National domains vs one common domain: case of 841% growth from an international brand
Thesis: A global SEO strategy should focus on one common domain, which should lead to exponential growth in organic results, including at the regional level.
This article presents an example of an international company Picodi.com, which has managed to strengthen its leadership by bringing together 23 regional sites in one directory.
Picodi is a shopping platform for consumers arising from a coupon site with a wide international reach and a high position in search results.
SEO professionals probably know that coupon sites are one of the most competitive niches in SEO. The goal of Picodi was not only to break into the leaders of its niche, but also to maintain a leading position.
Picodi services are available in 31 countries. Until recently, separate domains were used for each country of presence.
The list of domains is presented below:
As you can see, Picodi did not sin by unification and standardization: some of the domains were tailored to the keyword (exact-match), and some were branded (for example, picodi.gr). Even a student understands that this is not the most optimal structure in terms of building an international brand.
What is really important from a technical point of view is that in this hodgepodge there were all possible types of domains:
But none of these solutions could be as effective as one common global domain.
The main goal of migration was to unify marketing activities and reduce maintenance costs . The growth of traffic in the light of this turned out to be a pleasant bonus, which no one expected on such a scale. What are the main advantages of the chosen strategy?
Depending on the specifics of the niche, with one or another frequency, each site faces these tasks, weekly or monthly :
In theory, all these measures are very expensive, not only from a financial point of view, but also in time. And, as practice shows, most projects leave some of the tasks completely unattended. Fast-growing companies usually do not have enough time or resources, and all this is put aside for a long time.
Fortunately, the strategy described here focuses not only on reducing costs, but, above all, on accelerating growth.
Teams dealing with local sites, as well as the product itself, should be closer to the local client. In theory. The reality usually looks different: smaller teams face serious problems: the internal policy of the company, limited budget, limited access to developers, content creators or other resources. A single international team is not a panacea for the typical difficulties of a company operating in several markets at the same time, however, as a rule, it is easier for it to cope with “pushing” its needs.
How then merging all domains into one can help to increase success in the field of marketing?
Imagine that the Picodi team in Russia creates cool viral content that users share around the world. It is published on Picodi.com/ru, and it receives thousands of backlinks. This content and the backlinks that it generates support not only the Russian site, but the entire Picodi structure.
The introduction of one common brand will accelerate the process of building a link profile and significantly reduce the cost of content marketing.
Now Picodi can lead a single marketing strategy, and at the same time, the global structure can now receive bonuses from success in individual markets . For example, cool content in Turkey can also boost site position in Australia.
In fact, this idea is simpler than it sounds. In a nutshell, it’s much more difficult to analyze the SEO strategy of international brands than small sites.
If one domain is intended for several countries, the number of factors affecting the site’s position is so great that competitors cannot analyze it and copy the strategy . And here are some proofs of this:
Obviously, the movement of such an extensive structure is always associated with huge risks. All measures were taken to prevent all possible troubles . And you need to understand that a procedure of this magnitude cannot be carried out alone without experienced developers (Picodi just has one), without an effective visionary manager (Łukasz Gwóźdź) and, of course, without the technical assistance of an SEO agency.
And so we come to the most important part of this longread. Among the SEO-specialists, the “ Orca method ” is quite well-known , developed for sites that fall under the influence of the Google Penguin algorithm and which had to start all over from scratch. In the case of Picodi.com, fortunately, no filters or sanctions were imposed. In addition, for better control over the situation, it was decided to stretch the process of migrating one domain at a time, so that you could focus on cleaning the link profile and potential technical problems before merging several domains into one.
The first step is key because the long-term success of migration depends on it. Very often, SEO agencies underestimate this complex and time-consuming process. Migration without audit of all links can go smoothly. In many cases, a domain merger will bring positive effects, but in reality a SEO bomb will be planted under the site. In addition, the process of removing possible sanctions from a site with such a complex structure and with such a diverse profile of links is a real nightmare.
A single domain with a “junk” link profile can adversely affect the entire site and destroy its traffic. This risk is quite real, and in the field of SEO, the fall of the site after a failed migration was observed more than once. Even more such cases are associated with improper backlink management (we strongly recommend that you read the cases of Expedia or Halifax sites ). In this regard, it is recommended to manually analyze the links and avoid bad links. It is worth checking everything that is possible.
The detailed process for a single domain (scalable to all roaming domains) is as follows:
Step number 3 is extremely time consuming. Effective verification involves manual analysis of the link after link. Here you can go even further and mark each individual link with information about its nature (for example, scraper, trash site, comment, link directory site, etc.) and scores on a scale from 1 to 5.
Step 6 in the described procedure - This is the step at which most SEO professionals fail. If you redirect the domain olddomain.com → newdomain.com, then these two domains will become one. This means that links from olddomain.com appear in the Google Search Console on newdomain.com as direct links.
When the link audit team worked on link cleaning, the SEO technical team focused on ensuring that the whole structure was clean and efficient .
Mostly, the task was to solve typical SEO problems that could adversely affect the movement of a domain , for example, internal redirects, 404 errors, canonical correctness, etc. For example, all pages with a 404 error can be easily identified using OnPage.org.
After receiving the clean structures, unique URLs were exported in each domain and saved for use in the next step.
After resolving all the issues on the pages (on-page) and outside the pages (off-page), it was decided to proceed to the next stage - domain forwarding . The process was first run on two domains (Brazil and Turkey), so that you could immediately identify possible problems and quickly fix them . After the diversion was completed, it took a month of waiting to evaluate the results. Brazil's
first migration
is codigosdesconto.com.br
Site visibility before migration (before setting up 301 redirects):
Site visibility after migration to picodi.com/br:
As you can see, the migration of the first domain went pretty well.
After successfully forwarding, the process moved on. Using the list of URLs from step 3, Picodi checked that all the URLs were redirected correctly to the new ones, without creating closed redirect chains leading to 404 pages, etc. (ScrapeBox Alive and ScrapeBox Redirect were used for this).
As a final step, you’ll need to tell Google about moving through the Google Search Console platform.
It is hard to find words to describe the scale of success of migration. Suffice it to mention that the average visibility, according to data from SearchMetrics, grew by 841%!
Of course, as with everything, there are exceptions to any rule. White crow or black sheep. That little grain of sand that spoils a perfectly working mechanism. In this case, it was the Russian domain .ru.
Its visibility fell by 16% .
The best effect was achieved on the Turkish version of the site, the visibility of which increased almost 40 times in one evening.
It was:
It became:
As Neil Armstrong said, “There can be no great accomplishment without risk” without risk. We hope that this example will inspire more brands to not only take risks, but to do it wisely and invest in the technical aspects of SEO as one of the best ways to increase visibility around the world.
National Domains
This article presents an example of an international company Picodi.com, which has managed to strengthen its leadership by bringing together 23 regional sites in one directory.
About Picodi
Picodi is a shopping platform for consumers arising from a coupon site with a wide international reach and a high position in search results.
SEO professionals probably know that coupon sites are one of the most competitive niches in SEO. The goal of Picodi was not only to break into the leaders of its niche, but also to maintain a leading position.
Picodi structure before changes
Picodi services are available in 31 countries. Until recently, separate domains were used for each country of presence.
The list of domains is presented below:
As you can see, Picodi did not sin by unification and standardization: some of the domains were tailored to the keyword (exact-match), and some were branded (for example, picodi.gr). Even a student understands that this is not the most optimal structure in terms of building an international brand.
What is really important from a technical point of view is that in this hodgepodge there were all possible types of domains:
- Subdomains in picodi.com (e.g. thailand.picodi.com )
- Keyword domains (e.g. codigosdesconto.com.br )
- Country code top-level domains (e.g. picodi.es )
But none of these solutions could be as effective as one common global domain.
The “migration” strategy and its advantages
The main goal of migration was to unify marketing activities and reduce maintenance costs . The growth of traffic in the light of this turned out to be a pleasant bonus, which no one expected on such a scale. What are the main advantages of the chosen strategy?
Lower maintenance costs and lower workloads
Depending on the specifics of the niche, with one or another frequency, each site faces these tasks, weekly or monthly :
- Inbound Link Monitoring
- Monitoring site structural issues
- Server monitoring
- Brand monitoring
- Monitoring data in the Google Search Console
- Graphic Images
- Marketing campaigns
In theory, all these measures are very expensive, not only from a financial point of view, but also in time. And, as practice shows, most projects leave some of the tasks completely unattended. Fast-growing companies usually do not have enough time or resources, and all this is put aside for a long time.
Fortunately, the strategy described here focuses not only on reducing costs, but, above all, on accelerating growth.
Global marketing strategy supports local markets
Teams dealing with local sites, as well as the product itself, should be closer to the local client. In theory. The reality usually looks different: smaller teams face serious problems: the internal policy of the company, limited budget, limited access to developers, content creators or other resources. A single international team is not a panacea for the typical difficulties of a company operating in several markets at the same time, however, as a rule, it is easier for it to cope with “pushing” its needs.
How then merging all domains into one can help to increase success in the field of marketing?
Local success supports global structure
Imagine that the Picodi team in Russia creates cool viral content that users share around the world. It is published on Picodi.com/ru, and it receives thousands of backlinks. This content and the backlinks that it generates support not only the Russian site, but the entire Picodi structure.
The introduction of one common brand will accelerate the process of building a link profile and significantly reduce the cost of content marketing.
What did Picodi give?
Now Picodi can lead a single marketing strategy, and at the same time, the global structure can now receive bonuses from success in individual markets . For example, cool content in Turkey can also boost site position in Australia.
The complexity of the task of collecting classified data by competitors
In fact, this idea is simpler than it sounds. In a nutshell, it’s much more difficult to analyze the SEO strategy of international brands than small sites.
If one domain is intended for several countries, the number of factors affecting the site’s position is so great that competitors cannot analyze it and copy the strategy . And here are some proofs of this:
- The picodi.com link profile is difficult to analyze due to the large number of domain redirects. Most tools show only a small percentage of backlinks for picodi.com.
- Analysis of any domain in any country in comparison with picodi.com will be completely useless.
- The position of picodi.com/XX at the local geo-level will always be affected by the entire structure of the site. This will dissuade competitors from perceiving picodi.com as a direct competitor in the local market.
Migration Risks
Obviously, the movement of such an extensive structure is always associated with huge risks. All measures were taken to prevent all possible troubles . And you need to understand that a procedure of this magnitude cannot be carried out alone without experienced developers (Picodi just has one), without an effective visionary manager (Łukasz Gwóźdź) and, of course, without the technical assistance of an SEO agency.
Explain Domain Transfer Process
And so we come to the most important part of this longread. Among the SEO-specialists, the “ Orca method ” is quite well-known , developed for sites that fall under the influence of the Google Penguin algorithm and which had to start all over from scratch. In the case of Picodi.com, fortunately, no filters or sanctions were imposed. In addition, for better control over the situation, it was decided to stretch the process of migrating one domain at a time, so that you could focus on cleaning the link profile and potential technical problems before merging several domains into one.
1. Manual audit of links
The first step is key because the long-term success of migration depends on it. Very often, SEO agencies underestimate this complex and time-consuming process. Migration without audit of all links can go smoothly. In many cases, a domain merger will bring positive effects, but in reality a SEO bomb will be planted under the site. In addition, the process of removing possible sanctions from a site with such a complex structure and with such a diverse profile of links is a real nightmare.
A single domain with a “junk” link profile can adversely affect the entire site and destroy its traffic. This risk is quite real, and in the field of SEO, the fall of the site after a failed migration was observed more than once. Even more such cases are associated with improper backlink management (we strongly recommend that you read the cases of Expedia or Halifax sites ). In this regard, it is recommended to manually analyze the links and avoid bad links. It is worth checking everything that is possible.
The detailed process for a single domain (scalable to all roaming domains) is as follows:
- Gathering information about all backlinks (LinkResearchTools, Google Search Console, Ahrefs, Majestic, SearchMetrics, SEO SpyGlass, etc.);
- Deduplication of backlinks and posting through LinkResearchTools - Link Detox;
- Manual audit of all backlinks (the most time-consuming process);
- Creating a Disavow file (rejecting backlinks);
- Uploading a Disavow file to the Google Search Console (for olddomain.com);
- Upload the Disavow file to the list of rejected backlinks (for newdomain.com).
Step number 3 is extremely time consuming. Effective verification involves manual analysis of the link after link. Here you can go even further and mark each individual link with information about its nature (for example, scraper, trash site, comment, link directory site, etc.) and scores on a scale from 1 to 5.
Step 6 in the described procedure - This is the step at which most SEO professionals fail. If you redirect the domain olddomain.com → newdomain.com, then these two domains will become one. This means that links from olddomain.com appear in the Google Search Console on newdomain.com as direct links.
2. Full crawl
When the link audit team worked on link cleaning, the SEO technical team focused on ensuring that the whole structure was clean and efficient .
Mostly, the task was to solve typical SEO problems that could adversely affect the movement of a domain , for example, internal redirects, 404 errors, canonical correctness, etc. For example, all pages with a 404 error can be easily identified using OnPage.org.
3. URL List
After receiving the clean structures, unique URLs were exported in each domain and saved for use in the next step.
4. Domain Forwarding
After resolving all the issues on the pages (on-page) and outside the pages (off-page), it was decided to proceed to the next stage - domain forwarding . The process was first run on two domains (Brazil and Turkey), so that you could immediately identify possible problems and quickly fix them . After the diversion was completed, it took a month of waiting to evaluate the results. Brazil's
first migration
is codigosdesconto.com.br
Site visibility before migration (before setting up 301 redirects):
Site visibility after migration to picodi.com/br:
As you can see, the migration of the first domain went pretty well.
After successfully forwarding, the process moved on. Using the list of URLs from step 3, Picodi checked that all the URLs were redirected correctly to the new ones, without creating closed redirect chains leading to 404 pages, etc. (ScrapeBox Alive and ScrapeBox Redirect were used for this).
5. Set up domain forwarding in the Google Search Console
As a final step, you’ll need to tell Google about moving through the Google Search Console platform.
Results: migration success and white crow
It is hard to find words to describe the scale of success of migration. Suffice it to mention that the average visibility, according to data from SearchMetrics, grew by 841%!
Of course, as with everything, there are exceptions to any rule. White crow or black sheep. That little grain of sand that spoils a perfectly working mechanism. In this case, it was the Russian domain .ru.
Its visibility fell by 16% .
The best effect was achieved on the Turkish version of the site, the visibility of which increased almost 40 times in one evening.
It was:
It became:
Summary
As Neil Armstrong said, “There can be no great accomplishment without risk” without risk. We hope that this example will inspire more brands to not only take risks, but to do it wisely and invest in the technical aspects of SEO as one of the best ways to increase visibility around the world.