Just for the record, we decided to continue with two domains, localized .com and localised .co.uk. They will no longer be maintained on different continents - Google says host location is no longer important - but will be run as two wpmu sites.

For us, the pros and cons outlined in all answers below came down to - we were concerned that our good UK rankings would be affected, and the work of maintaining two near identical sites did not seem too onerous.

href_lang sitemaps remain a problem - what a nightmare that system is.

@Suvidit-Academy

Thanks again

@Suvidit-Academy Thanks. Some very sensible thoughts there.

What would you think if the redirect went the other way - from the .com to the .co.uk.

(As I said before, both websites are reasonable successful in their “home” Googles though the .co.uk is probably stronger.)

Hi I work for a British company which has two well established websites - a .co.Uk for the UK, and a .com for the US and rest of the world (in language directories). The Uk site is hosted in the Uk, the .com in US.

The websites do reasonable well in Google on both sides of the Atlantic. The company is a small but quite well known brand.

The company is now thinking of redirecting the .co.Uk to the .com as it would be cheaper to maintain.

What would you advise?

Thanks.

Hi I work for a British company which has two well established websites - a .co.Uk for the UK, and a .com for the US and rest of the world (in language directories). The Uk site is hosted in the Uk, the .com in US.

The websites do reasonable well in Google on both sides of the Atlantic. The company is a small but quite well known brand.

The company is now thinking of redirecting the .co.Uk to the .com as it would be cheaper to maintain.

What would you advise?

Thanks.