which domain for my product

TheWaterboy

If I wanted to setup a website for an irish product, but wanted to target another country with the site would i be better getting the domain name of that country or getting a .ie domain name

e.g. if i wanted to target Spain would i get

myproduct.es

or

myproduct.ie

What about hosting - would i host it in Spain or Ireland.

Curious for peoples opinions

R3al

From a search engine perspective and so that your customers recognise the domain you would be better off getting a national domain for the country you are targetting. An internationally recognised domain TLD for instance .com, .net etc is another option,

Preferably you should register both types and consider registering the national TLDs of any other countries you may target inthe future.

.eu is another option if you are going to restrict your trade to Europe

.ie domain websites would not be returned very often in searches conducted by spanish people, you may want to register the .ie domain to prevent anyone else with a similar product or service from doing so or if your product is so closely associated with Ireland that anyone conducting a search from Spain would always use the term Irish or Ireland as part of their search phrase.

thesteve

Additionally having your hosting in that country would also be beneficial from an SEO/latency perspective

globulin777

Also check around for pricing as different companys charge vastly different rates for registration.
Likewise for hosting.
A good hosting company are not necessarily expensive and some companys are charging up to four or five times above average.
Don't just pick whoever you see at the top of a google search result. Do your homework... you can also get hosted by a company for a month first to see what their service is like, and then if it suits you can sign up for longer.
Beware the rip off domain registration companys (price wise I mean).

kazzer

thesteve wrote: »

Additionally having your hosting in that country would also be beneficial from an SEO/latency perspective

Can someone explain how this is so? So if your website is hosted in Ireland, it will be more 'optimised' for searches done in Ireland? The thing is hosting is much cheaper abroad.

Tony

Google is so sophisticated now it is localising cities so having the site hosted and domained in your target market is a definite plus.

kazzer wrote: »

Can someone explain how this is so? So if your website is hosted in Ireland, it will be more 'optimised' for searches done in Ireland? The thing is hosting is much cheaper abroad.

CallieO

com = commercial
org = organisation
etc etc

What about .eu or if your product is really cutting edge -.mob


Naming conventions - seo - tell what you do

caminowebmaster

I wrote a post on this subject a couple of weeks back worth a read for you http://www.cubeonlinemarketing.ie/international-internet-marketing/

As to the cost of web hosting - there are companies in Ireland who do very good hosting at reasonable prices. And really the cost of hosting is a minimally factor - does it matter that much if you pay €100 per year or €250? If it does I would reconsider the website idea.

CallieO

caminowebmaster wrote: »

As to the cost of web hosting - there are companies in Ireland who do very good hosting at reasonable prices. And really the cost of hosting is a minimally factor - does it matter that much if you pay €100 per year or €250? If it does I would reconsider the website idea.

You could always put together a google site to trial the validity of a website?

This is what used to be known as a wiki, you can embed all sorts of applications from photos to videos to interactive web 2 tools. Very versatile and pretty good value for money:cool:

globulin777

caminowebmaster wrote: »

I wrote a post on this subject a couple of weeks back worth a read for you http://www.cubeonlinemarketing.ie/international-internet-marketing/

As to the cost of web hosting - there are companies in Ireland who do very good hosting at reasonable prices. And really the cost of hosting is a minimally factor - does it matter that much if you pay €100 per year or €250? If it does I would reconsider the website idea.

????? So in your book €100 is the same as €250.....:)
Every cent is valuable to a start up... especially if the funds need to be begged, borrowed or the other.
I have an old PC here for sale. Its worth about €300..... would you like to buy it for €500 ?
Point proven methinks..........

globulin777

caminowebmaster wrote: »

I wrote a post on this subject a couple of weeks back worth a read for you http://www.cubeonlinemarketing.ie/international-internet-marketing/

As to the cost of web hosting - there are companies in Ireland who do very good hosting at reasonable prices. And really the cost of hosting is a minimally factor - does it matter that much if you pay €100 per year or €250? If it does I would reconsider the website idea.

You can also register a .ie domain name for somewhere in the range of €25.00 to €120.
Should he not bother looking at the best cost v service factor either.
You must have money to burn !!!!:)

globulin777

caminowebmaster wrote: »

I wrote a post on this subject a couple of weeks back worth a read for you http://www.cubeonlinemarketing.ie/international-internet-marketing/

As to the cost of web hosting - there are companies in Ireland who do very good hosting at reasonable prices. And really the cost of hosting is a minimally factor - does it matter that much if you pay €100 per year or €250? If it does I would reconsider the website idea.

AND I THOUGHT ADVERTISING was not allowed on the boards.........:)

Tony

globulin777 wrote: »

Point proven methinks..........

No I think you just missed the posters point entirely.

caminowebmaster

I used to think that I had to hunt around for the cheapest webhosting - I was a student when I started building sites. But I found that if a site does not pay for itself it does not matter if the webhosting is free - it is still a waste of my time - that's only if it is a commercial site, as not all are, like me blog that is just fun.

Over time webhosting is the cheapest part of a website. The time you invest is very important. IMHO

globulin777

Tony wrote: »

No I think you just missed the posters point entirely.

No I think you missed the point of who and what I was replying too......
But thats ok.....:):):)
I won't hold it against you.

globulin777

caminowebmaster wrote: »

I used to think that I had to hunt around for the cheapest webhosting - I was a student when I started building sites. But I found that if a site does not pay for itself it does not matter if the webhosting is free - it is still a waste of my time - that's only if it is a commercial site, as not all are, like me blog that is just fun.

Over time webhosting is the cheapest part of a website. The time you invest is very important. IMHO

Cammo you miss my point entirely......:):):)
Basically the hosting and domain registration can be had for X.
If starting out why pay 2X, 3X or 4X for nothing extra but the same service.
Not all start ups have big budgets... it is quite feasible that someone may be tring to set up a website, get it optimised (by using his own research and effort, or paying somebody), writing his own mark up, or basically be doing just about anything to keep within budget restraints.
It's possible a start up may have as little as €1000 to spend on a myriad of expenses, although that was not part of the original posters question, I thought it a valid point that there are cost savings to be had, greater than 50% at times, on hosting and registration. A lot of hosting sites are pure rip off. Now, if in pointing that out to the original poster, is something to be construed in the negative .... well nuff said.:):):)

kazzer

I agree with you entirely globulin. Now, if having a Irish hosting company is more expensive but offers other benefits, i.e seo, then that is something to take into account.

jmcc

kazzer wrote: »

Can someone explain how this is so? So if your website is hosted in Ireland, it will be more 'optimised' for searches done in Ireland? The thing is hosting is much cheaper abroad.

The domain name system maps a readable name to an IP address. With a country code domain like boards.ie, the country with which it is associated is obvious. When you have boards.com then the problem of associating it with a country emerges. A few years ago, the search engines started to use the IP address of the site to determine which country the site was targeting. So a .com site on an Irish IP might be targeting an Irish audience. Search engines like Google allow you to search "Pages From Ireland" as an option and the .ie sites, Irish IP sites and sites targeted at Ireland do better in these results.

For targeting specific country level markets, use the ccTLD (.ie for Ireland, .co.uk for the UK, .es for Spain etc.)

Only use .eu as a gateway to country level sites. The .eu ccTLD is a junkyard and is not really considered as a genuine domain. Most EU people only think in terms of their ccTLD and .com/net/org. The .eu is very much a third or fourth choice option.

As for .mobi - unless you are safeguarding your brand or launching a mobile web site targeted at mobile phones and devices, it is not a good idea to use it as your primary domain.

Regards...jmcc

globulin777

kazzer wrote: »

I agree with you entirely globulin. Now, if having a Irish hosting company is more expensive but offers other benefits, i.e seo, then that is something to take into account.

Agreed totally, however even within Irish hosting companys and Registration sites the price disparity for the same service is huge.:)