Hi,

I currently webmaster a .org domain name for a Tibetan Lama. The site has been translated into German and I was going to make a de subdomain to host this. Some of the German students have suggested getting the appropriate .de domain. I can think of some possible benefits, like branding, but are there any in reality? Does it improve SEO for Germans? In general are there any obvious benefits to host in the TLD of a given country or not?

Thanks
Geoff

I would assume almost all of Deutschland uses google.de and the results that google retrieves are in german language of course but as I've seen not necessarily domains with .de TLD. According to google the system works on content matching, not domain TLD matching. I dont know, it might have a little edge but highly unlikely IMO.

But it might be easier for your german community to spread the word around as "tibetlama.de" as opposed to tibetlama.org/de "tibetlama dot org back slash de" or something else.

Sometimes .de can be expensive depending on your registrar, an alternative would be to have a language (or country) choosing option like FedEX.com or UPS.com and then just forward them to that specific region with that specific langauge when they visit your .org domain so in that case you dont have to worry about your visitors remembering different domains.

If you want to reach a German audience go for .de

Germans expect domain names to end in .de (that's why .de is the largest ccTLD)

Thanks for your feedback. It confirms my own thoughts. And yes, I think basically it is a matter of perception, and if you have the .de then it shows more intention of purpose and sincerity to the German audience.

Thanks
Geoff

in any case having registered multiply domain name extensions (even ccTLD) will bring a benefit to you and will not harm in any way

com/net/org/cctld-where you live seems to work well for most people.
i like to support the original ideas for com/org though and use .com for commercial websites and .org for non profit organizations, it helps to create standards and order.

One issue not mentioned is there are restrictions for registering .de names, you may want to look into those first.

One issue not mentioned is there are restrictions for registering .de names, you may want to look into those first.

Admin contact needs to have a postal address in Germany - and the two name servers need to be on different subnets. Nothing too onerous.

Yes, the admin is in Germany.

Thanks
Geoff

dont get it

Yes, the admin is in Germany.

Thanks
Geoff

In that case you shouldn't have any problem. Finding a host that can meet the technical requirement should be easy because German hosting companies are generally geared up to it.

dont get it

Would you care to elaborate?

In my experience, as for SEO purposes, it is better to have the German version of the website together with the English one. On the other hand, what does make some difference is the server location, It will help to be listed higher up in Google.de if the server IP points to a German data center. It does not make a huge difference, but it does make some .... while I doubt that .de makes any difference.

John