Targetting Specific Countries in Google

Had a recent conversation regarding this recently, if you have an ecommerce website and are unsure about selling to different countries around the world you need to have a .com domain and set it up with Google to target ‘no specific country’ to allow it to feature in every area. The following exchange demonstrates and explains how you can ensure your website will be visible to the whole world (if that’s what you decide is best for your business.
[Website Owner] I’m trying to add some domain names to my site. I want a .sg, .cn and .jp added and I’ve found a few sites do you have any knowledge of doing this? Some are asking for all the details of the host etc. Are you able to do this or can you give me any advice on adding them? I have some new domains to attach to the site. What info do you need for this?
[Website Design Company] and bit confused to be honest, what are you trying to do / achieve as it didn’t really make sense. I am assuming you are considering buying domains that are specific to countries that you want to sell to.
[Website Owner] Yes, we have bought a .sg (and also one for japan .jp and one for china .cn) and want them attached to the site to redirect the traffic
[Website Design Company] Think you have got the wrong idea about these domains. Buying domains in specific countries doesn’t specifically attract traffic from that country by attaching them to your main site. If you want to open your website up to the world we will need a .com domain then to redirect the .co.uk to the .com then will need us to do inform google via webmaster tools that we are not UK only.
[Website Owner] I was informed by a friend who designs websites to get a .sg because he works a lot in Singapore and said the market for my kind of stuff is big there. I can get a .com but mainly wanted to concentrate on those countries?  Can we still direct traffic from the .sg to the co.uk? Are you saying that I basically should have got a .com if I want to sell worldwide, as re-directing from a .com to the co.uk wouldn’t be very efficient?
[Website Design Company] Your friend has either not-understood what you want to do or you have misunderstood him. Designing websites is one thing but the ‘business or SEO’ side of website business is another thing altogether.
To attract traffic from a country you either need a country domain relevant to that country (.co.uk  / .jp etc) or a .com and target that country specifically, as you had already purchased a .co.uk domain when we started the project we built the website on that one but on reflection it looks like a .com would be more appropriate / relevant to you and the business.  A .com domain can also be set to not target any country specifically and attracts traffic from all areas. There are multinational companies (ebay / amazon) that have .com and then country specific domains but that relies on having unique / relevant ecommerce stores on each domain and each are updated / maintained. I would suggest that if you wanted to sell worldwide there are other factors to consider (what countries you want to ship to and the postage costs).  It’s possible to transfer your existing .co.uk domain to a .com one but as the website / database / ecommerce system is in place this will take approximately 3-4 hours and will take more than a week to transfer it completely and then between 1 week and 3 weeks for Google / Yahoo / Bing to re-index your site and to acknowledge that you are now not targeting the UK market only.
if you had unique / relevant websites on your other domains (.jp .sg domains) they could be used as a SEO tool to attract traffic to your .com domain (or .co.uk) domain but I would suggest attracting traffic to a .co.uk domain would be less efficient that attracting it to the universally accepted .com domain.
Regarding your last comment about the .com domain that’s correct, selling worldwide is a ‘big deal’ and think you should stick with the .co.uk. But also happy to transfer to a new .com but obviously there is time / effort and costs associated with doing this. I will add that .co.uk domains appear in the global Google search engine (google.com) so you could attract business from those countries but need to setup these countries and the postage costs in your ecommerce system.
[Website Owner] And once I have set up shipping etc on the site, how can we attract more traffic from those countries? About the ‘attracting customers from those certain countries’. Anymore I can do to specifically target them without actually having to advertise there? As in nothing I can do regarding the website, to do this.
[Website Design Company] The site needs to be bursting with unique products / unique text / descriptions to attract any traffic. I would suggest you give us the text for the shipping page and perhaps create a ‘about us ‘ text also.
To target countries specifically you will need the .com and transfer your website, then you can choose to target one country specifically or target no country specifically and therefore appear in all local versions of Google. We have other clients with .com domains that sell worldwide by not targeting any country specifically (in Google Webmaster tools).
[Website Owner] I do have international orders coming in from the US so I’m not to fussed about transferring it to a .com, and was just under the illusion that directing the traffic from the .sg domains etc, would help sales in these areas.
do you have any knowledge of doing this? Some are asking for all the details of the hoster etc.Are you able to do this or can you give me any advice on adding them?
[Website Design Company] thinking over all we discussed last night, and as I have bought the domains I would like to use them and have the traffic re-directed to the co.uk please. I might as well make use of them, even though as you say, they wont produce much traffic and Im hoping that having a local .sg might encourage the average Singaporian? Its probably a good idea to have domains of vintagengland in my possession the end of the day.
So if you could do this that would be great, let me know what you need.
[Website Owner] Sorry to keep repeating myself but don’t think you have got this point. Redirecting an empty domain to a real domain will make 0% difference I am assuming you have now bought the .jp and .sg domain and when someone types in that in the address bar of their browser you want it redirected to your .co.uk.website
We have done this for other clients but its as they previously owned the domain, have previously used that domain on flyers or business cards or use it for emails but unless a domain has unique content it will make 0% difference unless you are actively marketing the .sg domain offline. Google will not index a domain that simply redirects to another domain.
Happy for you to come here and let me show you this in practise and I hope you know I have spent time trying to explain this to you as I want you to be a success and want your website to bring in traffic but the way you have been advised and the way you want this to go seems a waste of time / effort / money and is pointless
[Website Owner] I didn’t know it would make 0% difference, I thought maybe a little, from what you said. But if its 0% then I take your word for it. With the google adverts, can you target certain countries?
[Website Design Company] Yes in Google Adwords you can target countries very specifically.