Overseas visitors

[yorks]

Hi all

Just wanted some other thoughts on this matter. We have a website which has a .co.uk domain name. The website attracts primarily UK traffic but now I want to start attracting traffic from other countries especially the USA.

We shall buy a .com domain name but what is the best way of pointing this to the website ? Obviously I dont
want the search engines to penalise the existing .co.uk site for listing duplicate sites.

Would it be better to use the .com name as the main one and do a 301 redirect to the .com name ?

Thanks in advance

[greeneagle]

Host it in the US. GoDaddy with their options... are looking pretty good to me right now. Make sure and select the individual IP address option with any shared hosting plan... It's just a few $s more a month and well worth it.
Ken

[yorks]

Why would hosting in it in the USA help with US visitors ?

Anyhow I have just realised that it is hosted on a US based server anyway

[greeneagle]

It's been a long standing belief that where you host translates into geo-based SERPs now.

Have you not been introduced to that concept yet?

Ken

[melwyn]

Originally Posted by greeneagle

It's been a long standing belief that where you host translates into geo-based SERPs now.

Have you not been introduced to that concept yet?

Ken

I certainly haven't been. Are you saying that a site hosted in the US but aimed at another country (eg Do-it-yourself-Wills.com.au) will not show up under Google Search for Australia?

Regards,
Mel

[yorks]

Greeneagle - Well I am not sure that is the case because the website in question is hosted on a US based server although it does have a .co.uk domain. The majority of the traffic comes from the UK.

[ctabuk]

I get hits from the USA every single day, and I don't do business there! Maybe I should think about going into Real Estate there. I use Verio, it is dearer than most, but it is universal, I personally do not think that where a site is hosted should really make that much difference, but Greeneagle is an experienced guy and maybe he knows something that we don't. But personally, if it were me, I'd stay with the existing host and make a US Page click in, within the main site. That way you should get the best of both worlds.
That goes for Australia too. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[yorks]

Hi ctabuk

What do you mean by make "US Page click in"


thanks

[ctabuk]

Create a page with a 'click through box'then place it on page one of your site

[khurramali]

Create a few pages which target the US market, then go and get some incomming links from US directories and portals to these pages.

You can even create a sub-domain for this purpose and make a few pages with content specific to the US market.

[alldatjazz.com]

This might seem off-topic, but since it was mentioned above, could the .301 redirect help anyway?

Thanks