Advice needed; Scrap mature .co.uk and move to .com, or run two separate domains?
-
Asked before, we have a .co.uk domain name and it has grown with rankings over many years with many quality links made to it. Since, we also have acquired the .com of our agency brand, and want to also focus on US market - something hard to do with a UK domain.
However, we aren't sure which route to go from here... Should we keep the .co.uk active and allow that to focus on the UK market, and grow the .com from scratch with a site that looks the same with slightly different content and interlink the two with regional flags. Or move across to the .com totally and scrap the .co.uk.
I know we could do a redirect and save a good number of the links made on the .co.uk, but is that worth even doing? And what would the risk be of having two sites the same with similar content?
Since this isn't an area I've dealt with before, we are interested to get some real advice to understand which decision is right given the scenario.
-
There are definitely pros and cons of both approaches. I will say that as someone who currently manages 5 different regional variations of a site, no matter how well we implement our hreflang tags and canonical tags, etc. the search engines still don't index us exactly the way we want them to. That has been my experience elsewhere too. In theory, you should be able to maintain two very similar, or even identical sites, and as long as you properly implement hreflang and canonicals, you should be able to target one site to US and the other to UK. But in practice, I've found that even with these things well implemented, you end up with some pages from each site being served as results in the wrong country.
So, I think it depends on how significant that impact is to you. In the case of the sites I currently manage, it is very significant as our product assortment, inventory levels, fulfillment options, etc. are different in each region. So, when a customer clicks through to the wrong region's page, and doesn't follow the suggested geo-ip-based guidance we provide when we detect that, they have a bad experience and we lose customers.
In the case of the sites I manage, it is not an option to consolidate into a single site/page across these regions, because we operate independently in each country with different products, inventory, prices, etc.
If that's the case for you as well, then I would recommend to do your best at properly implementing hreflang and canonicals, and just recognize that the search engines won't perfectly respect your directives for indexation. But if, on the other hand, your business could serve the same content to both regions, you would avoid those indexation pitfalls by consolidating on one domain.
In your case, there is also another factor, which is the perception (in both markets) of the .co.uk domain as being local for UK. So, that helps you in the UK, and hurts you in the US. The .com domain will be better in the US, and not necessarily problematic in the UK, but also would lose some of the local credibility that your .co.uk domain has there. So, that's another consideration.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Domain
hello there, I have a 12 years old domain with 35pa and similar domain authority pointed to my hosting which I will call domain A. in December 2020 I will lose the control domain A, as the person controlling the domain died and trying to find a solution but is not possible as it's far more complicated than I anticipated, the domain might be retained by someone else and not me. so I purchased a new domain I will call Domain B. my plan is to serve the info hosted from both domains but B as a principal, I think I can do a 301 in domain A but i wish still be visible in the URL until last minute. but i want to start to pass as soon as possible all the link juice. my problems is how can i serve the content from both domains without creating a 301 but and still be able passing juice link from A to B? is this possible? and from google getting all the indexation for Domain B. bot not for A
Local SEO | | fabguy0 -
Does having a subdomains UK affect SEO in UK google results?
For exemple we set a UK subdomaine for : www.igomorocco.com www.uk.igomorocco.com Does having a subdomains UK affect SEO in UK google results? How this should be set up correctly?
Local SEO | | mounirigomorocco0 -
Website Domain Redirection- Rebranding Issues
I have a website domain redirection query At the moment because of rebranding and domain changes I havehttp://www.physioinqnepean.com.au redirecting to http://www.nepeanphysiohydro.com.au/.http://www.nepeanphysiohydro.com.au/ is the primary domain because at the time I wanted to appease any SEO ramifications that might’ve occurred if I had the new domain at the time “http://www.physioinqnepean.com.au” as the primary domain.Unfortunately, my client now wants to rebrand AGAIN with the new website domain being “http://www.physioinqpenrith.com.au”.I wanted to gauge what would be the best SEO practice in relation to what domain should be the “Primary domain"?
Local SEO | | JD261 -
Best way to advertise cosmetic dermatologist on Facebook in the UK?
I have a client who owns a cosmetic dermatology clinic. Recently he's been trying to work more on his Facebook page, and has been attempting to boost his posts but they keep getting declined for this, that and the other. "No before and after photos", "Ad is sensitive in nature", etc. Nothing shady, he's a registered doctor and a member of the Royal College of Physicians in London and the Royal College of General Practitioners. Main treatments offered are things like Botox (which I know he can't legally advertise due to strict advertising standards in the UK), dermal fillers, lip fillers, non-surgical lifts. Just general non-surgical prescription-level cosmetic treatments. I don't have much experience in Facebook advertising, but this line of work seems particularly challenging to advertise on Facebook. Does anyone who has experience in advertising this type of business on Facebook have any general advice on what sorts of posts/ads have worked with them before?
Local SEO | | Ria_2 -
SOS: NEED 70 Initial Users in 7 Days
Hi guys, I'm co-founding a company called Comp'd and we're currently in the final leg of an accelerator program right now. Our demo day is one week from today and we got our product out later than we would have liked. Long story short we need to get 70 new/initial users within the next 7 days or we're screwed. I'm asking anyone and everyone I possibly can for help. If you have any advice on specific things that I can be doing to make this goal happen, please share, I'll take any and every idea I can get. Some background on the product: -The product is a $25/mo subscription for unlimited concert tickets. We're also offering users their first month for $10 for easier onboarding. Also, we have the economics of this worked out, so those aren't a concern from a business perspective. -website at compdapp.com if you want to take a look. -Currently only available in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska (though neither is a traditional "big" city like New York or Chicago, they're still cities with populations of 250,000-450,000 with thriving/busy downtown districts). -We've got about $7,000 in capital right now and are willing to spend what we need to. If you have any other questions just let me know, otherwise I'd really appreciate your ideas on how I should be spending my time to get users. This is an emergency situation and I'm willing to do whatever I have to to make this happen. Thanks guys! P.S. I know everyone's primary focus here is obviously online marketing, but we're all still marketers here, and if you have offline marketing ideas I'm more than open to hearing those as well, particularly if they can offer a quick or instant turnaround.
Local SEO | | Dillon_Whittier0 -
.ca for Canada-specific business currently using .com?
I work for a Canadian company and we are re-doing our website (corporate and branch sites) and the question has come up if we should change our current main domain from .com to .ca for local SEO benefits since we don't target an international audience. We own both versions but the .ca re-directs to the .com and we use .com in all our marketing materials. My understanding is that we can specify in Google Webmaster Tools that the focus of the site is Canada and I feel that switching to the .ca as the main domain isn't necessary, but I was wondering if there are real SEO benefits to make us seriously consider the change? Thanks, Taira
Local SEO | | ArborMemorial0 -
Transfer Local SEO rankings to another domain
The question is specifically about local rankings, not the organic ones. My client recently acquired another Law firm. Acquired firm's website is ranking well in Google local and has a decent SEO authority. Its Google mybusiness page is also established and has a lot of positive reviews. Client's main website is comparatively new and doesn't currently rank well in Google local. The Google mybusiness page is sort of incomplete and doesn't have any review. Both businesses are listed in local directories (client's main business is listed in lot less directories and has fewer citations). The client wants to merge the newly acquired website with his main website, without losing Google local rankings the acquired website has. Or in other words, transfer newly acquired website's local rankings to his main site. Client wants to transfer the website to his main website in all cases while minimizing the damage. I'd transfer acquired website's content to main website, properly map the pages and place 301 redirects. Regarding Google my business pages, what would you suggest? I can either update main business NAP and Website address in Acquired business's mybusiness page, or transfer acquired business's mybusiness ratings to main mybusiness page via this form: https://support.google.com/business/contact/business_move_reviews I've also heard that Google support can merge two business page, however not sure about that. I'd also need to update the business listings and citations. Could you please suggest the best way of doing this? And have you practically tested it?
Local SEO | | Woofire0 -
Removing Sub Domain & Improving Page Performance
Hello Moz folks, This question is about my main website: www.web3.ca
Local SEO | | Web3Marketing87
(run on joomla) I just noticed a very strange occurrence - when I add ANY subdomain to the home page, it still resolves to the home page. example: test3.web3.ca Can this be bad for SEO, and is there a way to eliminate this? Second Question: Do you think there are two many outgoing links on the home page of Web3? Could reducing the number of links improve the home page's performance & rank? Thanks
Anton0