"They 'went with the strategy of buying up ccTLDs for target countries (think .it, .fr, .co.uk) and translating the page content for each,' they said. John Mueller wrote, 'I question whether you really need to split your site across ccTLDs. Having them reserved is one thing, but by separating your site across separate domain names, you both make things harder on yourself, but you also make it harder for search engines to understand each of these sites (because they're all separate sites).' "
"I mean, the Google international SEO documentation gives numerous options for using a URL structure that makes it easy to geotarget your site, or parts of it, to different regions. They include: (1) Country-specific domain (2) Subdomains with gTLD (3) Subdirectories with gTLD and (4) URL parameters. I think this is the first time I saw John Mueller say not necessarily to use ccTLDs for an international set up. And that doing so might make it harder for not just users but also search engines?"
John Mueller questioned the need to split an international site across multiple country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs), noting that reserving ccTLDs is fine but using them as separate sites increases management burden and impedes search engines' ability to understand each site. A SaaS company bought ccTLDs (.it, .fr, .co.uk) and translated pages per country. Google’s international SEO guidance lists alternatives for geotargeting: country-specific domains, subdomains on a gTLD, subdirectories on a gTLD, and URL parameters. Consolidated URL-structure strategies can simplify indexing, signal consolidation, and user navigation compared with many separate domains.
Read at Search Engine Roundtable
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