Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
When users visit google.co.uk and search for the site with specific keywords, the site is ranked very high up (3rd). But if the 'Pages in the UK' option is used (from the main search page), and the same keywords used, the site does not feature on the at least the first few results pages (if at all).
Is there an easy solution to combat this? Will simply registering the same domain name with a .org.uk extension and pointing this at the main site help? Are there any way to force Google to include the site on UK-specfic searches? The site is for a UK-based company, so obviously I would like it to feature on Google's search results no matter which option is used...
Any help much appreciated...
UK searches are for UK sites; yours does not have a UK host, or a UK suffix, so it won't do too well.
You could move your hosting to the UK - if you can afford it - or buy the .org.uk and 301 forward the .org to the new domain.
It's all about target audiences; if yours is specifically UK, usually best to go for ....uk. But always obtain the .org and (if you can) the .com, and forward them to your site. Otherwise you'll find yourself squeezed in Big Google* - and you don't want that :)
*Because if you don't buy them, someone else will - so you just need the .com - if you can get it.
Second check for American spellings. Replace them with English spellings. Do that on every page of the site, just for good measure. Leave CSS and markup in American as most browsers don't support English.
Next do one of the following:
a) Move to UK based web-hosting (not exactly cheap)
b) Register the .org.uk and redirect the .org -> .org.uk
Don't bother with .org.uk -> .org - it doesn't work like that.
For good measure write Google an email letting them know of the problem. May not help you now but it may help them tune their algorithms for future matches.
Don't bother with .org.uk -> .org - it doesn't work like that.
I can back this up. I have a NZ club hosted on a subdomain of my (.com) site, with a .org.nz domain 301'd to it, and it doesn't appear anywhere in Google when you restrict the search to sites in New Zealand.
Though I am wondering how many searchers actually bother to restrict by country, even with the option right there.
They phoned me a little later in a panic because their rankings had plummeted (the site had vanished from the results).
Once they moved back to a UK server their rankings reappeared at the top where they had been - it seems that it was down to the location of the server and not the url (this obviously didn't change).
I remember thinking this might be a useful feature for multi-lingual .com sites to be included in country specific results...
I've just asked about using multi-national IPs on a single site to one of our local hosting companies who says it's doable, I'll report back if he sees any specific difficulties in setting it up...
suspect it is because as soon as they order the IP addresses they become US addresses.... (?)
You can buy your own IP's - after you have become an ARIN member and then paid a fee and then justified your need for being alloctaed an IP(s)
I believe that if you buy these for UK use - you will be given a UK range IP address - you can then go to a US hosting company and ask them to use your 'personal' ip.... they will then configure and do the mapping as necessary.
This would ensure even on a US hosting on a .org, you will receive UK traffic as detailed in the first post.
Either that, or pay the rip off prices we have here in the UK for hosting ;)
It sounds like it's a mixture of where the server's based and where the IP is registered (vince, I checked the whois information, and both the registar and organisation details are both set to UK, so seems Google ignored this).
Seems a crying shame, I wonder if any hosting companies in the US offer UK-based IPs...
<runs off to email his hosting company...>
I informed her of the same thing, that I doubted many people used it, but started to wonder how one could improve the situation for UK-specific searches.
It would be interesting to find out exactly many people actually do use the option. Maybe a question for the guys at Google..?
mixture
Aslo throw in language. It's conjectured that if a site meets two of three criteria it will be categorized according to country:
hosting location/IP
tld
language
So, a site on a US IP, with and .uk tld and the language attribute set to en-cockney, might, just might, be considered a UK site. Depending, of course, on just how you happen to define cockney ;-).
If your audience is UK, I still maintain that the simplest, safest and cheapest solution is to get a .co.uk (or .org.uk domain). It's also the most appropriate for a UK site - and it's the most future-proof.
It's well nigh certain that Google will always treat a .co.uk as a UK site; what happens with IPs is really wide open.
It's well nigh certain that Google will always treat a .co.uk as a UK site; what happens with IPs is really wide open.
But the client I mentioned in an earlier post had a .co.uk domain for the very reason that they only sell to the UK. And their site was written in UK English.
Unfortunately the hosting company I use does not offer the sale of .org.uk tlds. Do you think that registering the .org.uk domain and forwarding it will increase the chances of a higher-ranked results for users using the 'Pages in the UK' option? Regardless of with which company the .uk tld was registered with?
Thanks for all your replies, btw :)
Do you think that registering the .org.uk domain and forwarding it
No, that's backwards. As vince said somewhere above, go with forwarding the .org to the .org.uk.
The active site need to have a .uk suffix; other domains should be forwarded to the active site.
You can buy the .co.uk domain from a UK comapny and have your US host take it on; no problems there.
JKMitchell: I've never heard of that situation, and I suspect something went wrong in the move; if a move goes wrong, it only takes a couple of missed Google spiderings for short-term catastrophe. If the new host is fully functional, however, a couple more (and a Google site map) and patience, would see the site restored.
I cannot see any other reason for your .co.uk site having problems.
I have .co.uk's hosted in the states that have always had a G.co.uk advantage, and I know of many others that do too.
Indeed, many UK searches will find .co.uk sites from outside the UK.
Might be one of those fake UK sites like uk.com....
