SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk - Local And International Search Engine Optimization
Once you’ve decided on a domain name and bought the .com if it is free, consider how and where your page will be located as this has an impact on how effective your search engine optimisation efforts will be. Search engines increasingly take location into account as a ranking factor, assuming the search user’s location to be home, and that they are more interested in getting results from nearby, even in the larger international search engines like Google – you can choose to get results exclusively from the UK, for example, but even if you don’t, searches performed within the UK give a little more precedence to UK sites.
These aren’t necessarily .co.uk sites, just those hosted within the country. Unless there is a sound reason to host offshore, it’s best to stay within the country most of your business will come from. A nice trick is to buy both the .com and the .co.uk and redirect to the latter. Buying domains isn’t usually that expensive – unless it’s one that someone already owns, in which case it can be very pricey indeed- so it doesn’t take much effort. Remember that SEO savvy competitors can register a domain very similar to yours if you don’t get there first.
