Domain Reg and Redirect Question

[colmhol]

Howdy Folks,

Long time listener first time caller here! Thanks for all your help before but I cant find anything in the search which answers this question.

So I am setting up a website for somebody and I want to know what the best practice is regarding domain registration. The companys name isnt anything got to do with the product, lets say its ACME corporation. Their main product is widgets and the website will be www.acmeltd.ie.

They want to target the english market, so what I want to know is if i register widgets.co.uk and set up a 301 redirect to acmeltd.ie, will the website rank well in a UK search for "widgets"?

Will the site perform well even though there is no content on the .co.uk domain name, or will the widgets.co.uk site positively affect the ranking of the main site with just a 301 redirect?

Thanks in advance :fat:

 

[maniako]

I'm in the same situation ... want someone to tell us his experience on the case...

 

[seanpearse]

hi colm, the simple answer is no. having a keyword rich .co.uk domain with no content redirected to your main site won't help you rank in the uk. does your client wish to target the uk market solely? if so you can change your geotarget in webmaster tools to the uk. If they wish to target both i would suggest registering a seperate .co.uk domain and getting it hosted with a uk company. If this is not an option you may also either...
1. Set up a seperate sub-domain for the uk (e.g. www.uk.acmeltd.ie)
2. Create a seperate sub-folder for the uk (e.g. www.acmeltd.ie/uk)

Seperate sitemaps can then be created for either of these options and submitted to webmaster tools with the geotarget set to the uk for whatever pages come under the sub-domain/sub-folder.

I'm sure others will have different opinions but that's my 2c anyway. Good luck!