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It's perfectly possible to get a .com ranking well in the UK - there are lots of sites that use a .com and rank just fine.
However if time is of the essence (and when is it not?) and you have the .co.uk domain then switching now and building further links to the .co.uk is probably a good option for you 
Hi Kate,
In my experience you may have problems with getting your sites to rank in their respective locales. I've also seen sites like this treated as duplicate content (even though they shouldn't be really).
There's a couple of things that I'd recommend that you do:
Target the sites via webmaster tools to US / UK as appropriate see - http://www.seo-chicks.com/1463/geotargeting-on-the-same-domain-using-xml-sitemaps.html
Take steps to ensure you're targeting the right keywords (there are plenty of differences between US and UK English)
Implement rel-alternate hreflang see - http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/new-markup-for-multilingual-content.html
Include local signals - e.g. local telephone numbers, bricks and mortar addresses etc to help the search engines understand which locales you're targeting
I hope this helps,
Hannah
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 Keith,
If I were you I'd stick with the .com - I've not seen any evidence to suggest that using a .co.uk makes any difference to UK rankings. I don't think you'll see any major issues with CTR either.
I'm assuming that you're not having any US v UK issues right now E.G. - you're ranking better in the US than the UK, receiving more US than UK traffic etc. However if this is the case you could implement geo-targeting via webmaster tools, claim a Places listing (if you haven't already) etc to send some more signals about where you're located.
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
Hi Guido,
This sort of issue isn't unusual unfortunately - however, just so you know I suspect that your location is affecting the results you're seeing - as when I search Google.com from here in the UK I'm seeing your English content ranking. However, when I search Google.es I'm seeing your Catalan content ranking so either way there are a few issues.
I suspect (although I can't be 100% sure) - that part of the issue is the Catalan vs Spanish content - as they do also speak Catalan in parts of Spain - it may be that Google is struggling to figure out which is the best content to display. There are two things that you can do:
NB - you can only do this if you are targeting specific countries - not languages. If for example you want to attract UK and US English visitors then do not implement this.
In terms of implementation you need to place the tag on all versions of the page -
So on http://yourdomain.com/page-whatever you'd need:
So on http://yourdomain.com/page-whatever you'd need:
Hi Marcelo,
Providing you've marked up the page appropriately - see http://www.i18nguy.com/markup/right-to-left.html - the bots shouldn't have any issues with understanding your content
You can see an example in the wild from Wikipedia here - http://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/علم_المعلومات
I hope this helps
Hannah
Hi Matthew,
The hreflang tag which SEOBrent mentioned below may help here - if your content is duplicate.
In terms of implementation you need to place the tag on all versions of the page -
So on http://yourdomain.com/us/page-whatever you'd need:
http://yourdomain.com/uk/page-whatever; /> http://yourdomain.com/us/page-whatever/>
And on http://yourdomain.com/uk/page-whatever - you'd need:
http://yourdomain.com/us/page-whatever; /> https://plus.google.com/u/0/115984868678744352358/posts/9zA3a96XahN
Please also note, you need to pick one canonical version - I've picked the US as I've assumed you get more US traffic - obviously if you get more UK traffic then that should probably be the canonical version. See here - http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=5299f52953459957&hl=en&fid=5299f529534599570004b9a18f1d46fe
Re your GEO-IP redirect - this 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, and allows both versions to be crawled.
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 Philip,
The short answer is yes - it can do. As Google crawl from the US, if they're redirecting US traffic it may mean that their site doesn't get crawled. If Google can't crawl... well, you get the picture.
As such this sort of redirect isn't something I'd readily recommend. That said, as long as Google can still crawl the 'live' version of their site they should be ok.
Nevertheless, typically in a case like this I'd recommend either:
or
"It looks like you're visiting from (XX country). Unfortunately we're not able to ship to you just yet, however our (XX country) site is being developed right now. Click here and we'll email you once our new store opens."
I hope this helps,
Hannah
Hi Sara,
Where you host really isn't considered a major ranking factor - there are many UK sites which are hosted in the US and they don't have issues with ranking.
I'm assuming you're not suffering with poor loading speeds - if you are - go ahead and change your hosting but I wouldn't worry too much about whether that's UK or US
You've not said whether your domain is a .co.uk or a generic (e.g. a .com / .net etc). If you do have a generic domain I'd recommend that you geo-target via Google Webmaster Tools - see http://www.seo-chicks.com/1463/geotargeting-on-the-same-domain-using-xml-sitemaps.html
I hope this helps,
Hannah
Google don't look at Bing for their results
About a year ago Google complained that Bing were copying their results - http://searchengineland.com/google-bing-is-cheating-copying-our-search-results-62914 - but really that's an aside.
That said, in an ideal world I would also still recommend (wherever possible) that completely different content is created for UK and US markets.
Partially to dodge the duplicate content bullet (although with href lang it looks like this isn't going to be so much of an issue any more); but mainly because there are a lot of differences between UK and US consumers. Although we both speak English, the English we speak, the way we search, the messaging we respond to is different.
Obviously the option to create separate content isn't open to everyone (budgets, resources, etc). As such, if you can't stretch to creating separate content for each market I'd probably go with the hreflang implementation.
However it is important to note that all that really deals with is the duplicate content - if your pages aren't strong enough then they still won't rank, so you'll need to think about building links to these pages too.
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
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 -
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 Danielle,
There was a hangout with Pierre Far which might be helpful to you - https://plus.google.com/115984868678744352358/posts/9zA3a96XahN
There he speaks pretty extensively about how to implement this.
I guess it's important to note that this tag is designed for use when you have duplicate content - e.g. the same content in English for say UK / US / Australia etc and/or translated content e.g. English content, French content etc.
My understanding is that if your content isn't duplicate - i.e. you have unique content for each market then the use of this tag isn't appropriate.
I'm also not sure if this will help your less established international sites in real terms - I'm guessing that the issue might be that they lack the raw link strength to rank as opposed to it being a geo-targeting issue.
I hope this helps,
Hannah
Hi Fraser,
If you don't want to create a separate website for Australia, then I'd suggest you get yourself a .com, then create sub-folders to target the markets which you wish to enter - e.g. yourdomain.com/uk/ for the UK; yourdomain.com/au/ for Australia and so on.
You can then target these sub-folders in Google Webmaster Tools.
I hope this helps,
Hannah
Hi Carl,
First, hosting location isn't a massive factor in terms of SEO - this wasn't always the case - however as sites are hosted in locations that they don't target (e.g. UK sites hosted in the USA) I think this is largely ignored. As such I'd suggest your hosting location shouldn't cause you major heartache.
In terms of the US vs UK question - it really depends on how much time / resource you have. If you have the time to devote to content creation, linkbuilding etc for both the .co.uk and the .com then great - if not focusing your efforts on one site and going down the subfolder route - /uk and /us is probably the best option for you. Do be careful not to replicate the sites in the UK and US folders though - you'll need to create separate, unique content for each.
Finally, re the IP redirect - this really isn't a tactic I favour. The issue with implementing a redirect based on IP is that as Google bot crawls from a US IP you can effectively render the UK version of the site invisible to bots. As such I favour the approach taken by CheapFlights. If you hit the .com version of the site from a UK IP you get sent to this 'choose your country' page - http://www.cheapflights.com/workers/profile-select.aspx?sref=CFUK&redirect=GeoIP&geoip=GB&cfref=CFUS&spt=Home&rp=/. This allows users to select the appropriate site for them and allows the bots to crawl both versions.
I hope this helps,
Hannah
Dan - great shout on using a proper translator rather than Google translate
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 -
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