Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi David

Thank you for the input - to clarify:

Question 4:  is hosting the regional site best done on a local domain (we own a bunch) or does that not really matter?
Local like how? Please elaborate what your intentions are and focus area would be. (what domain for what area) ==>> our intentions are to be found online.  We have a huge competitive landscape and some of our larger competitors spend fortunes on PPC.  So my question is,  will hosting our site in Australia on a .au domain  rank it higher than relying just on subfolders?

Question 5:  If we use a WP plug in and just use subfolders for translating and localising content (US, Germany, Australia),  what is the best way of serving that content for local PR?

Why not just use Googles own translator, rather than a plugin?
http://support.jimdo.com/tutorials/apps-and-plugins/how-to-add-google-translate-to-your-website/  ==>> the quality of automated translation does not work for us due to our sector and we need human translation and localisation for language as well as tone of voice, culture etc.

I hope that makes sense.

Guni

I am in the process of rebranding a B2B website for a UK company that has been established on a .net address for ten years.  The CMS is Wordpress.  The company has previously had localised content on .net/de, .net/au extensions for various regions where they have offices (US, Oz, various Europe.)

I am getting varied and at times conflicting feedback from the creative agency, inhouse digital staff, and IT about the best way to proceed with the new website and in particular its future local language versions.

Question 1:  If we change the .net website to a .com address, will 301 redirects safeguard our SEO real estate?

Question 2:  we own the .com extension and have been using it for some back office stuff.  It was purchased because it was advised that the .net did not carry much credibility in the US, is this correct?

Question 3: If we change the .net to the .com which is hosted in the US,  will we wipe our search rankings on Google for the UK and non-US locations?  I saw this post and wondered: 
http://moz.com/community/q/uk-rankings-disappeared-after-us-website-launch

Question 4:  is hosting the regional site best done on a local domain (we own a bunch) or does that not really matter?

Question 5:  If we use a WP plug in and just use subfolders for translating and localising content (US, Germany, Australia),  what is the best way of serving that content for local PR?

Sorry about the many questions

Guni