.co.uk and .co coexistance?
-
Hello,
Our business has been setup and has been targeting the uk. Therefore, we've always had a .co.uk domain. Now that we want to go international, we are looking into expanding in the U.S. and have bought a .co domain to do so.
My question is: would we get .co.uk penalised if some of the .co pages will have similar content to the .co.uk pages?
I know .co is a Generic Top Level Domain (gTLDs), but my understanding so far is that: as long as we set a country target & US language on the .co domain and follow basic cautionary steps and best practises from this article and others, we should be completely fine.
Is this also what you guys think?
Thanks in advance!
-
Ups! My mistake, was not aware of that article from google. Im deepl sorry if i´ve confused you.
Yeah! Following the recommended precautions and steps in the cited articles you will be perfect! There is no need to do any further than that.
Best luck!
GR. -
Hi Ramon,
Yup, that's correct on the setup - it's how we are thinking about it. Glad to hear you don't think we shold have duplication issues once we follow best practices.
Thanks for your help.
-
Hi MarketingGH,
Yes you are right, wasn´t aware of this list (learning everyday). It is in fact a ccTLD but google treats it as a gTLD.
So just to clarify you would have a:
xxxx.co targeting the US (and setting up this geotargeting in your GSC)
xxxx.co.uk targeting the Uk (and no need to setup geotargeting in GSC since it already a ccTLD)
If this is the case you wouldn´t have any duplicate content issues. If i misunderstood could you clarify.
-
Hi Gaston,
Thanks!
My question was mainly due to the fact that all articles you and I have mentioned talk about using the same domain and internationalising that or buying a ccTLDs. My question is instead regarding adding a new domain gTLD to internationalise and whether if we do add a brand new domain (not subdomain), I need to do anything else apart from everything written on those articles.
Have a look at why I think .co is regarded as gTLD by Google: https://www.screencast.com/t/5YgjXIriy
Image from this article.
-
What I was pointing at on same article cited above is the following list of ccTLDs that Google treats as generic so as gTLDs and .co is one of them?
-
Hi MarketingGH,
Try to use a gTLD domain. Leave the .co for Columbia.
If you cant by the .com site, try with another gTLD.Remember to be extra carefull with the internationalization, try to give a read to these articles:
Google internationalization FAQs
Internationalization SEO ChecklistAbout the duplicate content, as cited in every article about internationalization, use hreflang tags and double check them to be sure that are correctly implemented.
Best luck!
GR. -
.co is a ccTLD (https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db) and assigned to Columbia
.com is a gTLD (https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db)
The article you mention starts by saying "If your site has a generic top-level domain, such as .com or .org, and doesn´t mention .co
-
Not sure what you mean by ".co is a ccTLD for Columbia" as Google treats it as generic according to this article? https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/62399?visit_id=1-636422994188525421-4135517685&rd=1
-
Hi MarketingGH,
with ccTLD (country code Top Level Domain) there is no problem with duplicate content in the same languages through these domains and when setting a country target for gTLD´s this wouldn´t be an issue either.
As far as i know though .co is a ccTLD for Columbia and not a gTLD so you should register the .com domain (unless this is what you meant than thats correct).
Hope this helps
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
-
Do You Think the Distance Algorithm Has Less Weight for Local Service Related Businesses?
Hey guys, I wish Rand could answer this question, because I know he figured all of this out, or has at least thought about it at least once. Basically, I want to understand exactly how the local algorithms work. Do you think the Distance algorithm works differently for service related businesses that don't offer services directly to your car, or other moveable assets? (motorcycles, lawnmowers, small engines) For example, construction companies. We all know how boring their offices are. No one wants to go to one unless there has been a problem or to pay a bill, say at Trugreen or something. They don't sell products, and who wants to go to some construction company that will likely just be a receptionist and maybe a field manager on his lunch break with some field reps rotating in and out during the day getting new leads and entering sales? That's uncomfortable. Why not just call them? So, do you think Google's local algorithms know that and put less weight on businesses that fall into that category? Car shops, small engine repair, and say shoe repair shops are different because you have to bring them something to fix. Stores that sell products are different because you have to go shopping and pay them to take the products home. But remodeling companies, marketing agencies, etc. probably don't get a lot of foot traffic. (And it's because we know we can handle it on a phone call.)
Local SEO | | everysecond0 -
What Should We Do to Fix Crawled but Not Indexed Pages for Multi-location Service Pages?
Hey guys! I work as a content creator for Zavza Seal, a contractor out of New York, and we're targeting 36+ cities in the Brooklyn and Queens areas with several services for home improvement. We got about 340 pages into our multi-location strategy targeting our target cities with each service we offer, when we noticed that 200+ of our pages were "Crawled but not indexed" in Google Search Console. Here's what I think we may have done wrong. Let me know what you think... We used the same page template for all pages. (we changed the content and sections, formatting, targeted keywords, and entire page strategy for areas with unique problems trying to keep the user experience as unique as possible to avoid duplicate content or looking like we didn't care about our visitors.) We used the same featured image for all pages. (I know this is bad and wouldn't have done it myself, but hey, I'm not the publisher.) We didn't use rel canonicals to tell search engines that these pages were special made for the areas. We didn't use alt tags until about halfway through. A lot of the urls don't use the target keyword exactly. The NAP info and Google Maps embed is in the footer, so we didn't use it on the pages. We didn't use any content about the history or the city or anything like that. (some pages we did use content about historic buildings, low water table, flood prone areas, etc if they were known for that) We were thinking of redoing the pages, starting from scratch and building unique experiences around each city, with testimonials, case studies, and content about problems that are common for property owners in the area, but I think they may be able to be fixed with a rel canonical, the city specific content added, and unique featured images on each page. What do you think is causing the problem? What would be the easiest way to fix it? I knew the pages had to be unique for each page, so I switched up the page strategy every 5-10 pages out of fear that duplicate content would start happening, because you can only say so much about for example, "basement crack repair". Please let me know your thoughts. Here is one of the pages that are indexed as an example: https://zavzaseal.com/cp-v1/premier-spray-foam-insulation-contractors-in-jamaica-ny/ Here is one like it that is crawled but not indexed: https://zavzaseal.com/cp-v1/premier-spray-foam-insulation-contractors-in-jamaica-ny/ I appreciate your time and concern. Have a great weekend!
Local SEO | | everysecond0 -
How to improve SEO in two cities at once
Hi, we have a company, and the business has a Google My Business and business citations created. the manager, wants to be on first page of Google, in the organic results, for another city thats less than 10 miles away. the business does not have two stores, just one business premises, any idea how we can improve the local/organic SEO for the second city and get on the first page of Google there as well?
Local SEO | | sarahwalsh0 -
Does having a subdomains UK affect SEO in UK google results?
For exemple we set a UK subdomaine for : www.igomorocco.com www.uk.igomorocco.com Does having a subdomains UK affect SEO in UK google results? How this should be set up correctly?
Local SEO | | mounirigomorocco0 -
Should I use LocalBusiness schema on my home page or Contact Us page?
I know I should only use Organization schema on one page of my site, but I'm not sure if I should use it on the Home page or use LocalBusiness schema on the home page. I was thinking of adding LocalBusiness schema to home page, Organization schema to About Us page and Corporate Contact Schema to Contact us page. Thoughts? Is there a best practice? I can't seem to find much information on what's best to use where.
Local SEO | | RoxBrock1 -
To Keep My Company's CO.UK Page Or Redirect It...
Hi Moz'ers - I have a question... Just to set the stage, we're a small recruiting firm, with an even smaller marketing department. I'm essentially a one man wrecking crew and don't have a ton of extra time. That being said, I know that page rank (and local office rank) are critical to our inbound lead generation, so I'm willing to invest some of my time into doing it right. The issue I'm having is ranking high as a local business in Austin, New York, San Francisco, and London, UK (to name a few). So far I've solved this through building dedicated subpages on our .com site and link building key word anchor text towards those pages. The only page that's not really gaining traction is our London page. So I decided to clone (most of) the site, tweak the text (to try and avoid dup text), and try and get that page to rank. I'm also having it hosted on a local server, have it using a local domain address suffix (co.uk), using local hreflang (on our .com site), created dedicated web 2.0 sites, and done my best to do some link building. The problem I'm facing is crapy local ranking, and limited bandwidth to maintain two sites. Should I: A) Scrap the co.uk site and focus on the .com (and subpages)
Local SEO | | bettsrecruiting
B) Keep the co.uk domain, and just redirect the URL to our .com page
C) Keep the co.uk domain, send all links from the home page to the relevant page on our .com page, and set up 301 redirects for all other relevant pages.
D) Hire someone to clean up, rewrite, and upkeep the co.uk site because it has the most SEO value in the long run and is the only way I'm going to be able to rank locally in London. What are your thoughts? Thanks in advance! Tim Our European Site - http://bettsrecruiting.co.uk/
Our US Site - http://bettsrecruiting.com/0 -
Best way to advertise cosmetic dermatologist on Facebook in the UK?
I have a client who owns a cosmetic dermatology clinic. Recently he's been trying to work more on his Facebook page, and has been attempting to boost his posts but they keep getting declined for this, that and the other. "No before and after photos", "Ad is sensitive in nature", etc. Nothing shady, he's a registered doctor and a member of the Royal College of Physicians in London and the Royal College of General Practitioners. Main treatments offered are things like Botox (which I know he can't legally advertise due to strict advertising standards in the UK), dermal fillers, lip fillers, non-surgical lifts. Just general non-surgical prescription-level cosmetic treatments. I don't have much experience in Facebook advertising, but this line of work seems particularly challenging to advertise on Facebook. Does anyone who has experience in advertising this type of business on Facebook have any general advice on what sorts of posts/ads have worked with them before?
Local SEO | | Ria_2
