About .com e-commerce website optimization for the UK market

[robin222]

Our .com e-commerce website was originally targeted at the US market. Since the US began to impose high tariffs on May 3, we need to shift our target market from the US to the UK.
Do we need to rebuild a .co.uk website and redirect the .com website 301 to this .co.uk website?
Or should we still operate the .com website, but change the US syntax on the website to British syntax, change the US dollar to the British pound, set the hreflang="en-gb" tag, and further develop the .co.uk backlink construction?
Which method is best?
PS:
Because rebuilding a .co.uk website may take too long to optimize

 

[greenrobot]

I think there is no point in spending effort and resources on .co.uk because it is simply not cost-effective and not worth the effort you will spend. It's better to do local SEO and customize .com

 

[lightshinesagain]

why are you changing it to co.uk .You have done seo on .com . You can simply direct it for uk traffic. I dont see any reason to start from scratch.

 

[Rebel Phantom]

Our .com e-commerce website was originally targeted at the US market. Since the US began to impose high tariffs on May 3, we need to shift our target market from the US to the UK.
Do we need to rebuild a .co.uk website and redirect the .com website 301 to this .co.uk website?
Or should we still operate the .com website, but change the US syntax on the website to British syntax, change the US dollar to the British pound, set the hreflang="en-gb" tag, and further develop the .co.uk backlink construction?
Which method is best?
PS:
Because rebuilding a .co.uk website may take too long to optimize

Optimizing a .com E-commerce Site for the UK Market

Use UK English spelling & currency (£)

• Set hreflang tags for UK targeting
• Host with a fast EU/UK server
• Build UK-based backlinks
• List in UK local directories
• Target UK-specific keywords (Google UK)

.com works fine — just localize smartly

 

[robin222]

Optimizing a .com E-commerce Site for the UK Market

Use UK English spelling & currency (£)

• Set hreflang tags for UK targeting
• Host with a fast EU/UK server
• Build UK-based backlinks
• List in UK local directories
• Target UK-specific keywords (Google UK)

.com works fine — just localize smartly

Changes are already in progress

 

[dandan594594]

No need to change to a .co.uk. It would of helped from day one, but not now.

Create a short series of content designed to inform google customers of your change in direction.

 

[robin222]

Create a short series of content designed to inform google customers of your change in direction.

hi, What does it mean specifically?

 

[dandan594594]

hi, What does it mean specifically?

Outline your plight and why you are considering a change of market.
Talk about challenges you face along the way.
Big song and dance when going live.
Follow up with how it's going and comparisons.

 

[sjmasku]

Using a .co.uk domain can make your website look more trustworthy. Be sure to set up 301 redirects and keep building backlinks to help your rankings.

 

[hideath]

Both should work,
For the short term, keeping the '.com' domain should work, it will usually take less time to rank for the UK keywords, and keep most of the authority,
For the longer run, '.co.uk' with 301 would be better to rank for UK specifically, better for branding, but would take some time for the authority to pass,

If you're permanently shifting to the UK market, and that's the only market you'll be investing in,
I'll personally take the second option, even if it gets sandboxed for a while (usually shorter for 301s), that would be covered up afterwards

 

[INCC]

301 is not necessary but everything else you suggested should do the trick.

Make sure not to buy that fake click-through service where you send traffic through Google.co.uk because if you have GA installed and those "users" never fall through with a purchase, you'll likely get penalized. I know some people using those services and it might temporarily work but you can easily get hit for manipulation.

 

[robin222]

Both should work,
For the short term, keeping the '.com' domain should work, it will usually take less time to rank for the UK keywords, and keep most of the authority,
For the longer run, '.co.uk' with 301 would be better to rank for UK specifically, better for branding, but would take some time for the authority to pass,

If you're permanently shifting to the UK market, and that's the only market you'll be investing in,
I'll personally take the second option, even if it gets sandboxed for a while (usually shorter for 301s), that would be covered up afterwards

If I am targeting the UK market, but also want to continue to do business in Canada, Australia and Singapore, is it not recommended to change to a .co.uk domain name?

 

[robin222]

For the short term, keeping the '.com' domain should work, it will usually take less time to rank for the UK keywords, and keep most of the authority,

For keywords that are replaced with British grammar, the website content is also replaced with British grammar. The website's contact address is changed to a British address. And some local British directories and .co.uk backlinks are added.
Can the number of keywords and rankings of the website in the UK be quickly increased? (The current website has 1.2K ranking keywords in the US market, and only 68 ranking keywords in the UK market.)

 

[hideath]

If I am targeting the UK market, but also want to continue to do business in Canada, Australia and Singapore, is it not recommended to change to a .co.uk domain name?

Then keep the current '.com' domain,
'.co.uk' would be suitable only if your primary focus is the UK market, which is not the case if you're targeting multiple countries

For keywords that are replaced with British grammar, the website content is also replaced with British grammar. The website's contact address is changed to a British address. And some local British directories and .co.uk backlinks are added.
Can the number of keywords and rankings of the website in the UK be quickly increased? (The current website has 1.2K ranking keywords in the US market, and only 68 ranking keywords in the UK market.)

no one could tell how "quickly" you'll be ranking in the UK SERPS,
SEO is a slow game, and for your case, it will take time as google will need to recrawl all/most of the pages and take effect based on the changes,
solid regional links could speed it up, pretty much as the case for a new website getting the links, just focus on getting things done, rather than being in rush