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A site that has been established for some years on a .co.uk domain name sources it's business globally. They want a greater global presence on the web and currently their .co.uk site doesn't perform well in non-UK SERPs.
The largest share of their business is based in the US. Would it be a good idea to transfer the site to a server located in the US with a .com domain? Taking into account that their second largest customer base is in the UK.
Another way could be to transfer (301) the current site to a US .com then retain the .co.uk with a new UK-specific site in it's place?
Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Another way could be to transfer (301) the current site to a US .com then retain the .co.uk with a new UK-specific site in it's place?
I like that option the best. But, is the 301 necessary? Is the content on the .co.uk site US specific?
You could launch the .com version and then 301 the appropriate pages from the .co.uk. Since you are targeting two distinct audiences, and because the way search engines treat ccTLDs, you'll need both in this instance. One for the UK, one for the US. The .co.uk hosted in the UK and the .com hosted in the US.
Others may have a different viewpoint on this.
The current site is is neither UK or US specific. Other important markets range across Europe and Russia so we will need to penetrate those SERPs too. After reading discussions on the topic of multi-location, multi-lingual sites I'm confused as to what's the best course of action. But at least for a starting point I need to make a decision about the current site.
Creating a US site under a .com could be difficult as they are in the same language and could incur duplication penalties if not handled correctly. That's why I was thinking of moving the whole site to the dominant market area and creating a new smaller site for the .co.uk so as to retain an advantage in UK SERPs. But this would mean promoting two sites and potentially more if we went down the .fr .ru .de etc. route.
I suppose my first concern is not losing what's already there by an ill-advised move. Could I feasibly move the site to the US and compete in UK SERPs from the .com?
Could I feasibly move the site to the US and compete in UK SERPs from the .com?
I believe this gets a bit tricky.
You could move the site to .com and compete in the UK SERPs but it would need to be hosted in the UK.
I believe having that ccTLD is the one remaining factor in performance of the site. If you have a UK audience, you'll host in the UK on a .co.uk domain. That would be the ultimate scenario.
As far as duplicate content goes, there are technical ways to address this and it does need to be addressed prior to going live.
My current thinking is to move the site to a US based .com, 301 existing pages then create a new site in it's place on the .co.uk domain.
I'm not too sure I would recommend that. Any positions that domain has now may change based on the content restructuring. You'd be starting fresh with two domains, the UK version (still has history) and the US version (no history). No need to do that. That type of 301 would be short lived too.
If you are going to be targeting that many countries, then I might suggest doing the research now to prepare for that type of environment. You'll put everything into the database and then serve it to the ccTLDs from there. You'll also have procedures in place to perform IP based content delivery.
The search engines don't seem to have a problem with duplicate content on ccTLDs. Your UK version is probably not going to show for me in the US. Your US version is probably not going to show for me in the UK. Hence the reason why I think ccTLDs are the only way to go when going global. It's that last thing on the checklist that makes everything whole. I'm sure others will chime in here with their experience.
I don't seem to have any problems with .com's globally hence the reason I've never gone with a ccTLD.
That aside for a second; Multiple ccTLD's is an interesting point on which I've yet to form an opion on. I've been reading a thread on SEW where there are arguments for and against:
[forums.searchenginewatch.com ]
'Fathom' has a convincing argument against numerous ccTLD's, particularly on page 2 of that thread.
