Looking to rank a .co.uk domain in the USA
-
Hello Mozzers,
One of my clients sites is "domain.co.uk" and they are looking to rank in the USA with the same domain.
They are looking to change host (for unrelated reasons) and I think it may be beneficial for them to get hosting in the USA.
Essentially the business is moving to the USA but they want to retain their domain name as they cannot get their hands on a domain with their company name in that is .com / .net / .org etc. . .
I know that the .co.uk domain will adversely affect click through rates in the states, but there seems to be no way around this if they want their retain the company name as their domain name.
Would American based hosting help them rank better for searches from the USA or is the benefit of this negligible?
Net66
-
Thanks for the replies guys! Some really good answers.
I know that it will be harder, but I'm going to give it a go!
As they are already getting a company.com domain and will retain the company.co.uk page the only reason for the CLIENT-NAME.co.uk page is as a personal landing page / portfolio page.
It is worth seeing if I can rank their name in the USA. The domain is set up to rank for this already and is already ranking close to page one.
I have seen other name based domains rank in both countries. I think it is worth the risk as I doubt my clients UK rankings (for their name) will be altered. They have scores of links and the content is well targeted.
Once more, thanks for the advice!
Net66
-
Hey guys,
It currently ranks number 17 in the USA, so it is not too far away from the first page.
I think it is doable, but not advisable. It is always worth having a go, and failing that getting a new domain.
Thanks for all the help!
Net66
-
Hi Neil,
Ranking for a person's name in the US with a 'name.co.uk' is possible - for example I think if you do a search for 'Jane Copland' in the US you'll see janecopland.co.uk ranking 1st.
Do you know how well or otherwise the site is ranking in the US right now?
Essentially the ability to rank will likely be impacted by how common or otherwise the person's name is and how strong their site is.
In terms of actions from you I wouldn't be inclined to change hosting as that's unlikely to have an impact on it's own - however if as you say you're looking to change the hosting in any case then moving it the US probably wouldn't hurt. I'd also encourage you to build links to this domain to strengthen the site.
I guess I'm saying it's not necessarily impossible, but in an ideal world you'd get some sort of generic domain (.com / .net etc).
I hope this helps,
Hannah
-
I think that it's harder, you will need a lot of US links so it's a lot of work. The best would be to use a .com and to create a US version of your site.
USA users won't really be attracted to .co.uk and also the vocabulary you use on the site could be a real turn off for US users.
But if you absolutely want to do it, I would host a sub-domain of .co.uk on a server located in USA. But as I said, it's a lot of work that users may not appreciate to much.
-
My experience is that the .uk extension is a strong indicator for a local site and it creates extra work. US hosting, contact details and predominantly US links would help, however personally I would still be thinking about a separate non .uk name.
-
Hi Istavan,
Thanks for the quick reply!
Maybe I wasn't too clear.
The company would have a separate site a company-name.com. This would be US based and have the company address, and details on there.
The other site that (.co.uk) has no real income in terms of sales.
It is a photographer and this site is a personal profile site that will have links to his business site.
The idea of this site is to rank for his name, and his name alone as it gets a lot of searches. His UK rank for this does not matter as he will not be returning.
His domain is perfectly set up to rank for his name. His domain is "his-name.co.uk" and has some good content.
My question is really just related to ranking for the clients name. It is a very, very common name but ranks first in the UK.
Would it be possible to gain this ranking in the USA?
I have never tried to rank a .co.uk domain name in the USA, but I know that Google is trying to return local results. (Thus my conclusion that a .co.uk name would not be beneficial).
While I know this is not the best situation my client really wants to retain his current domain.
He is only looking to rank for his name, which is his domain name. Is this going to be a possibility?
Has anyone ranked a .co.uk domain in the USA successfully?
Finally, would US based hosting help at all?
Net66
-
Hi Net66,
As I read through your question my first impression was... No Waaaaay!
I wouldn't advice to mix things up. Just simple create a new brand for the US market. The reasons are the following:
1. When re-targeting an established website you can hurt your rankings in both UK and US results.
2. a .co.uk is a ccTLD which wont be very useful for a US targeting
3. for a better on-site optimization you will have to rewrite content to better fit the US English readers level (and there are major differences between US and UK English) - What happens to their established visitors?
4. if you reach to retarget somehow the .co.uk website, they will see a fall in the sales (because they will probably loose some ranks in the .co.uk and gain some new ones in the .com)
Ok. Now if you buy a new brand name for the US market:
1. You can develop from first stage an optimized website (information architecture, content, links, etc.)
2. You can have a brand name that is more catchy for US market.
3. They can run two different websites in the same time effectively. Until the US website comes up, they will have enough sales from UK markets.
I hope that helped,
Istvan
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Sudden ranking Hike For domain
Hello there, I have domain Which got penalized By google Before 2 nd half years & all First Page Ranking Gone Down by 7-8 pages, But Now It got Sudden up after 3 years, So my Question is Will I need Worry or that Can Be Positive Sign For My efforts Given to Website? Will It stay Up?? As i have Updated My website As Told by Moz experts. Thanx, in advance
Technical SEO | | innovative10030 -
How do we build rank on a domain with an offsite blog?
We have a site (domain y) that we'd like to integrate a blog into but our team doesn't have the bandwidth to do this. So, we've been exploring the option of building the blog in WP and hosting on a separate domain (domain x) and redirecting from domain y to it. My concern is how this affects or undermines rank value on domain y (effectively all the value from the blog resides on the blog domain x). How might we go about integrating an offsite blog into the core domain while maintaining search value? Is there a way? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | J-Me0 -
Merging Domains
Hi, Everyone, My company is currently working with a client that has multiple websites and is interested in merging them into one. One is a primary corporate site, the other is a site for a single line of products. They obviously want to merge the product site into the corporate site. The interesting thing is that the product site outperforms the corporate site. It has the highest traffic, and it has far more links/linking domains, a higher domain authority (although only by two points), and much more social activity. However, their reasons for wanting to merge the two are completely valid - less management, URL would match print collateral, etc. They're asking our opinion on whether or not to move forward with the merger. I'm leaning toward no simply because of the fact that the site they want to merge is outperforming the other. I'm curious, though, to get some other opinions on this. Would a merger be worth the work in this case? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | PapercutInteractive0 -
Domain Change -- Drop in Rank
So I had a client that recently decided to change their URL to make it more "searchable"/shorter. Since doing so, I have noticed a significant drop in rankings for a number of the keyword terms we were previously ranking for. Is there a way to push the links to the new URL or is the only solution to revert back to the old URL?
Technical SEO | | maxcarnage0 -
Which domain should i set up a blog on?
I have a client who uses a .com for there website in Australia. Were now building an external blog which will be on a subdomain. We recently discovered they also own the Australian version of there domain name. Should we build there blog on: blog.currentdomain.com 2) blog.newdomain.com.au Thanks
Technical SEO | | acs1110 -
Should we 301 redirect our old domain to the new domain
We have a product that when started was under the domain appnowgo.com. We've since changed the name and the domain is now knackhq.com. The latter domain doesn't rank nearly as well as the former for many of the keywords we are targeting. For example... "online database builder" and "web app builder" are two of those keywords. Obviously having app in the domain is not a bad thing but it is our old name. The question is, should we 301 the appnowgo.com domain to knackhq.com? Or should we use that better rank and just link users to knackhq.com from the appnowgo.com site until we can increase our ranking for knackhq.com? We don't plan to update the content on appnowgo.com anymore and we obviously don't want to drop off rank if at all possible. Thanks! Eric
Technical SEO | | sitestrux0 -
Delete old site but redirect domain to a new domain and site
I just have a quick query and I have a feeling about what the answer is so just wanted to see what you guys thought... Basically I am working on a client site. This client has a few other websites that are divisions of their company. However these divisions/websites are no longer used. They are wanting to delete the websites but redirect the domains to their name main website. They believe this will pass on SEO benefits as these old division sites are old and have a good PR and history. I'm unsure for DEFINITE, which way is correct?
Technical SEO | | Weerdboil0 -
Moving Site with #1 Ranking to New Domain
I want to move a site of mine that ranks #1 for many keywords to a new domain name. I have already redirected many smaller less important sites to the new domain, but have held off on my most popular site. If I redirect the entire site with a 301 redirect, what can I expect with my number one ranking, particular for coveted search terms..thanks for the input.
Technical SEO | | insync0