Foreign domain names

[slipper]

I posted this on another forum but i thought i should add it here too...

I am planning to start a travel agency to my adopted home country outside of the US. I have a few domain names i was thinking of purchasing. The main one is a .com which i feel is the best for my business. However it is for sale at a price that i feel is quite high. The other one is the exact same name but using the domain of the foreign country which is currently available. Of course i prefer the .com because its the big poppa of all domains. My question is, does having a foreign domain place less priority in Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc when searched from the US or any other country foreign to that domain? I will be hosting the site with godaddy.

 

[Marcus Cyganiak]

Yes, having a foreign domain does place less priority on Google.com search results.

For example:

If I search "Apple" on Google.ca, Apple Canada will pop up first on the list. If I search "Apple" on Google.com, the regular Apple.com address will show first.

 

[makmur]

You can get good memorable domain with bit of creativity using .com

what is your domain name plan?
perhaps we can help you to choose one. slipper

 

[Marcus Cyganiak]

Hi all,

I think this information can be useful for you. If you plan to get your website, here is one good free web hosting provider to choose - 000webhost.com

They provide hosting absolutely free, there is no catch. You get 1500 MB of disk space and 100 GB bandwidth. They also have cPanel control panel which is amazing and easy to use website builder. Moreover, there is no any kind of advertising on your pages.


I haven't taken a look at the website, but without doing so I bet they still ask for your Credit Card and that's the catch right there. They'll charge you and label it something like a "maintenance fee" or something of that nature, after you have processed your "free" order. Nothing is 100% free in this world.

 

[webvideo12]

It also depends on the ip address the site is hosted on. If you register a .de and have it in english and hosted on usa ip address it should be fine.

 

[treemonkey]

I'd say the hosting is more important for localisation on search results than the particular domain name, although there are exceptions. But generally, Google ranks sites hosted in the same country as searchee higher than those which are hosted in a country outside of the searchee's country.