But what do I know?
I'm an American. :-D
Would it be best to rewrite the info from the .com site (to avoid duplicate content penalty) and start a .co.uk site?
Competition is very limited in the UK and that would provide some traffic before organic listings in the main Google index are attained.
I wonder if, as new tlds roll out, whether search engines and future market targeted search engines will factor in a tld bias? It's not an entirely illegitimate notion. Food for thought for long term planning.
[webmasterworld.com...]
Actually, since this is a good subject to contemplate as part of your website planning, I've re-titled the thread to open up the discussion a bit more should anyone have experience with this issue outside the choice of .co.uk versus .com.
I do think that Webwork answered this quite concisely in msg #:6. It depends on your target market. Now we have regional domains coming out like .eu and possibly .asia. With these sorts of domain extensions available that target specific segments of your target markets it's making it easier for us to focus, at least geographically.
If there is a choice between a .com and a .uk selling what I want, I wouldn't think twice about clicking on the .uk link. On the other hand, if there are no US suppliers, at least before you in the serps, I would click on/ buy from the .uk site. I've been (pleasantly) surprised to discover that I have bought things from Australia and China from a dot-com without knowing it in advance. Since then, a .uk code would not put me off automatically, but I admit, before it WOULD. A distant country code can be intimidating to those who have never done international business before.
Depending on the size of your operation, and the quantity of business from each side of the pond, you might want to have:
-UK and USA optimized pages on the same site, with the country flag and "UK customers shop here" and "US Customers shop here"
-Separate US and UK sites, with your dominant market as the main site with navigation to the "other" site for those who land from the "wrong" country
-Separate US and UK sites, with separate marketing campaigns sending direct to site, and also a company homepage to navigate to either.
Each scenario has its advantages and disadvantages. Splitting two ways is a lot of work, and would become unwieldy should you become a big player in even more countries.
I think the main issue would be a US customer finding himself on the UK site (or vice-versa)and worrying about shipping. This potential drawback can be parlayed into an advantage, however, by giving the following impression: "We are a big player in the Red,White,and Blue Widget industry. We do business in, and offer competitive rates and top service to our customers in BOTH the UK and USA."
Cheers,
-Automan
On a similar note, as part of my business I sell a software package for a US vendor here in the UK. We bill it as a "UK version". The only difference is the currency symbol but I believe that "recognising" the difference actually makes people happier to buy it.
If nothing else, you'll need to change the spelling to British English (assuming you were using "American" English on the .com site). :)
Not only will the customer feel great finding a UK version to buy, they won't be able to find anyone else selling the special UK version online! "Special UK edition"- how many percentage points in increased conversions are THOSE three little words worth?
