Hi, I need to register a new domain for a client and interested in views as to whether you think a uk.com or a normal .com domain would be better for a web site aimed only at the UK.

 

I know that a co.uk is better for a Uk site when doing a Uk search on the engines but not sure if they can tell the difference between a uk.com and a .com

 

My preference is just to go with the .com as it so well established but will the uk.com domain assist with seo?

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks, Steve

The country that the site is hosted in generally has more weight than the domain extension.

 

I usually advise that if you primary audience is in the UK go for a .co.uk, if it's international go for .com. Ideally you'd register both to protect the actual name from falling into competitors hands.

Thanks for the info. The clients prefered .co.uk domain is registered, so have to try to get whats left.

I would not worry to much on the search engines as it's all about links back to your site that really matter.

 

I would go for the .com if I was you. I still think it has a certain cache, especially if the name is good.

I would say that if your site is in the UK use .co.uk but .com is still fine!

In my experience if you can't get the .co.uk then get the pure .com. I have a client with a .gb.com and it's a nightmare to remember. Plus with the ctl + enter in IE it adds all the w's and then the .com at the end as standard.

 

I hope this helps.

You can always optimise your code for local searches anyway, by using the correct, semantic code. i.e. <address> which the search engines will pick up. Of course you can always use google webmaster tools to show where your site is for google searches, and place your business in google local http://www.google.co.uk/local - and click on add your business

If you take my advise, go for .com, if you cant get .co.uk

The country that the site is hosted in generally has more weight than the domain extension.

 

I usually advise that if you primary audience is in the UK go for a .co.uk, if it's international go for .com. Ideally you'd register both to protect the actual name from falling into competitors hands.

 

Agree, register both anyway, however mainly comes down to where the site is hosted.

Agree, register both anyway, however mainly comes down to where the site is hosted.

 

UK.com is a subdomain and is not good for SERP and site rep.

I would suggest you get .co.uk

UK.com is a subdomain and is not good for SERP and site rep

 

Search Engines are fine with the CentralNIC sld subdomains .uk.com, .gb.net, .eu.com etc

 

People on the other hand get very easily confused

- you say .uk.com, but they assume you're stupid and type .co.uk - instant lost client

- you say .uk.com and they just put .com - instant lost client

- you say .uk.com and they "hear" doteyou.com - instant lost visitor

 

Even I've got .eu.com and .eu mixed, by out of habit hitting return after typing (domain).eu rather than .eu.com

 

As more and more people come onto the www both in terms of visitors (more technically unaware, and completely untrained users) and suppliers (more and more and more websites) urls/domains become less necessary, as people are mostly brain-dead now, and even when not *searching* still type www.(whatever) into that big gloogle box in the middle of the screen

 

"the address bar" might as well be a long since closed down 70's theme singles club for all the general public know of it's existance

 

this is good news for:

search engines - more consumers to stuff adverts in front of

people with cr@p domains - finally mounted-and-stuffed-with-swdust-aadvark-hosting.com might get some traffic

os distributors/hardware sales - as the clueless to connected ratios continue to rise, they get more and more payments from spyware toolbars and malware/spamware adverts on "homepages"

scammers - phishing's *apparantly* an issue (so those who fall for it would have us believe) already that 100 fold

 

this is bad news for:

domainers - people are less likely to make typo's, less likely to end up on the spammy PPC parking junk, so less money

brand owners - your individual brand/identity becomes meaningless

owners of "valuable" domains - if the domain becomes "unknown" in the general users mind, the millions spent to acquire blob.com were wasted

site owners - who will largely be forced into "buying" the traffic one way or another

 

All that saidif you can get them - but both the .co.uk and the .com and only go for "oddities" like .uk.com if it's very short and you're aware what you're buying is *not* a domain