Hi guys, i'm having a little trouble with one domain I have and seo.

 

Basically I have a domain "example.com", our service is based in the UK - for this domain, i'm currently ranking on first page for my keywords, but i'm steadily around rank #8, which hasn't changed for a while.

 

The only key difference I can see between me and my competitors is that they are all using a .co.uk TLD whereas i'm using a .com

 

I already have the .co.uk domain, which I bought at the same time as the .com domain, would it make sense to make the .co.uk the primary domain and just redirect traffic from the .com to the .co.uk or the .uk (which would work better for seo the .co.uk or the .uk)?

 

Also as all of the backlinks i've built are with the .com domain, will this affect my rankings?

Um. Ok the .co.uk is IMO better for the uk, but if this is correct then in theory globally the .com is better. Redirecting the .com to the .co.uk should be painless enough, although there is normally some juice loss as with any kind of redirect. From a user perspective I know many people who will choose a .co.uk over a .com, especially for service / product purchasing.

 

Edit: Forgot to say it's definitely worth checking the whois is correct. I had one client who went limited after 2 years and never changed their who is information. The domain was still in a uk individuals name, different address to the ltd etc. Once these were corrected I did note a serp increase, so making sure the same company info on the site footer matches the limited company on the whois is important, there's power in meticulous attention to detail.

Edited June 1, 201511 yr by BrowserBugs

Um. Ok the .co.uk is IMO better for the uk, but if this is correct then in theory globally the .com is better. Redirecting the .com to the .co.uk should be painless enough, although there is normally some juice loss as with any kind of redirect. From a user perspective I know many people who will choose a .co.uk over a .com, especially for service / product purchasing.

 

Edit: Forgot to say it's definitely worth checking the whois is correct. I had one client who went limited after 2 years and never changed their who is information. The domain was still in a uk individuals name, different address to the ltd etc. Once these were corrected I did note a serp increase, so making sure the same company info on the site footer matches the limited company on the whois is important, there's power in meticulous attention to detail.

Thanks for the reply.

 

Why do you say the .co.uk is better than .uk?

 

I had the impressions shorter domains were always better? I'm really more concerned, since the .uk tld is relatively new, if google.co.uk preferred it over other domains tld's such as .com as it does with the .co.uk?

.co.uk is more widely recognised, it's not just about having short URLs otherwise we'd all have domain names that read like bitly shortUrls. It needs to be concise, easily readable and easy to remember.

Edited June 1, 201511 yr by rbrtsmith

.co.uk is more widely recognised, it's not just about having short URLs otherwise we'd all have domain names that read like bitly shortUrls. It needs to be concise, easily readable and easy to remember.

 

Yes - more people add the .co.uk by default. This also saves people assuming. Like yourdomain.co and yourdomain.uk I bet 9/10 on the phone if you said either of these the person would say '.co.uk' and you'd have to correct them.

Thanks for the reply.

 

Why do you say the .co.uk is better than .uk?

 

I had the impressions shorter domains were always better? I'm really more concerned, since the .uk tld is relatively new, if google.co.uk preferred it over other domains tld's such as .com as it does with the .co.uk?

 

I prefer .co.uk, but I don't think Google or any search engine has a domain 'preference' more follow the guide each domain was designed for - e.g. .org (non profit), .org.uk (uk non profit) etc.

If in doubt just register a whole bunch of them and point them to the same place

 

I prefer .co.uk, but I don't think Google or any search engine has a domain 'preference' more follow the guide each domain was designed for - e.g. .org (non profit), .org.uk (uk non profit) etc.

Thanks for your replies guys!

 

I'm pretty sure they're different - in the sense that if you do a search on google.co.uk and google.com, majority of the time the rankings are going to be different, which is why I assumed if you were using the google.co.uk then it pretty much suggests you're in the uk and hence uk domains (or domains with a uk registrant) in the serps are more likely to be relevant to you.

 

It makes sense especially when doing using something like adwords and you want to geo-target your ads.

 

Also I agree, .uk does seem to be an unknown tld to those who aren't in the industry, so i'm gonna go with the .co.uk instead

I hoonestly dont see the difference between them, they only differ in the sence that one looks international and one looks national, I have just purchased a .design domain, in the middle of setting up a business called acro design, it may not be a location based domain but it says what we do, just another thing to consider.

.io seens to be getting very popular for tech domains as well now. But like I've said, they're usually pretty cheap so just buy a whole bunch of them and point them to the same domain.