Top in Google.com but no where in Google.co.uk

How do I improve in google.co.uk with out loosing in google.com

[lasko]

My biggest audience is from the UK and my site is top for 70% of my keywords in Google.com and many other googles in Finland Denmark etc.

I have noticed however that my site is not listed in .co.uk but other .com's are.

So how do I do it? Its very important that I make use of the co.uk. Am I missing much traffic?

Is the answer under my nose again?

Thanks

[tigger]

I presume you have a .co.uk domain & it's hosted in the Uk?

[makemetop]

>other .com's are.

I assume you haven't got a .co.uk and if you have a .com are not hosted in the UK. In which case you won't appear.

[lasko]

So, the best thing is host your website in the U.K and qualify for google.com and google.co.uk:)

Well I have a sister site which is .Net I think I may transfer that to a U.K hosting company and qualify for both googles.

Would that be a good idea?

[engine]

.NET's tradtionally don't do well. The domain is primarily for ISPs, although anyone can register it.

Stick with .com or .co.uk

[lasko]

I think I am 90% sure of what I will do.

I will keep my .com and .net registar .co.uk
then when my co.uk has bloomed in google and all is
well I will cancel my .Net

I am not to keen to transfer the web site because January is a busy time for my web and I can't afford to make big chnges when I am first in Keywords.

Do many people get a good response from google.co.uk?

I think I am loosing potential traffic having .net and .com especially when my .net is not doing well in the search engines, it only supports my .com for keyword linking.

My .Net expires in April so should be a good time to start preparing.

[lynxeffect]

Im listed well in google.co.uk and i dont notice much trafic comeing from there, most is from .com, but it will be worth getting listed in there.

May i ask what type of site you have. if it dose focus mainly on the uk you may be missing out alot.

also i would put a redirect from your .net domain when you change to co.uk you could lose alot of trafic if you still have links to it.

[lasko]

My website is for holiday rentals in Spain but most of my customers are from the UK the whole site is in english.

It came to my attention that a few big companies are listed in both Google.com and Google.co.uk some had domain names
like www.mycompany.com and www.mycompany.co.uk but in the top of Google.co.uk you can search either the uk or the web index but the web index is the default settings.

So what is the importance of the U.K engine? and would it be benaficial to me?

Could it be that some ISP's use the google.co.uk index for their customers?

If anyone has a website and wish to target the U.K market what is the best way?

[Henley]

Having observed the competition's strategy for getting the UK market for widgets - in this case a US Co - the best bet would be to have a website based on a UK server with dot co.uk domain even if you keep your existing site but materially change the content.
The US four web sites of which one is a UK site - all 4 sites are on page one in the US version of Google even if you key in UK as a search term (at least they were last month) All the sites promote the same one product ( with updates,macintosh version,etc, have similar content but are definitely NOT mirrors. Google doesn't seem to object. They all have masses of backward links. However, on memory only the UK based version turns up on a Google UK search which is what I would have expected.
Hope this helps.
Regards
Henley

[lasko]

Yes thanks it does help.

It's surprised me that their has not been a bigger discussion about Google.co.uk and the pro's and con's of a site being listed.

It's my understanding that MSN and Looksmart etc are some of those being used by ISP's as their default search engine.

Would google ever be in this market or already is?

It looks like I will register the .co.uk and see what happens for the next 6 months with regards to traffic.

Can the default setting be changed for all search to co.uk instead of .com or will every visitor have click?

[Henley]

Lasko,
My gut feeling is have two websites with different content and where possible different inward links. Don't link the two. Your title etc should be different, IMHO.
Have a flier with Google UK
Don't count on it too much at this stage because Google UK is hardly known let alone used by UK punters.(Google doesn't exactly make it well known on the International Version)
As far as I can tell most users use the US or International Version and put in the search term UK to line up UK based C0's.
I don't expect their habits will change much in the short term
If I'm giving you bad advice I'm sure someone will shout 'foul'!
Regards
Henley

[Henley]

Oh! Lasko
A further word.
If your clients are mainly from the UK, then if you decide to do a co.uk website may I suggest you do a links campaign with suitable UK companies?
I have found, over time, I get 75% of my traffic from links. I am sure you will be able to find other travel related businesses to exhange links with.
Regards
Henley

[lasko]

Thanks, sounds bit like what I thought, that the .co.uk was not realy at the moment something to get excited about.

It is confusing why Google have some index's that don't rearlly get used a lot.

If their is a big difference in the language then yes like .de .ca and .fr. have an extra index.

A search engine so powerfull like Google doesn't seem to be pushing to hard to exploit their total income pontential.

Why have they not created their own UK directory?

Do they need to?

[MHes]

Hi Lasko

From what I have read, about 15% of uk users click the UK only sites button on .co.uk. However, many people still log onto the google.com so overall the the usage of .co.uk is small. Henly is right and most people put 'uk' on the end of a search phrase to increase UK relevancy.

Either a .co.uk ending OR hosted in the UK qualifies for a google.co.uk 'UK sites only' search.

However, AOL has a 'UK Sites only' option and it only lists .co.uk domains and ignores hosting location. So getting a .co.uk domain is better than a .com hosted in the UK. Also a .co.uk domain, if used in a link to your site within the anchor text, gives you the word 'UK' within that anchor text and helps identify the site as UK relevant.

Google.co.uk never defaults to a UK only search when you log on.

I have never heard that a .net under performs compared to other domains. A worldwide search should be an even playing field for all, I suspect that .net is just used less and thus appears less in the serps.

If I was you, get the .co.uk address and get some links in from UK sites and Spanish sites which will set up relevancy for both countries. Also get a regional listing in dmoz for the UK.

[oldwelshguy]

so far as i know any .uk domain is acceptable for inclusion into a uk only search, at least that is my experience. However people who are buying a product in another country, ie Spain are unlikely to hit the UK only search as it would be self defeating (IMO).
Why not set up a UK based portal for property rentals/sales in Spain? that way you can be sure that your rentals will be at the top of each page, and that you can team up with other like minded businesses, after all if they are on line your customers will find them. You could also attract more subscribers to your newsletter (assuming you have one)

Cheers

J

[lasko]

Thanks for the comments, a lot more for me to think about.

Looks like I am going to invest more money into my long term venture.

My main site is .com and receives over 10k unique visitors per month. Its been live for nearly 16 Months. I have also .Net which was just supporting it for now. I do have a newsletter which now has 100 subscribers.

I am thinking of using the .Net for other areas in Spain to make that site pay for itself. Now I think I should go for the .co.uk to support my two sites and others that I choose to create in the near future.

Who knows what happens with Google.co.uk I may as well try it and hope for the best.

As for .Nets I think they can perform as good as .Com's regarding search engine results. Due to the fact one of my competitors is directly below me in some keywords and top in others.

Anyone know a good cheap hosting company in the U.K looked at DMOZ and their are loads!

Its not what you got, its how you use it!:)

[Henley]

Oldwelshguy has an important point.
He advocates setting up a Portal. This need not be a big project . You could call in Spanish Widgets Register or something similar and register in with dmoz under Directories or an other appropriate category.
I have done this with health sites and it has worked a treat.
Henley