example.co.uk ranks well, why not example.com?

[internetheaven]

I have 2 sites: example.co.uk and example.com

Same template design, but the .com has unique content aimed at US/CA users. The .co.uk has unique content aimed at UK users.

Not just simple rewrites of each other. The product range is different for each side so the content doesn't even come close to matching.

Each site has about 50 pages with the main, 5-10 category and contact pages all interlinking. Nothing really when you consider the interlinking done by most companies that span a few countries.

.co.uk receives about 6000+ visitors a month and ranks in the top 10 for nearly all it's keyphrases. .com receives about 100+ visitors a month and isn't even in the top 900 for it's keyphrases - even though it has 3x the backlinks.

Any clues?

[tedster]

Are you talking about traffic from google.co.uk versus traffic from google.com? The competition from the whole world, versus just the UK, may be a big factor.

[Imtiaz_Hami]

Apart from Competition ( rightly pointed out by Tedster ), I feel Google.co.uk does favour .co.uk domains

[piatkow]

My experience is that google.co.uk favours UK sites on worldwide searches. Search on any of the place names that are duplicated in New England and you will usually have to go several pages down to find the US sites.

Of course the US being a far bigger market you are facing a lot more competition in the SERPS and some of the US sites might just have better SEO than your UK competitors.

[internetheaven]

Don't think my situation is clear. I'll emphasise this bit:

.com receives about 100+ visitors a month and isn't even in the top 900 for it's keyphrases

Of course, I realise targeting the US will be harder. But once you get past the first couple of pages for my US search terms it is just junk, spam and possible references. I'm not even there. I've been filtered out.

I've never had a site not show in the results at all. I've never had a US/UK version of a site before either. Wondering if there was a connection.

I run more than 200 websites, many of which target the US and many have no.1 spots - this one has me stumped.

[tedster]

How about backlinks for the US targeted site? And when you say "5-10 category and contact pages all interlinking" do you mean that the UK and the US websites are interlinked?

[rainborick]

Have you set a Geographic Target on the .com? Is it hosted in the US or UK?

[internetheaven]

when you say "5-10 category and contact pages all interlinking" do you mean that the UK and the US websites are interlinked?

Yes. There are UK and US flags at the top of those pages linking to each site. The same on the UK website for similar sections (main and category pages).

Have you set a Geographic Target on the .com? Is it hosted in the US or UK?

Yes. Set to US in GWT. It is on a UK IP address. I used to have a US server for my US sites but found no advantage in the SERPS so closed it. None of the US sites I moved suffered as a result - this one has always sucked anyway (no rankings for more than a year).

Hosting a .com UK site on a US IP address is another matter!