an idea: geotargeting for local search

So now that local search / personalized results is taking off with Google, Yahoo and other search engines, I was thinking of ways to take advantage of this. I still think that the .com site should be your main focus, but maybe setting up some new traffic or feeder sites that have features like:
- language specific
- using local country TLDs and domain names
- getting location-specific on link exchanges and backlinks
- using local hosting services

Does anyone here have experience in setting something like this up? If yes, have you seen good results?

If you don't have experience, do you want to participate in a project and help each other get something like this setup?

google loves country specific domains if the content is in the country's language and possibly even hosted there

We set up these sites with the help of our French employee:
http://www.japanboyz.fr
http://www.boykakke.fr

It does do quite well for us, however, it would be very difficult to purchase a '.FR' domain unless you live in France or are French. Actually it's the same way in many countries...I tried to purchase a domain as 'co.jp' and there were so many laws and rules with you having to be a Japanese resident and comply with all kinds of laws that I gave up on it! So you will definitely want to do a lot of research if you want to own a domain in a foreign country, and take the route that is easiest for you.

I didn't realize it was difficult to get a .fr domain. So maybe doing a group learning project here would be helpful for those that are interested???

I just tried registering a .fr domain name on godaddy and got this message:

.FR domains that do not have a registrant and admin contact in France require a fee-based trustee service (we will provide) to proceed.
This fee is $29.99 per year of domain registration and will automatically be added.

So its possible, but just a bit costly as the domain itself is only 19.99/yr

Oh that's interesting! I couldn't find anything like that when I searched to buy .FR domains a couple of years ago, which is why I used my French Employee as the 'trustee.' If you find anything like that for Japan...please let me know! ;)

I know about at least one country where you can buy domains as a foreigner via a trustee. However, it becomes tricky when you're doing adult, starting with finding a trustee service that's okay with getting involved in adult.

I have started looking around for other sources of foreign TLD domains, so far the best one seems to be EuroDNS. They offer a very large variety of country domains and have fair pricing.

When I registered MachosCalientes.es I had problems finding registrars that had English interfaces. You may have a similar problem registering domains, though since you live in Panama I doubt Spanish would be a problem with you. I tried EuroDNS but had problems with them (my credit card thought they weren't legit), by the time I got to the bottom of that problem I wasn't comfortable with how expensive they were, so I signed up to be my own registrar with Tucows, and can now register the following domains (as well as the standards)...

* .ASIA
* .AT
* .AU
* .BE
* .BZ
* .CA
* .CC
* .CH
* .CO
* .DE
* .DK
* .ES
* .EU
* .FR
* .IN
* .IT
* .LI
* .NL
* .TV
* .CO.UK
* .ME.UK
* .ORG.UK
* .US
* .WS

If you need to register any of those domains, let me know and I'll give you a URL to use. You won't need to pay the set up fee I had to pay, and since it's with Tucows it's all legit, above board and safe... It'll wind up being a lot cheaper than EuroDNS. All I ask is that you keep support questions to a minimum - the margins on registration aren't good and I don't really want to get into the business of it. Even though I can register things more cheaply by myself I still use Domain Shack for registering most of my domains - 'cause I value their support...

BTW, it's REALLY easy to to find good domain names in things other than .com...

Awesome! If I had known this a week ago I could have used it to renew my .com.au domain, but I am keen on giving this a go so I would love a link.

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Originally Posted by HunkMoneyLuke

Awesome! If I had known this a week ago I could have used it to renew my .com.au domain, but I am keen on giving this a go so I would love a link.

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The URL is http://domains.studio3x.com - I've reduced the prices on domains about as low as I can go. People can feel free to use it, but realize support will be limited. I don't really want to get into the domain registration business...

Awesome, those are great prices too. Thanks rawTOP!

That's a nice list RawTop! I'm going to be buying some off of you soon. ;)

rawTop, any tips on how i can register a .fr domain using your site without having a local presence?

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Originally Posted by HunkMoneyLuke

rawTop, any tips on how i can register a .fr domain using your site without having a local presence?

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I've heard .fr domains are hard to get... Honestly, I don't know... I'm still trying to figure things out with my .es site...

I usually use http://domaindiscount24.com/?page=domains_register when I look for not-so-common TLD

It is a little expensive but the support is great and I rarely find any TLD I need missing

FYI - if you're wanting to do a domain name with Cyrillic characters, the .org TLD will support the names in a few days...

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On February 19, 2011, .ORG will begin allowing Cyrillic Internationalized Domain Name registrations (IDNs) for the following languages: Bosnian, Bulgarian, Belarusian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian.

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