I'll be luanching a new site soon that I want to rank high in google uk. Dont care to much about U.S. traffic,although would still be nice. The domain is a .ws which I know isn't the best. But anyway should I look for UK sites to link with or what. Or should I just link the same as any other? Any help will earn rep.thanks
i,m agree with trichnosis the traffic's is not from US only ,did u know UK and china its good trafic too for your site... I try to submit at China directory and off course i translate a litle bit my site
Hi bitsy 1, there is no getting around the fact that a ws extension is a long term problem 2, however, one of the most important things you can do is to get a UK host with UK IPs important: verify that the hosting servers ip is UK geolocated. 3, get links from .co.uk sites an directories 4, Include UK in all your content 5, Have another think about the domain name an find a .co.uk alternative, if you can
the most important is to have UK based hosting, then better to have co.uk domain, mentioning "UK" in the text and metatags, have at least about 30% links from UK sites.
i totally agree with all that's been said, if you have not put much effort it to promoting your site/domain then go buy a .co.uk and promote that and you will find it much easier. also if you have a chance buy a domain with keywords in it, that for sure will help will better results in SE's
To echo whats already been said, I set up one site that only makes money from UK customers. I registered all the domains - .co.uk, .com, .net. We hosted the site in Hong Kong as there was issues over privacy etc. We then made the mistake of branding everything with the .com, so its a .com site on a foreign host. If you search google.co.uk and select "uk sites only", my site wont show up. If i'd used the .co.uk then it would have. Since you've not launched already I'd change your domain name and get a .co.uk, it looks more professional anyway.
A suggestion would be to use British English and not American English (optimization vs. optimisation) Also you don't have to have a .co.uk domain to appear in a "uk sites only" search. U just have to be hosted in the UK. UK hosting and getting links from UK sites are the the most important factors IMO.
will do, The domain is vaninsurance.ws, so a .co.uk is not in my reach. Thankfully my current host is in UK so that is good to know that helps. I will try building as many possible links with UK sites as is possible, thanks for all your help and I still look forward to any more advice.
The major search engines use two common criteria to determine geo-location: (1) the presence of a Country Code Top Level Domain Name (CC TLD, as in "somesite.co.uk") or (2) the physical location of the server that hosts the site based on its IP address. Google says that it will also sometimes consider the domain name registration data, but they never specify when. And since no other search engine uses that information, I consider it unreliable. But to be clear, no amount of inbound links, <meta> tags, incense burning, or ritual incantations will have any effect whatsoever. This information is available in the help systems of the search engines, but they don't make it easy to find. And since all of the major search engines give a great deal of weight to geo-location - even when the user does not request a country-specific search - it is vital to understand this issue. To be considered as being located within the UK, you must either have a .uk domain name or have your site hosted on a server that resides in the UK. Note that the servers of one very large hosting service in the UK are actually located elsewhere, so be sure to check carefully before you make any moves.
I dont agree with that at all. I have a .com and am hosted in the US and show up quite high for most of my major keywords on google.co.uk. 25% of my traffic is from the UK. Why? Because allot of co.uk site's link to me. It wouldn't be in Google's best interest to ignore other countries in their country specific portals. "www" means "world wide web". So let's not forget that.
But there is a difference, is your site showing up if they select "uk sites only"? Even if this makes it show up, you're giving yourself a tonne of work if you need to build a lot of good links before you even show up in google, it would be madness to start and do it this way. Just start with a uk host/domain and you are giving yourself a far better chance of success.
One tip that just popped in is use the pound sign alot (£) this might help it recognize that it is a British site. Might not be that usuful as I don't no if it works.