.com vs .co.uk domain

Which domain is better for local search

[fowley]

One of my clients has a pretty successful website - which has been established approx 7 years.

I have recently become frustrated that the site seems to be stuck in certain positions for our most coveted search terms on Google e.g. we just can't seem to get past position 12.
We have had quite a few high authority domain names linking to us, and lots of good well written content.

BUT

There are less established,smaller companies that have pretty terrible websites beating us on search.
Every one of them has a .co.uk domain whereas my client has a .com

Amazingly the .co.uk version of the site wasn't registered - so I have now registered that domain and have set up a basic landing page pointing to the .com.

My question is - is using a .com domain holding the site back?
This is a UK based business which only servers the UK (The client originally chose a .com as he thought it was more professional)
Should I consider switching the site to a .co.uk domain (I don't want to risk loosing whatever seo juice we have on the .com name unless there is a case to do so) - has anyone had any experience of this before?

Thanks for any help :)

[mack]

I don't think the using the .com domain would be holding you back. What I would be tempted to do is redirect the .co.uk to the .com domain. Even a landing page can act as competition (self-competition) within the serps.

It is still important to establish one domain as the prefered domain to market, and pour all efforts into that domain. I feel your pain though. I have a similar situation where page one is tantalisingly close, yet stays just a few positions away.

Mack.

[fowley]

Thanks Mack - that makes me feel a bit more positive about this as I had convinced myself it was the domain

I'll do as you suggest as forward the domain.. and just keep plugging away at the .com, I'm sure we'll get there :)

[Mark_A]

If you are selling to a UK audience, .co.uk has to be a better bet.

[phranque]

welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com], fowley!

This is a UK based business which only servers the UK

if you have a generic TLD you can set your geographic (country) target in google search console.

[fowley]

Thanks all for your responses.

@phranque - that is really helpful - almost all of my other domains are .co.uk - so I've never had to do this. I've now set the geographic target to UK. I'll come back and update if this has an effect as it may be useful for others.

cheers

[Mark_A]

@phranque "if you have a generic TLD you can set your geographic (country) target in google search console."

But surely that only works in google?
Other surfers and visitors will still see *.com and assume what they may from that, whereas if they see *.co.uk they will think UK Business.

[phranque]

But surely that only works in google?

seemed relevant to the problem statement:

I have recently become frustrated that the site seems to be stuck in certain positions for our most coveted search terms on Google

[fowley]

Hi All - it's been a month since I originally posted so I thought I'd give an update -
while we're still not on page one for our 'preferred' search phrase - we have made some inroads

if you have a generic TLD you can set your geographic (country) target in google search console.

- might be some key advice - since doing this (according to MOZ) our search visibility has gone up about 30% and we are on page one for other keywords/phrases in some cases jumping 10-15 places. (thank you! @phranque)

If I could go back in time - I would without doubt use the .co.uk version - but we now finally seem to be moving in a better direction so I don't want to risk loosing what we have by changing the domain (at least at the moment)

[fowley]

OK - so one last update.
I've continued to add good regular content to the site and done some additional link building with businesses which have an industry connection to our services and we're finally on page one (in positions 1 -3) for our 'most wanted' keywords/phrases.

All the SEO work seemed to start gaining traction a few weeks after I set the geographic location in search Console - so hopefully to answer my original question .com or .co.uk doesn't matter as long as you tell Google you are in the UK (so again thanks to @phranque - which seems to be the best advice I have been given this year!)