.co.uk to .com

[Ian Cunningham]

I currently own a well established site that has been around since 1999 of the form widget.co.uk and I also happen to now own the 11 year old widget.com (its a very prime name). I would love to transfer the .co.uk over to the .com with a 301 redirect, but I'm worried about the possible problems with google.

As the domain is really old I don't want to trip any filters, but simply utilise it. At the moment it is 301ing the .com main page to .co.uk.

The simple solution is not to do it, but then there isn't much point me owning it. On the other hand, much of the traffic comes from google - so I don't want to risk losing all that.

Any tips from someone in the same position?

[MHes]

>I would love to transfer the .co.uk over to the .com with a 301 redirect

Why? If the .co.uk is doing fine then don't mess with it.... it will end in tears if you do.

If you want to put a new site onto the .com then fine, but I would avoid any duplication with the .co.uk.

Where is your target audience? If in the UK then you really want to keep the .co.uk as your prime site. If your .com is hosted outside of the UK you won't stand a chance of ranking well for 'UK sites only'.

[Ian Cunningham]

Its a global audience, it just happened to be a UK domain.

I'd like to transfer it over to the .com as it really is the best possible domain name for this type of site. I think I'll just have to wait a while first though by the sounds of it.

[MHes]

I would just build up the .com with new content. By the sounds of things it should rank well and 2 sites is better security than one ;)

[Ian Cunningham]

Normally I would do that, however the website is a portal and I'd get people confused between the two. I think I'll just have to stick with as-is for the moment.

Cheers for the tips