My UK site doesn't show up in Google.co.uk. Why?

[magic42]

I have a site in the US (www.thoughtfulsystems.com) that has been active a few years, and has a Google PR of 4. Seems that a few of my critical search terms rate do well on Google searches.

Recently, we got a URL for the UK: www.thoughtfulsystems.co.uk but it doesn't show up in Google UK. Nor in the US Google. I thought that having a separate uk site would enable us to reach our prospective users in the UK, and get better rankings when people search from the UK.

What can I do to improve my UK visibility, and get listed in Google UK? How about Australia?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Magic42

[cbp]

Both are hosted in New York - you generally need to be hosted on a UK server to show up there. www.thoughtfulsystems.co.uk is probably not indexed as google does not generally want 2 copies of the same site in its index --- ie duplicate content penalty.

CBP

[cyanide]

Duplicate content penalty would be my guess

[cbp]

Both sites are hosted in New York - you almost always need to be hosted in the UK to show up there.

www.thoughtfulsystems.co.uk has probably been hit with a duplicate content penalty.

CBP

[ctabuk]

It is listed by Google www.sitereportcard.com but look at your links 6 !!!!

Get submitting! Duplicate content, perhaps, there are various theories about this, so don't rule it out. UK hosting Yes good call.

[magic42]

First: What a great forum this is. I'm a new member, and I'm really impressed and grateful for the feedback from all of you. Hope I shall be able to do similar for others in the future!

I was wondering about the duplicate contact thing. Originally, I was going to just have a "home page" on the UK site, and then let users conenct to the US site for further info (i.e., just change the links for the home page for the UK site.) But then I realized that spellings should be different for the UK, prices should be in pounds, etc. Also, it would be tricky, when a user clicked "home" in the US site, to return them to the UK home page.

So, the content is not identical, if you examine it carefully. (Hope I'm not sounding defensive here, just trying to explain ...)

So, I wonder what it woud require that Google (and other spiders) don't think the sites are "the same". How about if we apply a diferent design to the UK site, and perhps a different links page, etc.?

Thanks

Magic

[magic42]

Originally Posted by cbp

Both sites are hosted in New York - you almost always need to be hosted in the UK to show up there.

CBP

Anyone have suggestions for a hosting service in the UK?

Thanks

Magic

[nozzmoking]

Hi Magic,

I can wholeheartedly recommend host-it.co.uk.

I moved my main site over a couple of weeks ago, seamless transition, no downtime and fantastic customer service.

They are real professionals, I'm sure you wouldn't be disappointed.

No, I don't work for them, just a very satisfied customer. :)

[ece]

Do you mean Google looks not for co.uk domain olny but also for physical (by IP) geographic location?

[janeth]

Originally Posted by ece

Do you mean Google looks not for co.uk domain olny but also for physical (by IP) geographic location?

If you want you site to rank in the UK you would need either .co.uk or hosting in the UK.

Both is best.

[greeneagle]

http://www.google.com/webmasters/faq.html#country

Ken

[Duncan Pollock]

The answers lies in what Ken is pointing out: http://www.google.com/webmasters/faq.html#country
If you cater solely to a UK market, it seems advisable to have both a co.uk domain and a UK webhost, but seemingly you'd also probably better be located in the UK.
Otherwise, though, it's entirely in the lap of the (Google) gods -- as several posts from Canada, Australia, and, yes, the UK itself have pointed out. You can only hope that people find you per "the web" and then accept that if you also appear in "pages from ..." the aforementioned gods are smiling on you. But there sure doesn't seem to be any guarantees!

Duncan

[Faglork]

Originally Posted by magic42

Recently, we got a URL for the UK: www.thoughtfulsystems.co.uk but it doesn't show up in Google UK. Nor in the US Google.

I suggest to add language information to your meta tags:
<META LANG="en-UK">
see
http://www.utah.edu/ska/uu/web-pub/c...ples/meta.html

hth,
faglork