for whatever reason, the second best option is to have the country code TLD. i.e. .fr
If both of those options are not available to you then you should set up a specific subdomain for the country you are targeting. http://fr.bonjour.com/
Check out the Matt Cutts video that explains this. It is the last point discussed in the video but the entire video has great insight into what’s new in Google for 2009.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for the great job done.Nice video.
Awesome Video! Thanks for sharing.
How to get an *.co domain name?
Great advice, thanks for the video.
I can’t help but resent those who work out deals with ICANN and buy off an entire TLD. I wish I had the cash to do that.
Nice video, it’s pretty cool that you could make a deal with ICANN like that.
SEO is pivotal in Online Marketing
This was a very well-written and enjoyable post.Thanks a lot for the information sharing with us.I like the way you describe all the things in this post.Anyway thanks a lot.Keep up the good works.Keep blogging.