(Entry was posted by Marcus Pentzek on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 03/15/2018).

Starting an international website

I am running a successful informational website on one specific topic (branded domain name) in German language on a .de domain. Now 2 years ago I started an international website on that topic with German, English, Russian in sub-folders. Also a branded domain name (another, shorter brand) on a .com domain. Focusing on a more specific sub topic of the topic. Now I plan on working on the international website making it bigger, broader in topic, not focusing on the sub topic any longer. What would you guys suggest? a) redirect the German content of the .com to the already successful .de domain and just doing the other languages on .com? b) redirecting the .de domain to the .com and let all languages benefit from each other in SEO power? Of course either scenario would be equipped with hreflang. My first thoughts were b) with a lot of fear of losing rankings. Then I thought a) is probably the most clever solution. Any further ideas or thoughts? Thanks in advance for your brain power :-)

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YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

Suraj Gadage: If your objective is consolidation all the content under one domain, then you should move .de domain content to the .com domain first and then add 301 URL to URL redirect. I`m not sure about how you are organising the content (information architecture), but what I see from your question is you want to have lang specific sub-folders and use hreflang for proper local content indexing. If this is the case then go with the approach I have suggested. Let me know if you need any additional help.
Peter Nikolow: Do not touch german content! Leave it on .de. You can just moving english content to .com an purchase .ru domain for russian speaking. Or leave RU content in .com too. Why to leave german content on .de. I was experience on their market and i found that they`re too close related to language. In fact just 3 countries speak German - Austria, Swiss and Germany. And you could place very well with .com domain but users to decide to not click on your result.
Neil Cheesman: Check this out... Use hreflang for language and regional URLs -there is are also websites for checking canonicals are working okay (I just don`t have the links to hand) https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en
Marcus Pentzek: Thx, that is a no-brainer. Hreflang will be used no matter if one or multiple domains. I don`t have much of an international but a merge or not merge question ;-)

View original question in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 03/15/2018).

Starting an international website

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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