.Com to .co.uk?
-
I'm out ranked by people with FAR less links for Google in the UK and I think its purely down to the fact I'm using a .com rather than a .co.uk.
I'm based in the UK but there's other aspects of my business that I want to target internationally although my main hub needs to be UK.
I set my geo-targeting for my .com and it didn't help.
Tried doing mydomain.com/mainkeyword-uk. Its picked up on this and I'm in top 10....but would obviously prefer number 1 especially due to the nature of my business.
Worried about doing a 301 redirect from .com to .co.uk because of loosing even a little bit of link juice. I've already put so much effort into the .com.
I get so many different answers to this so I'm confused....some people (particularly people on here at SEOmoz) say switch to the .co.uk and others just say keep the .com and that you can rank without the country level domain.
If I keep the .com and link build from country specific domains to mydomain.com/mainkeyword-uk (which ranks well) as well as build page authority for overall site......would that be fine or will I just absolutely have no chance in heck with ranking competitively in the UK if I don't do the .co.uk?
Trying to pick the path of least resistance and best possible returns here.
If you do absolutely recommend the 301....whats the best possible way to do this to preserve page authority? How long will it take for Google to transfer to the new site? I've heard horror stories in forums of people doing 301's and dropping off the Google planet and never recuperating.
Not a pro so any help would be appreciated. x
-
The .com really shouldn't cause you any issues in the future either - I really wouldn't worry about it
You're more than welcome - totally understand how confusing this stuff can be!
Hannah
-
Thanks Hannah....all this time I thought she was ranking ahead because of the .co.uk. I'll really push the links to this page and rework the content too.
As the keyword gets more and more competitive, do you think the .co.uk would be an issue or not to worry?
I really really appreciate your help by the way. Trying to teach yourself web design and SEO and figure out how to run a small business too isn't easy. xoxoxoox
-
Hi Christine,
OK, so the good news is that I don't think this is an international SEO problem. As such you don't need to worry about switching to a .co.uk or anything like that.
The keyword your going after isn't particularly competitive and the competitor that's ranking ahead of you right now looks totally beatable.
As Google are already favouring this page (i.e. this is the page that's ranking) - <cite>www.ldnwicklesscandles.com/scentsy-uk </cite>
I'd be inclined to build some more links to this page to push it up the rankings.
Given that you actually have products (always nice to have physical things when link building) - I'd suggest offering some products to bloggers to review / give away. A handful of decent links should see your rankings improve pretty quickly.
NB - you might want to re-work this page slightly depending on what you think the user intent is for this sort of keyword - e.g. are people searching for Scentsy UK looking to buy products or become a seller? My gut says most people probably just want to buy products - but I could be wrong!
I hope this helps,
Hannah
-
hi Hannah Thanks for responding and sorry for the delay in responding back. My website is www.ldnwicklesscandles.com and keyword is Scentsy UK. Any suggestions you can give would be great. I'm ranking first page but people with a .co.uk are ranking ahead which is why I've considered moving over. Would rather keep my website if I could and only change the domain if I have to. Google seems to be picking up any tags with Scentsy UK in it and it's picked up ldnwicklesscandles.com/Scentsy-uk more strongly than my root domain. As a course of action should I just continue to link build for this page and across the domain generally? feel like I don't know what I'm doing 1/2 the time and Im trying anything and everything just to see if it will work. Anything you can do to point me in the right direction will help immensely. X
-
Hi Christine,
Apologies for the delayed response
Ranking in the UK with a .com shouldn't be an issue; there are many sites which use a .com and rank perfectly well in the UK. As such I don't think you should be considering going down the .co.uk route.
You mention that you've geo-targeted via webmaster tools which is great, but there are some other things I'd also recommend that you do (if you're not already). These aren't ranking factors per se, however they will help the search engines to better understand the location that you're targeting.
-
Include a UK bricks and mortar address
-
Include a UK phone number
-
Claim / create your business Google Places
-
Ensure prices are in £s
I'd also be happy to take a closer look if you'd like to share your domain and the keyword which you're looking to target.
I hope this helps,
Hannah
-
-
Seriously no one has any suggestions???
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How To Rank A UK Website On Google.com (US)
Hi, I've done some research on this but couldn't find any definitive answer I can trust! We have a client who resides in the UK. They have '.com' domain, hosted on a UK server, using UK spelling. Their business objective for this year is to expand in the USA, including the opening of a warehouse over there. They are wanting us to rank their website on both Google.co.uk and Google.com (North America); besides changing the geolocation settings in GWT's, and building links from .com websites is there anything else we can do to increase their visibility on Google.com? Many thanks in advance, appreciated!
International SEO | | Webpresence
Lee.0 -
Is this hurting our SEO: company1.uk.com, company1.ru.com, company1.de.com, etc...?
Hello I work for a company which is using this kind of subdomains, that look like domains such as company1.uk.com, company1.ru.com, company1.de.com, but they are obviously not. We also own company1.com where the main site in English lies. We are one of the leader portals in one financial sector, and I am wondering if our SEO can be hurted by these fake "domains". I understand that we get some effect from the other domains hosted under this domain, and they are probably not as high quality as ours and they are probably unrelated. **- Would you recommend us to stop using these and use subdomains? So change: "company1.de.com" and use "de.company1.com" instead? Should we expect an increase in traffic after this change?** Any help will be appreciated.
International SEO | | forex-websites0 -
Ranking UK company in Google.com
Hi all, I have a UK client with a .com domain, hosted on a US server, but the physical business premises is based in the UK. Their product is a really great product and available for export to the US. I want to rank them higher in the US, more specifically Google.com. I've helped them rank very well organically in the UK (google.co.uk) for some great terms, however they rank almost nowhere in google.com (gl=us) for the same terms, for example: In Google.co.uk they rank #3 for the key-phrase.
International SEO | | seowoody
In Google.com they rank #90 for the same key-phrase. I've got them some great US focused links with PR coverage including MSN Cars, nydailynews.com etc. I just wondered if there was any one "golden ticket" for boosting US rankings? I've read that a physical business premises located in the US helps a lot. Can anyone confirm this and if so, would a rented PO box in the US help? The site has great social signals too, growing twitter following and many FB likes/shares etc. Any other tips/advice? Thanks in advance,
Cheers,
Woody 🙂0 -
Ranking issues for UK vs US spelling - advice please
Hi guys, I'm reaching out here for what may seem to be a very simple and obvious issue, but not something I can find a good answer for. We have a .com site hosted in Germany that serves our worldwide audience. The site is in English, but our business language is British (UK) English. This means that we rank very well for (e.g.) optimisation software but optimization software is nowhere to be found. The cause of this to me seems obvious; a robot reading those two phrases sees two distinct words. Nonetheless, having seen discussions of a similar nature around the use of plurals in keywords, it would seem to me that Google should have this sort of thing covered. Am I right or wrong here? If I'm wrong, then what are my options? I really don't want to have to make a copy of the entire site; apart from the additional effort involved in content upkeep I see this path fraught with duplicate content issues. Any help is very much appreciated, thanks.
International SEO | | StevenHowe0 -
What eCommerce Regulations are there when selling in the UK?
I was informed last night that in a month from now one of my clients is launching some campaigns with a daily deal partner in the UK (Great Britain & New Zealand). (Yes, first time I'd heard of it) Regardless of the timeline, our team is now tasked with making sure we have their site ready for selling in the UK. I just want to make sure we're crossing all our T's and dotting the I's. (We're based in the U.S. and selling all physical products, no digital) A couple questions came to mind: Are we required to display the product prices in the local currency? - I thought this was kind of silly, but the daily deal partner thought this was required. VAT - Is it seriously 20% in United Kingdom? And is that flat across the whole area? Would make it a lot easier than the US with 1,000's of different tax rates. Any other rules or regulations that come to mind would be greatly appreciated Thanks in advance for your response! Have a great day, Kevin
International SEO | | Webfor0 -
Moving British site to the US... who will have .com? US or UK?
We are the UK's first baby social commerce site launched in Nov 2011. We're doing quite well and are looking at expanding to the US. However I'm not sure what advice you'd give me in terms of internationalising the site. I see three options on how to deal with the URL structure? Make US site as .com as it will be my main source of revenue for the long run and redirect all British traffic to .co.uk Have .com for both UK and US but have the URL as either: us.babyhuddle.com or as babyhuddle.com/us/. Same thing for the UK Another option? Would love to hear the feedback from you guys. Thanks, Walid
International SEO | | walidalsaqqaf0 -
Google US vs Google UK
I could have posted this somewhere else, but I cannot find it. So, I have keywords that rank well in Google US and many that do well in Google UK too. I thought all of my keywords ranking well in the US would also rank well the UK. I have figured out today that it is not the case. Why would I rank in the top 3 in the US and not even show up in the top 50 in the UK? It is very strange. Thanks for your help! I am not super new to SEO or web business. I have had a very good company that has been ranking well since 2004.
International SEO | | journeybeyondtravel0 -
Domain strategy for UK and USA
Hi Everyone, We have example.org.uk with 20K inbound links. We want to target the US as well as the UK. I would be interested to hear what approaches are best for SEO. For example is it better to keep our current domain and have subdirectories for USA for example. Or would it be better to register example.org and then use subdirectories. Or is it better to use different domains for each country? Any help with this much appreciated. Cheers
International SEO | | MarkChambers0