Does a .com stop a UK visitor?
-
Hi,
If a E-commerce website based in the UK (and selling products only to the UK) have a .com domain will this stop UK visitors?
I kind of getting the feeling some potential visitors might not visit because they feel the website is not UK based because they see the .com.
Anyone else had any experience with this?
-
.com is such a broadly accepted TLD that I find it hard to believe anyone in the UK would question it's not a UK site.
As long as the content looks UK focussed then you're fine. If you slap an American flag in the corner then that might cause a problem
Think of all the huge UK brands that have .com sites... moneysupermarket.com, moonpig.com, etc, etc. It's just as normal to have a .com in the UK as it is to have a .co.uk
-
The general rules of thumb on international are
- Having a local domain helps (.co.uk, .fr, etc) but isn't crucial. A .com can tank well in the UK and a .co.uk can rank well in the US. Obviously the localized domain is easier to rank.
- Having local hosting helps as well. A site hosted in the targeted country will rank better in that country (as well as have faster response times for your target audience)
- Your links play a large role in localization. If your links are primarily in the UK, Google will weight you better for UK searches.
-
.com domains are just as strong in the UK as .co.uk with regards to customer trust and CTR in my opinion - i.e. I don't believe a .com domain is restrictive in the UK.
From an SEO point of view make sure you registrar with Google (and other search engines) webmaster tools and set the target geographic location as UK.
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
-
Where are these "phantom visitors" and are they dangerous?
My Google Analytics always shows visitors on my site that do not show up with a location. They are always shown as being referred from "ads.google.com". Our service is exclusively domestic in the U.S., yet my user location map will show 1 domestic visitor, but 19 total visitors. PLease see attached linked image. Is there some sort of malware that is being exploited on my pages somewhere that these people are accessing? Is there some way of blocking them from my site? Should I? Aren't they skewing my Google Analytics results? Are they potentially dangerous? Thanks in advance for all replies. mKEjs2H.jpg
Search Behavior | | TTR10 -
Different SERPs positions UK - Ireland
Hi there! I've been checking rankings in UK and Ireland for the last months and I found something really interesting... "Belfast + keyword" - UK = 2º position / Ireland = 1º position "keyword + Belfast" - UK = 14º position / Ireland = 1º position *(same keyword) I don't understand how it is possible... Website is not geo-targeted so Google has no preference for any of these countries... Any ideas about why does it happen?
Search Behavior | | seosogood1 -
What do you do with .net after a .com migration?
So my company has gone from .net to .com. I have analytics up and running as well as WMT. I noticed today that on the .com we only had 1 visitor yesterday and 0 today. We have just put out a major press release as well as other PR related things and I'm only seeing slight traffic on the .net. Any ideas? What should I do with the .net in WMTs and Analytics? Do I need to turn something off? Is this normal behavior about a week into a migration?
Search Behavior | | Sika220 -
Page ranking in .com but not in .co.uk
Hi there, I tried to search the Q&A but couldn't find any answers to my issue. We have a page that is ranking #2 for the term "translation memory" in google.com, but it doesn't show in Google.co.uk. This has been like this for weeks now. We are not targeting any specific country in GWT. Does anyone know a possible explanation for this? Thank you.
Search Behavior | | SDLOnlineChannel0 -
UK & Ireland Websites displaying same page differently in serps
Hi there, I have a Magento Enterprise store based in the UK and we have an Irish version which we created after finding an increasing amount of traffic from Ireland. One thing that I don't understand, is that if I search for one keyword on Google, the websites are displayed differently, when effectively they are identical websites. Here is how a result looks like for my UK store: http://i.imgur.com/NKSt4Qq.png And here is how a result looks like for my IE store: http://i.imgur.com/Cynv8Mz.png They both have the same Meta description, barring a few geographical words and terms. Both have on page descriptions as well as products. Yet the IE results display the description and the UK results display products and a tiny snippet of the description. Any ideas on how I can make my UK pages display like the IE one? Or, just why they are both displayed differently? Thanks
Search Behavior | | tomhall900 -
More USA traffic than UK.
Hi there, I have a site www.nut-job.com and I am currently getting more traffic from the USA than uk. Is there anyway of not getting listed in the USA and telling google that the site is a UK site?
Search Behavior | | nutjobshell0 -
Noticed Bing UK and Yahoo UK are almost exactly the same ranking results?
I've run a few keyword ranking updates today and I've noticed that Bing UK and Yahoo UK results are almost exactly the same? This is unusual, the results for these two engines rarely tally with one another. Is anyone seeing the same?
Search Behavior | | MiroAsh0 -
.com Doman and off-shore host for an Australia company, does this hurt ratings?
We have a site based in Australia that has been using the .com domain. Recently the .com.au became available and we purchased it and use a 301 redirect. Does having a site hosted off-shore and a .com rather than .com.au for a company affect the ratings in google.com.au for Australian traffic?
Search Behavior | | oznappies0