I would appreciate any advice which can be given on the following:
- I have a website (about 2 years old) with a .co.uk domain.
- I have recently purchased the .com version and have just set it to redirect to the .co.uk (a function available with my web host.
- However, I was wondering what is the best thing to do in the long term.
1. Should I set up a .com version of my site (almost exacly the same content) and run the 2 sites side by side?
2. Should I just transfer everything from the .co.uk to the .com and redirect from .co.uk to .com? i.e. close down the .co.uk hosting and open up the .com one. (I would, of course, redirect old .co.uk traffic to the new .com one).
3. Just forget about the whole project.
Note: I am assuming that it is preferable to have a .com domain which is more international than the .co.uk one. Basically, the purpose is to try to increase traffic to my site.
If the .com is similiar to your .co.uk you will most likely end up with duplication penalties from some search engines.
Alternatively just point the .com to the .co.uk site but I doubt you'll get much more traffic.
Replacing the .co.uk with the a .com site is probably the worst option as this will most likely just loose any search engine ranking you already have. Also your site is likely to be treated as a newbie site with no validated history to establish rankings from a search engine's point of view.
If I were to set up a separate .com site does anyone know what level of duplication would be ok. My .co.uk site sells widgets and also has a number of articles providing interesting information about widgets in general. Would it be acceptible to create the .com site as a purely information resource for widgets based upon the articles which already appear on the .co.uk site. Perhaps, including a link to the .co.uk (shop site) for those interested in purchasing a widget.
