Google.co.uk & Google.com

nigel9097 · 05-26-2004, 08:34 AM

Hi,

Can anyone help me ?

I currently have a website listed on www.google.com and doing OK, however it is not listed on www.google.co.uk. If I search by URL I can find it but by no other means.

I have reached the conclusion that it is because my current domain www.jgdcrafts.com is not country specific.

So today I have bought www.jgdcrafts.co.uk in an attempt to get it listed properly in www.google.co.uk.

How can I and am I allowed to publish the same site to both domain names or will this be classes as "mirroring"

I could just place an index page on www.jgdcrafts.co.uk and point it to www.jgdcrafts.com, but I want the bot to list the whole site not just an index page

There are 300 pages on the .com site at the moment and it importnat I have the 300 on google.co.uk, there are some very important keywords in the title and pages.

Can anyone give me an ideas how I can get the 300 pages indexed on both but not get penalised for "mirroring"

Regards,

Nigel

awall19 · 05-26-2004, 09:18 AM

if it is important that you are indexed in all of the UK directories you will probably want to host the site on a UK host and place the site on the .co.uk domain. you can then 301 redirect the .com domain to the new one.

I, Brian · 05-26-2004, 09:19 AM

Sites will be listed on Google.co.uk - which returns by default international searches - as per Google.com - unless the option to search UK searches is specifically made.

To be listed at all on the UK searches, you need to have a .co.uk site, or else have a .com/.org etc physically hosted in the UK.

I recently moved all of my websites to UK servers, precisely to take advantage of the marketing bonuses available from UK searches. (I am in the UK anyway.)

As for your own site - why not ditch the .com and simply put your site no the .co.uk? Is there any real advantage to not redirecting .com traffic to the .co.uk?

nigel9097 · 05-26-2004, 10:08 AM

if I ditch the .com and move to the .co.uk, will I loose all my pages in the index of google.com on the next time the googlebot is out

Spent a long time waiting for them to get indexed, is that the only option to lose them and start again.

Also if I get a link put on another .co.uk site will I get indexed straight away on googles next trawl

Regards

Nigel

awall19 · 05-26-2004, 10:14 AM

if you 301 redirect the current site to the new location then you will not lose anything.

Johan007 · 05-26-2004, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nigel9097

How can I and am I allowed to publish the same site to both domain names or will this be classes as "mirroring"

Who ever told you that is a moron. Do as awall19 says (web direct under your domain name log in control panel) and make sure you link to the .co.uk from 1 spiderable page.

nigel9097 · 05-26-2004, 10:17 AM

sorry to appear a bit slow, sounds good what you are saying, but what is a 301 redirect?

Johan007 · 05-26-2004, 10:19 AM

choose web re-direct under your .co.uk domain name log in control panel and point it to the .com

nigel9097 · 05-26-2004, 10:22 AM

do i then need to delete all of the pages but one off of the .com site

nigel9097 · 05-26-2004, 10:23 AM

sorry getting mixed up here

If I point my .co.uk to my .com domain name will google.co.uk list all 300 pages on my.com site in the google.co.uk index

awall19 · 05-26-2004, 10:26 AM

options
1.) move the hosting provider to the uk
2.) place the site on the .co.uk domain and 301 redirect the .com domain to the new location. all pages will get indexed and google will keep your link popularity.
3.) do both 1 & 2 so that it helps you get listed in other regional type indexes.

nigel9097 · 05-26-2004, 10:32 AM

yes Ok sounds good

once I have redirected to the .co.uk do i delete any pages off the .com, I am worried that if the whole site is still on both it will look like I am mirroring

I, Brian · 05-26-2004, 11:20 AM

If your .com site is physically hosted in the UK, it will be listed under UK searches on Gioogle.co.uk and you won't need a .co.uk site.

nigel9097 · 05-26-2004, 11:24 AM

it is not hosted in the uk it is hosted in the states

Andy · 05-26-2004, 12:34 PM

This whole discussion seems rather pointless, as I, Brian quite correctly pointed out, Google.co.uk defaults to an International search unless you tick the "pages from the UK" tick box.

Furthermore as many as around 80% of Uk surfers use the Google.com over the .co.uk version anyway.

The point being that there is no reason your site should't be listed in Google.co.uk. How long has the site been live and How many links do you have pointing at it?

Johan007 · 05-26-2004, 04:13 PM

fast-rewind.com is a USA based website who got them a .co.uk this year and now they beet my UK site cos of it

!

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...q=movies&meta=

See you have nothing to worry about

awall19 · 05-26-2004, 04:44 PM

the point isn't entirely pointless because many of the other local search engines default to local settings. I think Yahoo!, for example, does.

also that 20% of google searchers looking for local stuff is alot of valuable traffic to throw away for no reason.

Andy · 05-27-2004, 02:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by awall19

the point isn't entirely pointless because many of the other local search engines default to local settings. I think Yahoo!, for example, does.

Thought we were talking about Google results here? Anyway,
Yahoo Doesn't actually though admittedly MSN are starting to filter this in.

Quote:

Originally Posted by awall19

also that 20% of google searchers looking for local stuff is alot of valuable traffic to throw away for no reason.

I Never said that 20% are looking for local searches, only around 20% of Uk users use the Regional engines. Of that 20% how many do you really think tick the small box saying "pages from the UK"? No-one can really know except for Google themselves but my guess would be fairly low.

Johan007 · 05-27-2004, 03:02 AM

Andy has made some good points and unless Google chanches and defaults to pages from the UK then its no way as good as being found on the normal results.

awall19 I have left a few PM's for you to read.

awall19 · 05-27-2004, 03:17 AM

I have a client who is hosted in the UK who primarily gets UK traffic. he is ranked well in the UK search (#1) and the global search (#2).

I think it is worth it to get any local boost you can get. sure we may not have been talking about Yahoo! or MSN or Ask (which I think is kinda popular over there), but I know many local UK directories will not even list a site unless it is a .uk domain.

I always try to make it as easy as possible to promote my sites. If I were from the uk I would use a .uk domain.