Domain - .co.uk or .com

[kieran112]

This is probably quite a simplistic question but I wanted some feed back around domains.

If I was targeting a UK demographic predominantly, am I severely hurting myself by using a .com domain as opposed .co.uk from a SEO perspective?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[wonderpunter]

it used to matter but not anymore, most of the top results are .com .org now anyhow.. go with .com

[kieran112]

Cheers bud. Appreciate that.

Following your other thread about how you have grown your website from January. Unbelievable stuff.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[kieran112]

it used to matter but not anymore, most of the top results are .com .org now anyhow.. go with .com

I posted the below in another thread but I was wondering if you could give me your thoughts on the below.


It seems to me that new affiliate marketers are concentrating their efforts on optimising their website amoung long tail keywords as the main method of getting traction.

The world of social media and particularly Facebook are found to be increasing difficult to build a natural following. I say this in the context of a content focused poker website.

Once the CPA of a new conversion is worked out it seems to be that google adwords across the search network would be a very effective strategy?

On a similar note, I was wondering how effective display ads would be when aimed at the right demographic?

I don't know what your thoughts on any of the above are?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[wonderpunter]

I posted the below in another thread but I was wondering if you could give me your thoughts on the below.


It seems to me that new affiliate marketers are concentrating their efforts on optimising their website amoung long tail keywords as the main method of getting traction.

The world of social media and particularly Facebook are found to be increasing difficult to build a natural following. I say this in the context of a content focused poker website.

Once the CPA of a new conversion is worked out it seems to be that google adwords across the search network would be a very effective strategy?

On a similar note, I was wondering how effective display ads would be when aimed at the right demographic?

I don't know what your thoughts on any of the above are?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

adsense is pennies, even in gambling related terms I tried it years ago and was disappointed I would go straight for revshare when you start, once you have authority and high quality traffic you can then customize what you believe is a fair trade off for the work you do, forget long tail keywords just write about what no one else has written, create your own keywords that do not yet have answers because no one else has yet asked.. sounds complicated but it's very simple think of questions that have no answers, search see whats there.. then create something to fill that gap with regards to my site, we have worked pretty hard and it's come to fruition though i had some finances from my main site to get me there but you have to start somewhere. just picture how you want to live and where you want to be and you will find a way.

[chaumi]

This is probably quite a simplistic question but I wanted some feed back around domains.

If I was targeting a UK demographic predominantly, am I severely hurting myself by using a .com domain as opposed .co.uk from a SEO perspective?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

I can try to help answering this with an example, but whether this is really useful is debatable because there are possibly other factors at play. It may raise more questions than it answers.

I have two sites (non gambling, but that's theoretically irrelevant for this illustration) both targeted on similar subjects. One is a .com, one is a .uk (though that also is irrelevant I think, it could just as well have been .co.uk)

Both targeted at (and get) UK visitors.Both have multiple pages appearing on page 1 Google for their main target term (ie the title of the page) + of course long tails around it.

Hosting servers are (I think) in the Far East (Singapore or Hong Kong).

The .com is about 5 years old, no more than about 12 pages. The .UK less than a year, same number of pages.


Taking all this into account would suggest that to rank well (in Google.co.uk) 1. It doesn't matter where the site is hosted and 2. It doesn't matter whether com, co.uk, or even .uk.


But...

Just to note that the .com (an exact match for the main subject of the site) did attract some early links in from Wikipedia (although that disappeared at some point) and big news sites (think BBC!).

So it may be that the links helped it with UK ranking.

All limited evidence I know.


Personally I'd just cut out the doubt if you can - if your target is UK and always will be, then use .co.uk or .uk and host it in UK. My .UK gets overseas visitors too, as I'm sure (and know) many other .co.uk's do too, so it's not as if you'd be cutting out that visitor stream.

None of this is to say I disagree with wonderpunter, it's just an illustration from experience fwiw

[kieran112]

adsense is pennies, even in gambling related terms I tried it years ago and was disappointed I would go straight for revshare when you start, once you have authority and high quality traffic you can then customize what you believe is a fair trade off for the work you do, forget long tail keywords just write about what no one else has written, create your own keywords that do not yet have answers because no one else has yet asked.. sounds complicated but it's very simple think of questions that have no answers, search see whats there.. then create something to fill that gap with regards to my site, we have worked pretty hard and it's come to fruition though i had some finances from my main site to get me there but you have to start somewhere. just picture how you want to live and where you want to be and you will find a way.

I was recently talking to a friend working in Google and they were saying something very much along the same lines as you. I was somewhat skeptical but as you are putting it into practice, it clearly is the case.

I was looking at your social media channels and I was curious if you ever sponsor content when you are pushing it out?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[kieran112]

I can try to help answering this with an example, but whether this is really useful is debatable because there are possibly other factors at play. It may raise more questions than it answers.

I have two sites (non gambling, but that's theoretically irrelevant for this illustration) both targeted on similar subjects. One is a .com, one is a .uk (though that also is irrelevant I think, it could just as well have been .co.uk)

Both targeted at (and get) UK visitors.Both have multiple pages appearing on page 1 Google for their main target term (ie the title of the page) + of course long tails around it.

Hosting servers are (I think) in the Far East (Singapore or Hong Kong).

The .com is about 5 years old, no more than about 12 pages. The .UK less than a year, same number of pages.


Taking all this into account would suggest that to rank well (in Google.co.uk) 1. It doesn't matter where the site is hosted and 2. It doesn't matter whether com, co.uk, or even .uk.


But...

Just to note that the .com (an exact match for the main subject of the site) did attract some early links in from Wikipedia (although that disappeared at some point) and big news sites (think BBC!).

So it may be that the links helped it with UK ranking.

All limited evidence I know.


Personally I'd just cut out the doubt if you can - if your target is UK and always will be, then use .co.uk or .uk and host it in UK. My .UK gets overseas visitors too, as I'm sure (and know) many other .co.uk's do too, so it's not as if you'd be cutting out that visitor stream.

None of this is to say I disagree with wonderpunter, it's just an illustration from experience fwiw

Fair points. I had a feeling that having a domain and hosting in the country you are targeting was a somewhat strong ranking factor in the past but as wonderpunt also alluded to above it seems to be less relevant.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[wonderpunter]

For US orientated articles I write in american, phrases, spelling etc.. and vice versa for the UK, I can't say for sure but i feel this gives a big boost in the UK or US serps, especially with all the hundreds of ranking signals i'm sure there is something there that calculates the use of certain phrases and spellings , but then saying that I think once you have authority in the language no matter which way you have spelt you should rank in either, I get just as much UK traffic as I do USA but also I get quite a lot of non English speaking traffic too, when we first launched it was nearly all USA.. it's an interesting question

[wonderpunter]

I was recently talking to a friend working in Google and they were saying something very much along the same lines as you. I was somewhat skeptical but as you are putting it into practice, it clearly is the case.

I was looking at your social media channels and I was curious if you ever sponsor content when you are pushing it out?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

No, I give out a lot of high quality sports content that some sites charge for so there are quite a few that are happy to share.. but a lot of re shares come from people that have never seen my sites before.

[RacingJim]

I have good UK domains and good .com domains. It really does depend what you're doing. If I find a really good domain that is only available in .co.uk then sometimes I will launch it just for that reason.

.com is obviously preferable for the extra traffic opportunities it brings and Google seems to like .coms the most as a general rule. But in some of my niches I see .co.uk consistently outranking .coms for valuable UK traffic.

Remember that the UK is a very lucrative market, so going down the .co.uk route can work nicely, especially if you are a UK guy writing for a UK audience.

[pokeraussie]

You should get a .co.uk if you're predominantly targeting the UK market. It is like the .com in the UK. Not only do you receive favorable treatment in local search engines, there is also an increased level of trust with local users. If someone from the UK sees results that include .com and .co.uk, which pages do you think they will be more likely to click on?

[DanHorvat]

Google treats them equally. With .co.uk you can only target the UK, and with .com you can target any country, UK included.
There is no ranking benefit to either .co.uk or .com.

But if you own a .com it's not immediately clear which audience does your business target, and with .co.uk it is clear so a user is more likely to click it in SERPs.

I'd go with .co.uk in most cases.

[kieran112]

So the concensus is that having a localised domain isn't a trust factor for Google but is for the end user.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[pokeraussie]

with .co.uk it is clear so a user is more likely to click it in SERPs.

And SERP CTR would be a ranking factor for sure. Irrespective of this, I think getting a ccTLD helps with localized SEO.

[BetterNick]

So the concensus is that having a localised domain isn't a trust factor for Google but is for the end user.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

Would agree with that aswell - there's a fear it looks a bit amateur but best option. Blatantly obvious to say, but it's a very effective way of saying it's suitable for a UK user, especially when there's alot in the same niche which don't.

[baldidiot]

and with .co.uk it is clear so a user is more likely to click it in SERPs.

This is probably the most important bit - .co.uk will almost definitely have a higher ctr.

[Rostick]

I think .com if you target predominantly Uk demographic. There`s not much of a SEO advantage for UK users if you choose .co.uk, but you may lose users from other countries, as they could be reluctant to click and could also affect local searches a tiny bit.

From what I know, extension doesn`t have much impact in rankings anymore. Geo targeting, webmaster tools are more important.

I mean, it`s not worth losing a lot of worldwide users for a potential ~ 1-5% increase in UK visitors (as they will click more often with .co.uk), as long as you are interested in worldwide users as well.

[Aidan90]

This is interesting topic as I'm currently starting a new project focusing on betting previews and news for Liverpool FC.

Obviously LFC have a global following but I will be prominently targeting UK fans as they will be most likely to convert.

Therefore I've made the decision to go with the .co.uk domain, potentially sacrificing a bit of worldwide traffic for better performance with UK traffic.

Do you think this is a wise decision? (I guess only time will tell for sure!)

[pokeraussie]

This is interesting topic as I'm currently starting a new project focusing on betting previews and news for Liverpool FC.

Obviously LFC have a global following but I will be prominently targeting UK fans as they will be most likely to convert.

Therefore I've made the decision to go with the .co.uk domain, potentially sacrificing a bit of worldwide traffic for better performance with UK traffic.

Do you think this is a wise decision? (I guess only time will tell for sure!)

I'm curious why you think UK fans would be more likely to convert?