12 replies to this topic

[bekyed]

Hi.

Can someone help with this argument please, I say that in order for a uk website to rank well on google.co.uk you need back links from UK website's preferably.
What does everyone think?

Thanks.
Wayne.

[rolf]

I'd say the question is incomplete... but then again I have been called a pedant on more than one occasion!

If you're running a website aimed at UK users (as opposed to worldwide including UK) and you have lots of UK links then if all other things are equal I think you would have an advantage over another UK based site that doesn't tick the other boxes, in as much as G.UK might logically feel that you are more tailored to some queries, however...

- all other things are never equal
- context may dictate that G.UK feels the other site is more appropriate for certain queries

For instance, regarding context, a UK based site about American Football might be deemed more credible/appropriate if it has links from the USA as opposed to UK links

JMHO - the only way to find out for sure is to test it.

[Jill]

We have a lot of information in our International SEM Issues Forum on how to best show up within your own country's search.

Links from within your country help, so does having an IP in the country, and/or being hosted in that country.

You can also specify to Google, the country you'd like to target via your Webmaster Tools account.

[piskie]

In my experience, if the Domain is a .co.uk then Google will default Geo-Targeting to the UK.
However if the domain is a .com the situation is completely different. In such cases, there are 3 major influential factors. Hosting Location, Inbound Link Location and of course you can tell Google in Webmaster Tools.

By far the best bet in my opinion is to use a .co.uk domain name which will default to target the UK even when Hosted in distant foreign lands such as the USA.

[Ignoramus]

In my experience, if the Domain is a .co.uk then Google will default Geo-Targeting to the UK.
However if the domain is a .com the situation is completely different. In such cases, there are 3 major influential factors. Hosting Location, Inbound Link Location and of course you can tell Google in Webmaster Tools.

By far the best bet in my opinion is to use a .co.uk domain name which will default to target the UK even when Hosted in distant foreign lands such as the USA.

I’ve been pondering this question for some time and it gives me a headache. We’re a UK company with a .com site and a parked .co.uk site of the same name and age. We are hosted in the UK and use webmaster tools to tell Google we are targeting the UK. Our links are mainly UK but some come from outside.

My gut instinct is that being .com rather than .co.uk hurts us quite badly in Google and even more so in Bing/Yahoo. The majority of competitors who outrank us for UK searches have .co.uk domains and don’t seem to have any big advantages, on or off page.

The $64,000 dollar question – is it worth changing from .com to .co.uk ? Would the long-term advantage outweigh the immediate penalty – even if we do everything to minimise that with 301’s etc ?

Another benefit of changing to .co.uk (for which I have only anecdotal evidence) is that UK searchers are more likely to click on .co.uk domains than .com domains. I know I do !

I don’t suppose there’s a definitive answer to the above but any opinion would be most welcome. Alternatively, pass the aspirin.

[piskie]

The clicking likelihood factor (in my opinion) is quite large and would always bias me towards choosing a .co.uk with all other factors being equal.

However switching horses from established .com to .co.uk is a completely different kettle of fish. There are too many factors involved for me to make a confident judgement and that would still be true if the site was in my control and I knew everything about it including it's history.

[Mikl]

The clicking likelihood factor (in my opinion) is quite large

I can't say for sure, but I strongly suspect that's wrong.

My guess is that the vast majority of users don't even look at the URL. For most of them, it's a meaningless jumble of letters. In fact, a lot of them probably don't know what the ".uk" means.

I would guess that people click on the links that have an interesting title, or those that have an eye-catching picture or map.

Of course, this is only a guess. If anyone has done any research on the subject, it would be interesting to know.

[piskie]

Searchers from the UK are all too frequently sent to a US targeted .com site even when selecting "Pages from the UK".
That has resulted in many searchers scan reading a SERPs page for .uk URLs.
Now I don't have any research results or stats to back that up, just anecdotal indications and intuition.

[Ignoramus]

It’s not comparing like with like (paid vs organic) but some time ago I ran split ads for popular keywords in our Adwords campaign. The ads were identical except for the display urls. One was for Oursite.com and the other for Oursite.co.uk.

I don’t recall the percentages but they were enough to opt for .co.uk in all future ads.

Returning to the main theme I’ve noticed when doing a ‘search the web’ search we outrank competitors who outrank us for UK pages searches.

[piskie]

Ignoramus said:

when doing a ‘search the web’ search we outrank competitors who outrank us for UK pages searches

I've read that point several times and can't quite pin it down to an exact meaning. Could you be more specific please with domain suffixes etc.

[Ignoramus]

I've read that point several times and can't quite pin it down to an exact meaning. Could you be more specific please with domain suffixes etc.

I’ll try.

When I search on Google UK for a particular keyword we are on page one but below the fold. A number of competitors with .co.uk domains are above us. One is hosted in the US and another in Germany.

If I switch to Google.com and do the same search we are on page six. One competitor with a .co.uk domain is still above us (the one hosted in Germany) but the others have dropped below.

If I simulate a search from the US, neither we nor our competitors are anywhere (I stopped looking after page 40).

It’s pretty difficult to draw conclusions from this except as you have said, if you’re starting from scratch and your market is the UK then go with a .co.uk domain.

I suspect the answer to climbing the UK results is to get some good quality UK links. Easier said than done !

[piskie]

Thanks for that Ignoramus.
All this infi is useful and fits together like a jigsaw.

If it's any help to you, I have had .com sites (3 now) moved from UK hosting with really good SERPs that got moved for one reason or another. Not my doing I might add. Anyway, the net result was instant sinking to the depths of nowhere. One was moved to Germany and the others to USA hosts.
The result was the same, all three sinking out of sight.

[chrishirst]

But has it affected traffic as well?