Transfer of .co.uk Domain to .com

[Zilla]

This is a question for the SEO guru's out there (PPP etc..)


I have an established .co.uk website which is a high PR site (PR5) with quite a lot of backlinks and reasonable traffic.

If I was to purchase the .com of this domain:

1. Is there any serious benefit in the serps with a .com over a .co.uk
2. Obviously I could do a redirect to convert the .co.uk to the .com but what effects would this have in the serps?
3. Would the redirect also transfer all backlinks coming into the .co.uk to the .com or would I effectively be starting from scratch with backlinks.

It will cost me quite alot to purchase the .com so I need to understand the benefits if there are any to converting the site to the .com. Long term vs short term etc etc.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Adrian.

[Randy]

1. No benefits in the serps with a .com over a .co.uk, although the .co.uk might have an edge if you're searching from the UK.

2. Initially the redirect might cause a loss of traffic while Google figures out what's going on. (They don't instantly figure out redirects and give your pages the same rankings.) Assuming you do a 301 redirect, you should eventually rebound.

3. Theoretically, the backlink benefits would still be there, assuming you do a 301 redirect.

There are obvious benefits to having the .com, but they're not SEO benefits.

[Zilla]

Thanks Randy.

Originally Posted by Randy

There are obvious benefits to having the .com, but they're not SEO benefits.

Your talking type in traffic?

I have to say one of the reasons I am considering buying the domain is to prevent a competitor setting up on it. In this case would I be better to buy the domain and just redirect the .com to the already established .co.uk?

Regards,

Adrian.

[Randy]

Yeah, type-in traffic and everything else that goes with attaching your brand to the .com. Dot-com has become sort of a "metabrand". (The name of a business automatically gets attached to .com in a lot of people's minds.) Preventing a competitor from setting up there is a good idea too.

If that's your only goal, then redirecting it would work, for sure. Another possibility would be to launch a separate site there, but make that site *about* the .co.uk site. Once your brand starts developing, you'll want more than just the top 2 listings for the phrase "poker professor" in Google, and having a 2nd site at the .com where you write about running .co.uk is one way to get the additional listings. Reputation management, and all that.

You could even make it a blog where any time you update the content on the .co.uk site, you post about the update there.

Anyway, those are just some ideas...

[Zilla]

Appreciate the advice Randy.

Thanks.