Which TLD to use for Google... .com or .co.uk... or both?

[steakaphagus]

Hi guys,
Been reading recent threads about Google doing funny things with searches depending on if GoogleUK or .com is used, geo location of sites, etc........
I've been building an info site for a while now, and plan to make a small amount of income from adverts etc. Plan to target UK mainly at the start, but the info can be used internationally, and potentially gain advertising revenue from US advertisers (a potentially large market to ignore).
I have a number of TLDs for the site name, including .com and .co.uk
Now, I realise that simply putting up the site under .com and then duplicating one under .co.uk would be very bad.....

So my questions are:
If I am going to use just one TLD, would the .com site rank as well as .co.uk on Google.co.uk serps? If it can do so by using a UK host, would that in turn knock out US searches?
Is there a way to use the same content for 2 sites (and therefore have UK-based companies advertising on .co.uk and vice-versa for US companies on the .com site)

Thanks

[goodroi]

Google (and all search engines) try hard figuring out which sites are relevant for each country. They use domain extensions and hosting location to help them determine this. Generally it is a good idea to keep it as simple as possible - in other words if you want to rank in the UK use .co.uk domains and host the site in the UK.

Assuming the backlinks are the same you could probably use a .com and have the same UK results as long as it is hosted in the UK.

Personally I prefer to build unique sites, .com for US and .co.uk for UK. This keeps it simple for the search engines and the users seem to prefer having their version of English used. It does increase the work load since you need to work harder to avoid duplicate issues. It also diverses your traffic so if one site goes down you only lose half your traffic. Did I mention I get much better conversions when designing and building sites for each country?

[steakaphagus]

Thanks Goodroi. I guess I'm being a bit slow, but.... are you saying I can have the same content for the site, but have the .co.uk one hosted in UK, and .com one hosted in US to feature on local searches? .....Or would this cause duplicate issues?
(I'm probably getting way ahead of myself and should probably concentrate on just UK market, but trying to think ahead to cover all possibilities....)

[Whitey]

Theoretically if you use a .co.uk TLD the results should compete in the .COM SERP's.

However, the reality of what is happening is not consistant with many reports out there.