Webmaster forum - Moving from .com to .co.uk and Search Engines

Author

Moving from .com to .co.uk and Search Engines

JohnSouth

2007-01-27, 11:08 pm

We've been building up a UK website over the last year but with a .com
domain name. We've now obtained the .co.uk version.

I'd like to change our primary domain to the .co.uk version but I'm
worried about losing the Google rating I've built up for the .com
version. I've been reading about "301" redirection and the problem of
duplicate content on different domain names. Should I redirect the
..com to the .co.uk or visa versa?

I'm rather nervous of this and would appreciate some experienced
advice.

John South
Pangnourne UK
www.WhereCanWeGo.com

Red E. Kilowatt

2007-01-27, 11:08 pm

JohnSouth <JohnSouth104@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote in message:
1168880516.144493.182760@11g2000cwr.googlegroups.com,

> We've been building up a UK website over the last year but with a .com
> domain name. We've now obtained the .co.uk version.
>
> I'd like to change our primary domain to the .co.uk version but I'm
> worried about losing the Google rating I've built up for the .com
> version. I've been reading about "301" redirection and the problem of
> duplicate content on different domain names. Should I redirect the
> .com to the .co.uk or visa versa?
>
> I'm rather nervous of this and would appreciate some experienced
> advice.
>
> John South
> Pangnourne UK
> www.WhereCanWeGo.com

The com is far more valuable and easier to promote. You should redirect
the co.uk to the com. Or better yet, I'd make some new content for an
index page for the co.uk and then link it to the com. It has to be more
substantial than a simple "doorway" page though.

--
Red

Mark Goodge

2007-01-27, 11:08 pm

On Mon, 15 Jan 2007 11:43:37 -0800, Red E. Kilowatt put finger to
keyboard and typed:

>JohnSouth <JohnSouth104@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote in message:
>1168880516.144493.182760@11g2000cwr.googlegroups.com,
>
>
>The com is far more valuable and easier to promote.

Not if your target audience is in the UK. British readers,
particularly less net-savvy ones, tend to prefer .uk domains as they
perceive .com as American.

Mark
--
Visit: http://www.OrangeHedgehog.com - Useful stuff for the web
"A sky isn't always blue, a sun doesn't always shine. It's alright to fall apart sometimes"

Gwin

2007-01-30, 10:15 pm

On Jan 30, 6:51 am, "SpaceGirl" <nothespacegirls...@subhuman.net>
wrote:
> On Jan 30, 12:21 am, Charles Sweeney <m...@charlessweeney.com> wrote:
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> This is all fine if you have a high profile well-known branded
> company. If you have a small brand, then anything that dilutes your
> brand is bad. The co.uk should redirect to the .com, not visa versa -
> Even if your brand is very UK centric, if it's a SMALL brand I'd
> always go .com first as it's a more global domain, and traffic is
> everything.

if your ever in the us for any vacations, biz trips or whatever, just
let me know, i'll be your XXXXX while your here.

Dan

2007-01-31, 6:18 pm

On Jan 30, 2:57 am, Mark Goodge <use...@listmail.good-stuff.co.uk>
wrote:
> I don't have any specific data to hand, but I'd point to the examples
> of Google, Amazon and eBay, among others, who use ccTLDs extensively
> in their branding. It would be easy for them to register the ccTLD
> variants and then just redirect them to the .com site, but in fact
> they prefer to actually use the ccTLD domains for localised content -
> even where (as in the case of Google) there isn't really any
> functional difference between the local and generic sites.

If they were really consistent about it, they'd use google.us
(amazon.us, ebay.us, etc.) for the U.S. site too, and leave the .com
address as the purely international one not tied to any country.

--
Dan

SpaceGirl

2007-01-31, 6:18 pm

On Jan 31, 1:26 pm, "Dan" <d...@tobias.name> wrote:
> On Jan 30, 2:57 am, Mark Goodge <use...@listmail.good-stuff.co.uk>
> wrote:
>
>
> If they were really consistent about it, they'd use google.us
> (amazon.us, ebay.us, etc.) for the U.S. site too, and leave the .com
> address as the purely international one not tied to any country.
>
> --
> Dan

I look at .com as "genderless". .com, as in "company, with no specific
country", where as co.uk is very specifically "company in the UK".
Google is a global company, so I see no reason why google.com should
not be a .com. The nationalised TLDs should be used for specific
markets, or brand streams. IMO anyway :) Most of the sites I work on/
with are global, so they are .coms -- even if *based* in the UK.