Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
A search on google reveals that NO .ST domains show up within the UK in the Google search engine results. However, when you do the search on (for example) .NU and .TV domains, they will show up on the within the UK search engine results, although I remember a time when .TV did not show up.
Interestingly, when you search for .ST domains on google.nl, they can be found in the "pagina's uit Nederland" results.
Whilst .ST is the domain for Sao Tome, like .TV it has a generic meaning in English, and it would be nice if domains with this ending could show up within the UK results if they are physically hosted in the UK.
I would appreciate your views and comments on this.
You can set up your site with google sitemaps and asign the target area of your site to the UK.
This will tell google your target audience is the UK.
This may affect rankings elsewhere though.
Mark
The domain owner can either target just the associated country (Tuvalu for TV, Armenia for AM, Federated States of Micronesia for FM) or set no target at all. But the domain owner cannot set a specific country target that is different from the original assignment of that TLD.
Which makes this an interesting study. Google does allow some .tv and .fm to show up under "pages from [country]" searches. I just checked google.co.uk and google.com.au for the searches "site:.tv" "site:.fm" and "site:.am".
The TLDs .fm and .tv do show up in "Pages from [country]" results. But .am TLDs do not, just as .st domains do not. One im
Host the site ona UK IP and get links from .co.uk and UK hosted sites
I've already done that. But when you use the "site:.st" command on google.co.uk, selecting the within the UK option, not one single .st domain appears. Which I think for now means it is impossible for them to appear unless a change is made to Google's algorithm.
As Tedster pointed out above, other country domains can appear within the UK for the site:.(country domain) search.
Interestingly, the language spoken in Sao Tome is Portugeuse. However, the site:.st search on google.pt and google.com.br also reveals no .st domains on the within the country search. I have only found it to appear on the within country search on google.nl.
I visited google.st, but it does not offer a within country search - just the entire web or pages in Portugeuse.
...other country domains can appear within the UK for the site:.(country domain) search.
But often only a select few sites. For instance, only 33 total .de domains for sites from the UK - and many other ccTLDs are even lower going down to zero.
The .me domain is soon to be launched, and that too is more likely to be used as generic than country specific, so it will be interesting to see what google does with it.
the whole system is set up so that those seeking a UK audience can get one, simply by using a .uk domain - just as those hoping to crack the Sao Tome market can use .st
This sounds like one of those "standing up in a hammock" issues, rather than a business problem.
Or maybe for travellers - Christopher.st
I suspect the gimmick value does not compensate for the disadvantages of not using .uk
Get the best of both worlds (if possible) by using a subdomain - st.christopher.co.uk (with a 301 from christopher.co.uk).
