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libra
06-09-2012, 11:02 AM
I am looking to conduct a business which has the 'parent' company based in my country, but will eventually possibly be extended to include branches at local offices in other countries. The planned arrangement will be such that the each local office will be an independent company in terms of administration and business matters, except that the business format, which is operated around a website, is to be based on the one set by the 'parent' company, somewhat like an online franchise-like arrangement, if you will.

The main website for this business will be operated and supervised by the parent company. The local business operators in each country have control of the sections of the website which are relevant to each respective country, by way of site administration and upkeep.

Being quite new to the world of web-hosting, I would like to know what can be the best way go about it. Conceptually, the website I have in mind will function as the main host where each business operator in a country will be hosted in a sub-domain in it. What are the best ways to go about it?

Many thanks in advance.

MyITGuy
06-09-2012, 06:43 PM
Conceptually, the website I have in mind will function as the main host where each business operator in a country will be hosted in a sub-domain in it. What are the best ways to go about it?

With hosting, it's always ideal to have your hosting in the same demographic area as your target customers. Since your targeting several different demographic areas this leaves you with the following options:

1 - Cheapest Price - Obtain a single hosting account where the majority of your market demographic exists (I.E. United States, Europe, China or etc..), understanding that others may experience some minor lag
2 - Price increases with each new subdomain/demographic area - Since you are using subdomains, you can utilize many webhosts. I.E. domain.com uses hostA in your area. subdomainA.domain.com uses a host in the US. subdomainB uses a host in China and etc...
3 - Most expensive - Sign up with a host who offers a Content Distribution Network in the demographic areas you want to target.

libra
06-09-2012, 10:14 PM
Thank you for the comments.


With hosting, it's always ideal to have your hosting in the same demographic area as your target customers. Since your targeting several different demographic areas this leaves you with the following options:

1 - Cheapest Price - Obtain a single hosting account where the majority of your market demographic exists (I.E. United States, Europe, China or etc..), understanding that others may experience some minor lag


Since my company will be HQed in my own country, I will most probably host my site there, though it may or may not be the one with the most targeted clientele.




2 - Price increases with each new subdomain/demographic area - Since you are using subdomains, you can utilize many webhosts. I.E. domain.com uses hostA in your area. subdomainA.domain.com uses a host in the US. subdomainB uses a host in China and etc...


I have been thinking that subdomains must only reside in sub-folders in the same hosted domain eg. subdomain1.maindomain.com, subdomain2.maindomain.com, etc. Correct me if I'm mistaken.

The business site I have in mind is based only on one main domain name, regardless of where the local operators are located. The local operators will each run their own business operations in their respective countries, which includes all the necessary groundwork. Their portion of the business will be reflected in the section of the main site which is relevant to their own country. They will upload and maintain their web contents into a subdomain folder of the main site. Thus, a visitor to the site will initially arrive at the home page of the site, from where they can select the country of interest, whereupon the contents of the subdomain will displayed in a new page.




3 - Most expensive - Sign up with a host who offers a Content Distribution Network in the demographic areas you want to target.

This is beyond my limited understanding at the moment, but it sounds like a good idea.

MyITGuy
06-10-2012, 12:17 AM
Since my company will be HQed in my own country, I will most probably host my site there, though it may or may not be the one with the most targeted clientele.
Based on your comments, I would strongly urge you to reconsider. If your main site will be used as a primary entry point for all visitors, regardless of the local operators then you will absolutely want this primary site where the majority of your clientele are located. Otherwise your search rankings can be impacted, along with the overall user experience.



I have been thinking that subdomains must only reside in sub-folders in the same hosted domain eg. subdomain1.maindomain.com, subdomain2.maindomain.com, etc. Correct me if I'm mistaken.
You would be mistaken, or i may not have provided enough information:
Instead of creating a sub-domain as you normally would with your webhost, you can create A or CNAME records via your DNS control panel. I.E. Using my domain as an example:
cingularnoc.com is my parent domain and goes to one server (jaxweb01.cingularnoc.com).
jaxweb01.cingularnoc.com goes to one server that I own/control (A record)
jaxweb02.cingularnoc.com goes to a second server that I own/control (A Record)
mail.cingularnoc.com goes to a third server that I own/control (A record)
smtp.cingularnoc.com goes to a fourth server that I own/control (A Record)
status.cingularnoc.com goes to a service I pay for that monitors my servers uptime (CNAME record)



This is beyond my limited understanding at the moment, but it sounds like a good idea.
A CDN Network/Host means you have a single interface/control panel, and they handle the synchronization/cache to servers around the world.

libra
06-10-2012, 01:16 AM
Thank you Jeff, for the explanation. There's much to learn. :)

What do you think of cloud hosting (load balancing?) for my planned site? Will it help much?

What would you have done if you were to start the business in my shoes? Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

MyITGuy
06-10-2012, 09:40 AM
What do you think of cloud hosting (load balancing?) for my planned site? Will it help much?
The term "Cloud Hosting" has become diluted over the years, but generally the servers are still in one demographic area which doesn't address your specific needs.

Load Balancing still has the speed impact and is also a single point of failure (Unless used with additional/expensive technology) as you have to point all of your domains to this load balancer which would be in a single location, regardless of how many or where your servers were located.


What would you have done if you were to start the business in my shoes? Any suggestions will be much appreciated.
Since I am not privy to all of the details, specifically current clientele or growth expectations...I personally would've started off with a single server that is in the same location as the majority of my clientele, and would upgrade to a CDN provider when the growth/revenue justify it.

billbenson
06-10-2012, 08:28 PM
A company I am familiar with does it this way: The main domain is domain.com. If the visitor is from the US, the site looks at the url and forwards it to domain.us. If they are in Canada it gets forwarded to domain.ca etc. As Jeff said above its best to have the server in the country you are serving. A .uk domain in the UK on a UK server in other words.

A bit of work, but then I would think you have different content for each country, so not that far out of practicality. You at least want prices to be in Euro's in Europe...

libra
06-14-2012, 02:19 AM
I like the idea of directing visitors to subdomains which are hosted in their respective countries after they arrive at the main site. This will be done via selection of a country in the menu screen.

I will in all probability be working towards that arrangement. Any further suggestions and insights as to how best to implement such an arrangement in this regard will be appreciated.

Basically, in my proposed model, I am the owner of the main website. I have sole control over the overall design, and presentational format and hosting of the main site. For the purpose of this discussion, we can treat this website as a gallery of pictures around the world in which the local operators in each country need to adhere to a standard format of presentation.

For operating a sub-domain, the local operators will each need to pay a specified fee and/or a percentage of the net profits to the owner of the main site. All other aspects of setting up and running of the local operators' business operations and its related logistics, and hosting for their sub-domains, will be under the responsibility of the respective operators.

libra
06-14-2012, 09:41 AM
... If your main site will be used as a primary entry point for all visitors, regardless of the local operators then you will absolutely want this primary site where the majority of your clientele are located. Otherwise your search rankings can be impacted, along with the overall user experience.

All visitors to the site will arrived at the main site where they will select a country of interest from a splash menu. Upon their choice, they will be redirected to the appropriate subdomain which is hosted in the respective country. My requirement is to host the main domain at a hosting company which has a physical presence in my country. Are there any workarounds or solutions to minimise the impact to search rankings you mentioned?



... Instead of creating a sub-domain as you normally would with your webhost, you can create A or CNAME records via your DNS control panel. I.E. Using my domain as an example:
cingularnoc.com is my parent domain and goes to one server (jaxweb01.cingularnoc.com).
jaxweb01.cingularnoc.com goes to one server that I own/control (A record)
jaxweb02.cingularnoc.com goes to a second server that I own/control (A Record)
mail.cingularnoc.com goes to a third server that I own/control (A record)
smtp.cingularnoc.com goes to a fourth server that I own/control (A Record)
status.cingularnoc.com goes to a service I pay for that monitors my servers uptime (CNAME record) ...

In using the A or CNAME records to point a domain to the main domain, is it a necessary for a pointed domain to be a subdomain of the main domain? Or can we create and register any domain name and pointed it to the main site's domain? If so, what are the pros and cons?

libra
06-17-2012, 07:27 AM
That is one good way of doing it, and it suits my purpose too.

In terms of website coding, what method is involved for auto-redirection?

If I use this auto-redirection method, will the visitor be able to visit the sites of other countries if they choose to?


A company I am familiar with does it this way: The main domain is domain.com. If the visitor is from the US, the site looks at the url and forwards it to domain.us. If they are in Canada it gets forwarded to domain.ca etc. As Jeff said above its best to have the server in the country you are serving. A .uk domain in the UK on a UK server in other words.

A bit of work, but then I would think you have different content for each country, so not that far out of practicality. You at least want prices to be in Euro's in Europe...

libra
06-22-2012, 12:05 AM
I do intend to have the country-specfic websites hosted in their respective countries.

But visitors visiting the (main) domain will always first arrive at the one location which hosts the main site. Thereafter upon clicking the desired country in the menu, they will be re-directed to the server in the country which is selected. Thus content for different countries will served only by the server in their own country.

Do you think this is a workable solution?


A company I am familiar with does it this way: The main domain is domain.com. If the visitor is from the US, the site looks at the url and forwards it to domain.us. If they are in Canada it gets forwarded to domain.ca etc. As Jeff said above its best to have the server in the country you are serving. A .uk domain in the UK on a UK server in other words.

A bit of work, but then I would think you have different content for each country, so not that far out of practicality. You at least want prices to be in Euro's in Europe...

billbenson
06-22-2012, 03:29 PM
No, you want to redirect them at the IP level. If they are coming in from China, the US or the UK, they are automatically redirected. They don't have to click on anything. You should allow them to click on different countries or regions as they could be traveling and be in the US but reside in the UK.

libra
06-23-2012, 06:33 AM
This arrangement would be superb for my application.

Say for example, the main website is marketed as "JokersAroundTheWorld.org", a site which is duplicated in many countries. When any visitor anywhere types in that URL, they will be directed to the site which is hosted in their own country.

Is setting the "A Record" itself sufficient to achieve this automatic redirection at the IP level, or does it require another mechanism in addition to that? Sorry for the excessive questioning. :)


No, you want to redirect them at the IP level. If they are coming in from China, the US or the UK, they are automatically redirected. They don't have to click on anything. You should allow them to click on different countries or regions as they could be traveling and be in the US but reside in the UK.

billbenson
06-23-2012, 07:13 AM
I would think this would best be done via htaccess but I have never done it. You can also do it via a script that looks at the last part of the incoming url, ie domain.ca for Canada but that would miss a lot of international domains using .com or others.

libra
06-24-2012, 10:23 PM
Thank you very much for your useful hints. Much appreciated.

What I need is as follows:-

When a visitor in any country types in the common URL (eg. the hypothetical "www.JokersOfTheWorld.org"), they will be immediately directed to the server which hosts the site in their own country. The site in each country is an exact duplicate of the main site in terms of format and layout, but with country-specific content.


I would think this would best be done via htaccess but I have never done it. You can also do it via a script that looks at the last part of the incoming url, ie domain.ca for Canada but that would miss a lot of international domains using .com or others.

kerrylinux
07-12-2012, 09:12 AM
Is setting the "A Record" itself sufficient to achieve this automatic redirection at the IP level, or does it require another mechanism in addition to that?

It definitely cannot be done via an additional A-Record. All your customers that click on domain.org have to arrive at the same server that replies to their requests (even if there is a server farm in the background).

So you'll need a central server that is doing the redirection based on the location of the http request.

You may avail of a commercial service to find out the location information like MaxMind (http://www.maxmind.com/app/web_services_omni) and do the redirection via PHP on the central server that evaluates the results being returned from MaxMind's database.

An alternative attempt would be to use the web server's native redirection module. There is an apache module here (http://www.maxmind.com/app/mod_geoip) that should do the job, but setting this up may require that you'll make yourself familiar with some cryptic apache configuation code, and spend some time testing. The advantage of this solution is that everything is under your own control.

MyITGuy
07-12-2012, 02:12 PM
Are there any workarounds or solutions to minimise the impact to search rankings you mentioned?
None that I am aware of. Search Engines are evolving to present users with results that target their demographic, and what their experience will be like. If your parent site that is handling the redirection is in a different country than your competitors, then you will be ranked lower/placed at a disadvantage. If your sites total load time is slower than your competitors (Due to the increase in distance between your server and your visitor, the additional time for the redirect to take place, as well as the overall server performance in generate) then you will be ranked lower/placed at a disadvantage.



In using the A or CNAME records to point a domain to the main domain, is it a necessary for a pointed domain to be a subdomain of the main domain? Or can we create and register any domain name and pointed it to the main site's domain? If so, what are the pros and cons?

I don't understand what your trying to state here?


Is setting the "A Record" itself sufficient to achieve this automatic redirection at the IP level, or does it require another mechanism in addition to that? Sorry for the excessive questioning. :)
No, you will need additional mechanisms. A/CNAME records only convert a name to an IP Address. You need something that will convert a name to an address that is local



What I need is as follows:-

When a visitor in any country types in the common URL (eg. the hypothetical "www.JokersOfTheWorld.org"), they will be immediately directed to the server which hosts the site in their own country. The site in each country is an exact duplicate of the main site in terms of format and layout, but with country-specific content.

Your best bet would be to utilize/implement a CDN in order to keep visitors on servers in/near their own country, followed by your website application that is region aware so it can display the appropriate content. This would keep your costs to a minimum (versus purchasing a hosting account in each region), while also keeping your maintenance/overhead to a minimum as each change to the design/database automatically gets propagated rather than you having to manually update each regional server.
Here are some ideas (Note: I have not implemented nor do I endorse these items, just providing some ideas):
WordPress › GT-Geo Targeting « WordPress Plugins (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/gt-geo-targeting/)
https://technology.pillwax.com/news-mainmenu-8/ip-location-for-joomla-news/119-controlling-content-with-ip-location

Below is a crude process flow to help understand the differences. It should be noted that each step adds additional time to how long it will take to display the page:

Central Server with Redirect: Visitor types in www.jokersoftheworld.org --> Name Server Lookup for jokersoftheworld.org --> Query Name server for location of www. --> Hits server listed for www.jokersoftheworld.org --> www.jokersoftheworld.org redirects to us.jokersoftheworld.org --> Name Server Lookup for jokersoftheworld.org --> Query Name server for location of us. --> Hits server us.jokersoftheworld.org --> Display Country Specific content
With this setup, the "Name Server" and "www.jokersoftheworld.org" server are in your country, adding latency and lowering your rankings. us.jokersoftheworld.org is located somewhere in the United States.

CDN with Region Aware application: Visitor types in www.jokersoftheworld.org --> Name Server Lookup for jokersoftheworld.org --> Query Name server for location of www. --> Hits server listed for www.jokersoftheworld.org --> Display Country Specific content
With this setup, the "Name Server" and "www.jokersoftheworld.org" server are in/near the visitor, keeping latency to a minimum and positively affecting your search rankings.

SellRex
07-16-2012, 08:47 PM
Microsoft Azure does everything you require (including traffic manager to route requests to the closest datacenter for the visitor). Expensive, YES! Nobody charges as much as MS, right??!! lol ... but I love Azure. It rocks. They've done a great job with the technology thus far. You can learn a lot more about it from videos posted from TechEd 2012, which was just last month: TechEd North America 2012 | Channel 9 (http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2012) (filter videos by tag "Windows Azure"). You can also get a good feel for specific topics on Cloud Cover on Channel 9: Cloud Cover | Channel 9 (http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Cloud+Cover) Just be sure to look it over when you are narrowing down your choices. It will host just about anything at this point, and they have full VM's available now (in preview release). Windows Azure: Microsoft's Cloud Platform | Cloud Hosting | Cloud Services (http://www.windowsazure.com)

libra
07-18-2012, 11:45 PM
Many thanks to the input of the last three posters. Much appreciate the additional valuable insights provided.
Still being on the learning curve, I will need time to digest it all, though.

socialme82
08-07-2012, 05:49 PM
It depends on your needs, don't let anyone fool you. Web hosting is one of those things where you want the information served to your target demographic as quickly as possible. If you do most business in India then you want to have hosting in India. If you are just using text and no real media rich content you can use a cheap host anywhere like hostgator who starts people off at just .1 cent for the first month.