.co.uk vs .net

[MortimerJazz]

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I'm just curious which domain people generally rate higher in terms of strength.

I'm assuming that both of them fall behind .com URL's

[tbp]

Personally, i`d aways go for the .co.uk

People are used to .com or .co.uk domains, fewer will be familiar with .net

If people forget the extension (as many people just remember the actual domain part rather than the extensions), then they will try .com or .co.uk to get to the site they want, don't think many would think to try .net

I wouldn't have said that .co.uk falls behind .com either. I prefer .co.uk's as people know then that the products for sale on the site are going to be in pounds rather than dollars, and definately available in the UK.

[gadget]

If you're driving traffic purely electronically then it doesn't matter as they don't have to remember it, just click it.

Personally I'd always go for a domain that includes my keyword, if that's a .net then so be it.

[DavidCartlidge]

I'm just curious which domain people generally rate higher in terms of strength.

I'm assuming that both of them fall behind .com URL's

As above if you never want / hope that people will return to your sites or mention you sites to friends etc

Otherwise if you are aiming at a UK market only, use .co.uk but also buy the .com and re-direct to .co.uk.

If you buy a .com and your site is hosted outside of the UK then Google will have base your geo location on the country the server is in. So, if you use 1and1 and a .com it will assume Germany and you may struggle in google.co.uk SEPRS.

You can negate this to a large extent by helping google by making sure you talk about the UK and give a UK address on your contact page etc..

[gadget]

If you buy a .com and your site is hosted outside of the UK then Google will have base your geo location on the country the server is in. So, if you use 1and1 and a .com it will assume Germany and you may struggle in google.co.uk SEPRS.

Would the 'country' meta tag also help to correct the SEs assumption?

[DavidCartlidge]

I don't think so. Not heard of Google, MSN or Yahoo reading and using that tag.

[Simsi]

If you are aiming for UK traffic go with .co.uk and host it in the UK. If you are going for US traffic, go for .net and host it in the US. For European traffic, there seems to be little difference as the SE's seem to treat .co.uk similarly to .net, but give it less default priority than "local" extensions (ie: .de for Germany in Google.de would be better etc).

[gadget]

I don't think so. Not heard of Google, MSN or Yahoo reading and using that tag.

So if I'm with a German host, using a non UK extension, are you saying the SEs won't pick it up as a UK site?

[tbp]

So if I'm with a German host, using a non UK extension, are you saying the SEs won't pick it up as a UK site?

Thats correct, there are a few exceptions where google manages to work out that its a UK site. In general though, all the things that google checks to find out where a site is from do not link back to the UK ie domain extension and ip location.

As a result, its likely that your site would be excluded from the search results if someone did a UK only search in google.

[DavidCartlidge]

Thats correct, there are a few exceptions where google manages to work out that its a UK site.

To expand - if you have a UK address on your site, UK phone numbers, mention England, Wales, Scotland, have links to .co.uk websites, have backlinks from .co.uk websites etc you can give yourself a good chance.

[Simsi]

To expand - if you have a UK address on your site, UK phone numbers, mention England, Wales, Scotland, have links to .co.uk websites, have backlinks from .co.uk websites etc you can give yourself a good chance.

Absolutely. It's not cut and dried you won't get listed, you just make life harder for yourself competing. Always best to try and host locally and use local extensions in the market you want to target