two domains, one site on google

i can see the hassle already

[kanama]

We want two domains for our site, we already have a .com but wish to get a .co.uk to pick up the lost visitors.

This would just be a pointer to our .com site using the feature they have in cpanel.

If i was to submit this url to google.co.uk would they punish us? We are listed on google.com but google.co.uk wont give out our results even though we only offer services to uk people.

I have read conflicting responses so was really after a definate solution (if there is one) or experiences of two domains used in this way.

cheers

[vincevincevince]

i don't believe submitting to google.co.uk is any different to submitting to google.com in terms of where your request goes. it may be better to 301 your main domain to .co.uk and use .co.uk as the main domain - after all - .co.uk IS the correct extension for a uk company.

[rfgdxm1]

>it may be better to 301 your main domain to .co.uk and use .co.uk as the main domain - after all - .co.uk IS the correct extension for a uk company.

Or, maybe not. If almost all his business is UK customers, this might be good. However, if his target market is more international, then the .com makes more sense.

[vincevincevince]

though we only offer services to uk people

that's why i suggested going .co.uk as the main site

[rfgdxm1]

Good point.

[kanama]

thanks for your help.

my hosting provider offers the option to park/point a domain so that mydomain.co.uk would use the files at mydomain.com

would google or other engines see this as duplicate content? and punish both sites or will i be okay?

or is 301 the only safe way to do this?

[mcavic]

Since one site is .com and the other is .uk, the duplicate content might be okay. In any case, only one site should be punished for duplicate content.

But, if you only sell to UK people, I'd go with Vince's suggestion and make the .co.uk the real site, and 301 redirect the .com to it.

[kanama]

thanks for your help everyone, two last questions i promise :)

for the old .com domain in my htaccess i would add the following line:

redirect 301 / [mydomain.co.uk...]

is this correct? also what if someone requests... [mydomain.com...] would that redirect to [mydomain.co.uk...] or just the root as specified in the htaccess?

also are .co.uk and .com domains treated equally in a google.com search?

:)

[jdMorgan]

for the old .com domain in my htaccess i would add the following line:

redirect 301 / [mydomain.co.uk...]

This will only work if you have a separate .htaccess file (a separate host) for your two domains. If they are both hosted on the same server, you will need to use mod_rewrite.

A recent thread [webmasterworld.com]

Jim

[kanama]

i've created another account on my hosting package (different web space and physical location) so both would work i think although they are possibly on the same server they are virtually hosted if that makes sense

would the htaccess be better or the mod_rewrite?

cheers

[jdMorgan]

kanama,

.htaccess is the "container" file which may include mod_rewrite or Redirect directives.

If you have separate server space for each domain, then either will do, but Redirect is simpler.

For more info and links to the Apache documentation, see this Introduction to mod_rewrite [webmasterworld.com] thread.

BTW, Welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]!

HTH,
Jim

[kanama]

just finished it all including changing the scripts and db to the new domain and redirecting the .com to the .co.uk

just got to wait for them spiders now!

thanks again for your help, definately pointed me in the right direction :)

[g1smd]

Use a header checking spider to check that what you have done is absolutley correct and does exactly what you intended. If you inadvertantly block Google while all the current swinging SERPs are going on, you might regret it for many weeks.