Hi Sara,

The GEO-IP redirect isn't an approach I favour.

As Google normally crawl from a US IP it can cause indexation problems.

As such I prefer something like cheapflights.com implement - if you visit cheapflights.com from a UK IP you are pushed to this international choice page - http://www.cheapflights.com/workers/profile-select.aspx?sref=CFUK&redirect=GeoIP&geoip=GB&cfref=CFUS&spt=Home&rp=/

This allows user to select the appropriate site (nicer for users) and allows both versions to be crawled.

My recommendation would be to implement something like that rather than a hard redirect to a specific language version.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

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

That isn't a domain at all - it's a sub-domain - what you've purchased there is yourdomain.uk.com - so your site is actually on a sub-domain of the domain uk.com

I'm guessing that in theory you could geo-target via Webmaster Tools, however I think that in reality you might struggle to get the site to rank. It would also make for some pretty mixed up looking URLs - yourdomain.uk.com/fr/ - the UK in there might mean lower click through rates as the site looks primarily UK focused.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Dan,

uk.com is the domain - but your site is effectively sitting on a subdomain - i.e. yourdomain.uk.com

As such I'd expect that technically speaking you could geo-target something like yourdomain.uk.com/fr/ via webmaster tools, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Partially because I don't think it will actually work - overall you're giving off a really mixed signal, but also from a user experience perspective - I don't think French users will want to transact with a uk.com site - it just looks like a site for people in the UK.

Thanks

Hannah

You're welcome

Hi Gary,

This sort of redirect can cause indexation problems.

Typically Google crawls from the US -  and as such the bots may only see your US content - no UK content = no UK rankings - so this isn't a solution which I'm keen to recommend.

If you really need to implement something like this, you could try doing what cheapflights.com do. For example if you visit cheapflights.com from a UK IP they redirect you to this international choice page -

http://www.cheapflights.com/workers/profile-select.aspx?sref=CFUK&redirect=GeoIP&geoip=GB&cfref=CFUS&spt=Home&rp=/:

This solution allows the bots to crawl both versions of the sites, plus it allows users to select which version of the site they wish to see.

You might also consider one of the following -

a) Don't do any IP redirection, but upweight the links to the international sites so that there is a clear route for users to find the right version of the site.

b) Use IP detection to show a JavaScript overlay suggesting non-UK users might want to visit the main group site - but don't actually redirect them.

I hope this helps

Hannah

Hi Matteo,

I think it's generally accepted that IP redirection in this scenario isn't considered cloaking by the search engines.

However I have previously seen sites seemingly penalised (possibly because they're tripping some sort of cloaking filter) but in my experience this more commonly happens when different content is shown on the same URL based on IP detection, rather than redirecting to an alternative page.

Cloaking issues aside, you rightly point out that the redirect can cause indexation problems (as the bots may only see your US content) - as such this isn't a solution which I'm keen to recommend.

If you really need to implement something like this, you could try doing what cheapflights.com do. If you visit cheapflights.com from a UK IP they redirect you to this international choice page -

http://www.cheapflights.com/workers/profile-select.aspx?sref=CFUK&redirect=GeoIP&geoip=GB&cfref=CFUS&spt=Home&rp=/:

However, my preference would be to either -

a) Don't do any IP redirection, but upweight the links to the international sites so that there is a clear route for users to find the right version of the site.

b) Use IP detection to show a JavaScript overlay suggesting UK users might want to visit the UK site - but don't actually redirect them.

I hope this helps

Hannah

Hi Paul,

In the UK people are pretty comfortable with either a .co.uk or a .com - and likewise I've not seen any evidence to suggest that the search engines favour .co.uk sites.

As .com is stronger I'd be inclined to go with that

Hope this helps,

Hannah