Any thoughts on what is better for an Australian-targeted site?

I have a heap of geo domains that are suburb based, with most of them being .net and most of them ranking within the top 5 Google results.

The majority of them have the equivalent .net.au available for reg (com.au's are all taken) and I'm wondering whether it's worth switching to .net.au or just stick with the .net since they're ranking well anyway.

Most of the .com.au's I want are all on Netfleet, but the asking prices are unrealistic in my opinion (high $x,xxx) considering the income these little suburb based domains bring in.

FWIW, most of mine are .net hosted in the US, but they still rank well in google.com.au, even when you select Australian sites only.

Any thoughts?

I would definitely stick with using what's working. No need to try and reinvent the wheel.

Google is smart, they'll recognise when you site is about a certain geo location. They only thing you could probably do to help when using a gtld is just let them know you your website has an Australian focus via webmaster tools.

Hosting in Australia would help a little bit, but isn't a big issue.

As for buying the .net.au's - I probably wouldn't bother unless you were wanting to setup secondary sites to cannibalise more of the rankings (be warned - grey hat technique).

net.au is definitely better than net for ranking in Australia. Depending how developed the sites are I would consider making the switch. It could be a bit of a drama but if you get all your 301's right, in theory you should emerge OK and with better ranking.

However it might not be worth the effort & risk if you're ranking well now... You want to PM which sites you are talking about?

__________________
CocktailRecipes.com.au ★ Photographers.com.au ★ DebitCard.com.au ★ Hockey.com.au ★ Boxing.com.au ★ DomainName.com.au

Personally, I would grab the .net.au equivalents, run them on aussie hosting, and build up a new site with new content and new footprint. Get ranked in the top 5 with your other sites, and have twice the presence. I wouldn't really say thats a grey hat technique though :S

Agreed
.net.au's are way better than .net's

__________________
Managing Million Dollar Sites since 2004

I agree with Soj, if you are going to do anything, just buy the .net.au's and build them out as new sites with fresh and original content rather than doing a 301 redirect.

I only say it's grey hat because I'm a simple Google fearing man, and I fear that Google may look to crack down on this more in the future, because I know that Google doesn't like people manipulating their rankings. And cannibalising rankings looks bad for Google if it's obvious because they have an expectation they provide quality, alternative sources of information.

Like many wise SEOs before me have said - the name of the game is to not make Google look dumb.



That said, if you like living life in the fast lane (I have been know to do so on occasions) then I think it's an option worth considering.

I don't agree that .net.au's are better than .net

I have a prime example, David Lye has the vecommodore.com.au website, and in the past pew months, davids and myself have registered vecommodore.com, built out a site, and it ranks much better than vecommodore.com.au

Now tell me that the .com.au is better than the .com counterpart, especially for an aussie specific topic. Note that there has only been minor link building, just built up content.

I would much rather take an aged, and most times new reg .com, .net, or .org over a .net.au, and sometimes .com.au

For doing what the OP asked I consider .net.au better than .net

__________________
Managing Million Dollar Sites since 2004

Sounds like some testing might be required.

Actually, considering what was first asked, I would still say .net is better than .net.au, he is ranking for his search terms, and in Australian Google. If he were to go for the .net.au he wouldn't have the age of the .net's, and I'd say he would do more harm than good. Still, an aged .net is better than a new .net.au, and there is no problem with knowing that the site is for the AU market, so there is absolutely no problems.