Country code domains give an edge to local sites, helping them perform better in search engine rankings. Sites containing country-level domain names are given preference over others.
Country Code Top-Level Domains, or ccTLDs, target specific countries. For instance, ‘.de’ for Germany, ‘.kr’ for Korea, ‘.in’ for India, etc. While not directed at particular languages, these appear in search results for users in that particular country. Google treats some ccTLDs as regular gTLDs or Generic Top-Level Domains for ranking purposes. ‘.io’ is one example where the search engine treats it as a gTLD because of the way it is used, even if it belongs to the British Indian Ocean Territory.
Content is predominantly promoted to the local user. So, a domain name with ‘.kr’ does better than others when someone in Korea searches for information. Companies and people who want to do well in a specific country must register a domain specific to that country because Google boosts it over others regardless of the language in which it is available. When the domain name matches the searcher’s country, it inspires trust in the user. They are invariably more likely to click on the result that contains geotargeted ccTLD.
