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I am trying to figure out whether or not rolling out a sequence of language/geographic specific micro-sites would be beneficial in terms of organic search results.
I have noticed that there are a few mixed feelings about this, however, I am still not 100% sold that it will have no effect.
Surely, it will help a bucketload when trying to cross the language barrier, bringing in a lot of 'foreign' visitors to your site, creating more value to them, and in turn SE's should notice this trend and reward the specific site for it.
However, if for instance, my primary (.com hosted in South Africa) site is English, and I roll out a summarized micro-site and host it under a .co.uk (Also english) domain IN england, would this help boost my organic search results on google.co.uk etc...?
And even if it would have in effect, do you think the Return on Effort would be significant enough to justify the project and the time and resources it would take to complete?
For instance:
www.company.com - www.company.co.uk - www.company.co.za
OR
www.company.com - www.product1.com - www.product2.com
Haven't seen this question around, so thought it would be interesting to hear what you guys & girls think.
Welcome to WebmasterWorld!
Offering alternate language versions of your English language site on other country specific domains, hosted on local servers to each country if possible, is probably a very good idea.
Another common approach is to hang alternate language subdomains off of one central domain. Wikipedia does this for all languages including English.
The issues I've seen in the past -- and I've seen a bunch of them -- have pertained mainly to having two English language sites, one .com and one (for example) .co.uk. The potential for one or both sites to have trouble in the SERP's goes WAY up in that case.
Thanks for the headsup on the different language idea!
