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Strength of .com vs local TLD (like .co.uk in UK)

by danols
11 replies
  • SEO
    • |
What is the strength of the domain name for locally made searches made on the local Google site?
For example is an EMD.co.uk vs EMD.com for a search made on Google.co.uk stronger, equal or weaker given all other factors are the same?
What is the general view on this?
Does this apply to all countries or only some?
Thanks
#couk #local #strength #tld
  • Profile picture of the author Instantfruit
    Good question, something I've been thinking about myself

    I've just bought 2 EMD's. both very similar with pretty much the same traffic and CPC in the same niche.

    Be interesting to see if there is a major difference in serps.


    I find it easier to target UK niches to be honest, if I had some definitive answers on this particular topic it would help me greatly
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    • Profile picture of the author Madeira
      From my own experience, which only involves a few websites, I find a TLD of .co.uk gets a boost in a local UK Google search.

      Also, if you are targeting a particular country, even with a .com domain, be sure geo-target your website in webmaster tools.

      I think I have also heard Matt Cutts say in one of the GoogleWebmasterHelp YouTube videos that the SE algo also pays some regard to the location of the host.

      One thing you can do for yourself, say you are targeting the UK. If you have a Google Webmaster Tools account, check out the average ranking for one particular search terms for your website. It's under:
      Your site on the web >>> Search queries >>> Avg. position

      Now, set your browser to private browsing and undertake Google.com, Google.co.uk etc. searches for that term. You are likely to see different rankings for the same search term and get at least a rough picture of how that average position is calculated. Whilst, I doubt this is by any means definitive, it will at least give you an indication of any trend.
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  • Profile picture of the author howinfo
    I do think that you will get a little boost in Google UK if you use .co.uk domain extension but I don’t think that it is such a big factor to consider as I also have a site with .info extension which main focus is for UK and it is doing as good as .co.uk I do think however that from the customer point of view, .co.uk would be better for UK than .com but I would still get other major extensions as well just for safe keeping if they still available.
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  • Profile picture of the author MisterMunch
    In my experience a .com, .net and .org will outrank a .no with a little backlinking and good onsite seo.

    Still I have talked to many fellow norwegians that are not in the marketing or SEO business. They tell me that they perfer .no websites as they believe the .com's are more spammy or comercial than the .no's.

    I think you have to consider the local issue as people will prefer websites from their country for both shipping and tax issues (also considering that a good SERP CTR is good for SEO).
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    • Profile picture of the author danols
      Originally Posted by MisterMunch View Post

      Still I have talked to many fellow norwegians that are not in the marketing or SEO business. They tell me that they perfer .no websites as they believe the .com's are more spammy or comercial than the .no's.

      I think you have to consider the local issue as people will prefer websites from their country for both shipping and tax issues (also considering that a good SERP CTR is good for SEO).
      This is a good point that I haven't thought about since I do think a good portion of users will have a look at the domain and factor that into which link they will click in the SERP and that a local .xx domains could make them more likely to click your result especially in none English countries does makes sense.
      Maybe not a big factor but still worth having in mind. In this case a local .xx could mean not only a possible boast from SEO perspective but also a better conversion rate on the SERP if one doesn't rank as no1
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      • Profile picture of the author danols
        So one says .xx local is a little stronger and one says a little weaker than com/net/org but not many says anything at all.
        So I guess not many have experience with this or maybe they don't want to share their findings...
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  • Profile picture of the author glennforum
    For a .co.uk i think geo targeting or ranking in Google.co.uk is higher than in a .com well based from experience at least.
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    • Profile picture of the author oneplanet
      This is something I actually tested for my local clients.

      For locally made searches made on the local Google site, it boils down to good SEO. By that I mean using all factors that we are aware of that help rankings.

      So if you look at any first page of Local Google search results, you will see that a local domain like .co.uk can beat a .com but you will also see that a .com can beat a .co.uk., it is all down to SEO ...

      So I did some more testing and found that if you have a Local TLD and a .com on the first page of the local Google site (.co.uk), but both sites have exactly the same SEO, the .co.uk will rank better.

      So basically, if you are good at SEO and do everything you can, a local domain could be the extra bit that gets you ranked higher than a competitor.

      At the moment, if a competitors web page has a huge number of backlinks & an aged domain name, it is still difficult to beat, no matter what domain name you use.
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      I'm between projects at the moment :-)

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  • Profile picture of the author Inari
    the localized domain will generally rank higher for searches from that geographic area given the exact same offpage and onpage optimization level. but the difference is not so great and can be compensated for with some effort. a .com .net .org also gives you the potential advantage of being able to market not just to that local group but to a wider audience (although that may not make sense with many local services such as e.g. a pizza delivery or a plumber).
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  • Profile picture of the author NickWatson
    All things being equal - the local version of the TLD will rank better locally. But the .com,.net and .org will rank better overall
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  • Profile picture of the author blueboy9
    Just curious but what if you have a local tld and local hosting? Double bonus or do you just get one or the other?
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