google.com rankings vs google.co.uk

by ds7775
17 replies
  • SEO
  • |
HI,
My site has high rankings in google.com for its keyword, but i cant even find it google.co.uk.

just now i have changed the targeted location in webmaster tools to UK,

im just wondering if theres any other stuff/info i need to do

my site is a .info domain registered with godaddy,

im using zbench as a WP theme.

( is it possible to insert some code in to the theme to says its en-GB

Thanks

would this be benificial ? just not sure where to add this though ?

<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Language" CONTENT="en-GB">
#googlecom #googlecouk #rankings
  • Profile picture of the author scott g
    If you are targeting the UK specifically I would highly suggest purchasing a .co.uk domain. Google DOES give weight to country specific extensions...

    If you like your Google .COM rankings then keep the .INFO churning... Purchase the .co.uk version of your .info and alter the content just a little bit. Duplicate content is crap, just like building links too fast is crap. Try to leave backlinks on UK websites and reverse engineer the page one and two sites for your search term that pop up on google.co.uk.

    CHEERS!
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    scott g
    "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve."

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  • Profile picture of the author addaminsane
    This is speculation but im fairly confident that it holds some validity. Hosted server location is important when trying to rank in the UK. You want to be on a server in the UK if you're mainly focused on the UK. You can host a .com tld in the UK and rank well in both the .com and the UK if you are using a .com.

    I know this because its a fairly common practice in gambling affiliate niches where the uk and us are two of the biggest player demographics. Bigger sites are always trying to intercept the traffic for both the uk and the us. There are several .coms hosted in the uk that dominate both google data centers.
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    • Profile picture of the author scott g
      Originally Posted by addaminsane View Post

      This is speculation but im fairly confident that it holds some validity. Hosted server location is important when trying to rank in the UK. You want to be on a server in the UK if you're mainly focused on the UK. You can host a .com tld in the UK and rank well in both the .com and the UK if you are using a .com.
      I'm going to have to disagree with this statement. Google looks at the end-user's IP address and shows results relevant to their locations.

      It's the same from state-to-state as it is from country to country. I'm in MO - If I type in restaurant I'm going results local to my IP. If I'm in CA and do the same I'll get results local to that CA IP.

      If you're in the UK and you search for something they're going to pull info relevant to UK user's and their IP.

      .info .com .org .net Does not matter ranking locally (US). However, like I said, Google DOES give weight to country extensions on domains when doing searches in Google.co.uk Google.fr Google.jp etc...

      If you have a .info ranking great on Google.com, then it shouldn't be too difficult to move up the rankings in Google.co.uk. You're going to need to build backlinks on .co.uk sites and probably tweak the On-site SEO a bit.

      You could always create a subdomain or subdirectory, titled appropriately of course, that TARGETS the UK market and whatnot... And build your .co.uk backlinks to point to that subdomain or subdirectory.

      CHEERS!
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      scott g
      "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve."

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      • Profile picture of the author ds7775
        thanks scott, i reckon the subdoman may be the better option for now,

        would changing the targeted audience in webmaster tools have any impact?
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        • Profile picture of the author scott g
          Originally Posted by ds7775 View Post

          thanks scott, i reckon the subdoman may be the better option for now,

          would changing the targeted audience in webmaster tools have any impact?

          I would HIGHLY recommend the subdomain then b/c Google considers a subdomain to be its own, separate domain... So you'll have to put in a new Webmaster Tools tag in the subdomains header. And yes, I would set THAT subdomain to target the UK. Leave your other domain the way it is or you might lose ground in the US.

          CHEERS!


          Good feedback everybody!
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          scott g
          "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve."

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      • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
        Originally Posted by scott g View Post

        I'm going to have to disagree with this statement. Google looks at the end-user's IP address and shows results relevant to their locations.
        The problem is you seem to think that there is one factor for .co.uk. The truth is google uses SEVERAL signals to determine geo locationa and relevance. You do not need to have a co.uk address to rank in google uk. You do need to have your site hosted in the uK and have links from sites that are located there also (by IP address. there are many dotcoms that rank on google uk)
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        • Profile picture of the author scott g
          Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

          The problem is you seem to think that there is one factor for .co.uk. The truth is google uses SEVERAL signals to determine geo locationa and relevance. You do not need to have a co.uk address to rank in google uk. You do need to have your site hosted in the uK and have links from sites that are located there also (by IP address. there are many dotcoms that rank on google uk)

          No Mike I understand completely that there are MANY factors that come in to play when determining SE positioning... Sure any domain extension can rank #1 in any country for any keyword... How much extra work do you want to put into it though?

          A .co.uk is going to rank better in the UK just like a .jp is going to rank better in Japan - w/o optimization.


          CHEERS!
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          scott g
          "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve."

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          • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
            You are missing the point. I was talking about Geo locating metrics alone. Google uses the domain extension to specify location and it also can use IP address and links from geo specific locations as well . Once Google determines relevance based on any of those things the extension carries no significant weight. Besides indicating Geo relevance Google cares absolutely nothing about ANY extension. Its meaningless for any other purpose so no it does not take any extra work.




            Originally Posted by scott g View Post


            No Mike I understand completely that there are MANY factors that come in to play when determining SE positioning... Sure any domain extension can rank #1 in any country for any keyword... How much extra work do you want to put into it though?

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            • Profile picture of the author scott g
              Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

              You are missing the point. I was talking about Geo locating metrics alone. Google uses the domain extension to specify location and it also can use IP address and links from geo specific locations as well . Once Google determines relevance based on any of those things the extension carries no significant weight. Besides indicating Geo relevance Google cares absolutely nothing about ANY extension. Its meaningless for any other purpose so no it does not take any extra work.
              I will respectfully agree and disagree with certain points of your hypothesis.
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              scott g
              "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve."

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  • Profile picture of the author junilerick
    This was exactly my problem a little while back.

    I did my keyword research and found a keyword with pretty decent traffic and built my site. It was relatively non-competitive so I made the top ten easily within about 3 weeks. However, I was getting almost zero traffic. I finally had a duh! moment and realized that it was a UK keyword.

    I changed my WMT setting over to UK and luckily after a few weeks it climbed onto the first page in google.co.uk, as well!

    What I took from this is that having a geo-targeted keyword means that where you're hosting your site may not be so important. In fact, I was able to beat many higher PR UK pages that are targeting the same keyword.

    Just carry out the normal SEO routines and you should be fine.
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  • Profile picture of the author logoonlinepros1
    If you want your site on google uk so you need to buy dedicated server for your PC for doing seo work from UK Ip and submit your site on google local with UK address.
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  • Profile picture of the author Moneyerr
    I can say about google.com v/s google.co.uk is that google.com ranking is for the whole universe covers all areas and .co.uk is only for particularly country.
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  • Profile picture of the author readyngo
    it all depends on which region you are dealing with.
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  • Profile picture of the author robyun
    For ranking high in the .co.uk google your domain should have ended in .co.uk. I don't understand why you chose to go with a .info domain, it is known that these domains don't rank that good.
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  • Profile picture of the author bijaya
    To get good rank in google.co.uk, it is not essential that your TLD should be .co.uk. I've just searched the keyword "seo service" in google.co.uk, there are 6 sites in the first page which do not have .co.uk extension.

    So efficient SEO effort can take a .info site to top 10 in google.co.uk. To achieve this I think more high quality back links from .co.uk extension is necessary.
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  • Profile picture of the author junilerick
    I'm ranking #9 for a uk-targeted keyword (not too competitive) with a .com so I don't believe .co.uk is that important, although it may help.

    Although UK domain links may be more effective then just any ole' link, it'll probably be easier to just get any link you can. I don't go out of my way to get UK links and it seems to be working just fine.
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  • Profile picture of the author addaminsane
    Summary: To gain edge in google.co.uk

    • stick with .com or .co.uk as domain extension (for a local edge)
    • make sure the website is hosted via uk based hosting ip adress (for a local edge)
    • make sure domain name is correctly registered via UK address (for a local edge)
    • obtain quality links from sites that rank well in .co.uk datacenters (for a local edge)
    • Publish Content relavant to UK traffic (duh)
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