google search - .com versus .co.uk

David Bryce · Post by **David Bryce** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 11:19 am

This is something I have been wondering about for ages,

when using google for searching 'the web' (which seems to be the default) I am normally in the first few results for most common search terms relevant to my business

ie wedding photographer in Edinburgh
wedding photographer Edinburgh
photographer in Edinburgh
photographers in Edinburgh
etc etc etc

but when 'pages from the uk' is selected I am no where to be seen!?!

the only possible reason I can think of is that my main domain name is .com and not .co.uk (davidbryce.co.uk has been taken by some one else for years)

any thoughts?

Victor Meldrew · Post by **Victor Meldrew** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 11:49 am

As its a buisness thing, there would be justification in my mind to having several mirror web sites. .com, .co.uk .biz? etc.. must improve your chances to have a hit from a search engine.

There are programs that you can get that submit your page to seach engines, never used one though.

r055 · Post by **r055** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 11:51 am

Domain name:
davidbryce.co.uk

Registrant:
David A Bryce

Registrant type:
Not supplied

Registrant's address:
Emergency Planning Consultant

Registrant's agent:
amen ltd t/a Amenworld.com [Tag = AMEN]
URL: http://www.amenworld.com

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 27-Sep-2001
Renewal date: 27-Sep-2007
Last updated: 29-Jun-2006

Registration status:
Registered until renewal date.

Name servers:
ns1.amenworld.com
ns2.amenworld.com

WHOIS lookup made at 10:51:25 15-Feb-2007

As you said - it's probably because of the dot com domain of your agent.
Id drop them an email and see if they can do something.

Post by **pete** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 12:09 pm

Could you not just register davidbrycephotography.co.uk for example or davidbryces.co.uk and have them point at your main site. If you think that is causing the problem it would solve it for about 5 quid...

Pete

David Bryce · Post by **David Bryce** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 12:30 pm

Overall I'm happy with my search rankings considering I have never paid anyone for the privilege but they can always be improved!

DDtB · Post by **DDtB** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 12:32 pm

admit it.... this whole thread is actuall just a shameless plug isn't it!!

Nice work

Post by **ironside** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 12:48 pm

Apparently Google decides what country your site is in based on your both your top level domain (like .co.uk) and what country the IP address of the web server belongs to.

Thing is, http://www.davidbryce.com shows as a UK IP address, so I can't understand why this is happening to you. Have you recently changed hosts?

My .org shows correctly as a UK site.

David Bryce · Post by **David Bryce** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 1:02 pm

DDtB:

Ironside: I have been with that host for around 6 years so I don't understand it either. It is only my 'flash' site that is hosted elsewhere, in the U.S.

Post by **ironside** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 1:28 pm

You can tell Google about sites detected incorrectly here:

http://www.google.com/support/webmaster ... pic=&type=

Post by **pete** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 1:37 pm

David Bryce wrote:Pete, I own all of the below domain names and they all point to my main site:

http://www.davidbryce.com
http://www.davidbrycephotography.co.uk
http://www.davidbrycephotography.com
http://www.edinburgh-photographer.co.uk
http://www.edinburghphotographer.com
http://www.edinburghphotographers.co.uk
http://www.edinburghphotographers.com
http://www.edinburghweddingphotographer.info
http://www.edinburghweddingphotographers.co.uk
http://www.edinburghweddingphotographers.com
http://www.edinburghweddingphotography.com
http://www.photographer-in-edinburgh.co.uk
http://www.photographeredinburgh.com
http://www.photographersinedinburgh.co.uk
http://www.photographersinedinburgh.com
http://www.weddingphotographeredinburgh.info
http://www.weddingphotographersedinburgh.co.uk
http://www.weddingphotographersedinburgh.com
http://www.weddingphotographersinedinburgh.co.uk
http://www.weddingphotographersinedinburgh.com
http://www.weddingphotographyedinburgh.com

something else that seems to make a big difference is if google.com or google.co.uk is used

Overall I'm happy with my search rankings considering I have never paid anyone for the privilege but they can always be improved!

I'll get my coat.

Pete

r055 · Post by **r055** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 1:41 pm

David Bryce wrote:Pete, I own all of the below domain names and they all point to my main site:

http://www.davidbryce.com
http://www.davidbrycephotography.co.uk
http://www.davidbrycephotography.com
http://www.edinburgh-photographer.co.uk
http://www.edinburghphotographer.com
http://www.edinburghphotographers.co.uk
http://www.edinburghphotographers.com
http://www.edinburghweddingphotographer.info
http://www.edinburghweddingphotographers.co.uk
http://www.edinburghweddingphotographers.com
http://www.edinburghweddingphotography.com
http://www.photographer-in-edinburgh.co.uk
http://www.photographeredinburgh.com
http://www.photographersinedinburgh.co.uk
http://www.photographersinedinburgh.com
http://www.weddingphotographeredinburgh.info
http://www.weddingphotographersedinburgh.co.uk
http://www.weddingphotographersedinburgh.com
http://www.weddingphotographersinedinburgh.co.uk
http://www.weddingphotographersinedinburgh.com
http://www.weddingphotographyedinburgh.com

something else that seems to make a big difference is if google.com or google.co.uk is used

Overall I'm happy with my search rankings considering I have never paid anyone for the privilege but they can always be improved!

Soooo..... what is it you actually do for a living David?

DDtB · Post by **DDtB** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 1:55 pm

r055 wrote: Soooo..... what is it you actually do for a living David?

dezzy · Post by **dezzy** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:20 pm

That's some amount of domains you own! And some pretty damn good ones for an Edinburgh-based photographer too!

Have you tried altering the title tags of your websites? Rather than just putting "David Bryce" in the title bar, if you put the search words you want to hit your site (e.g. "Edinburgh photographer"), this will put you higher up the google search results. I used to use this all the time on band websites. Used to put "glasgow rock band" in the title bar instead of the name of the band.

k12chu · Post by **k12chu** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 3:39 pm

david,
have u modified the meta name? google search works on something called a web crawler. what it does is, it picks up words from the "description" and "keywords" under the meta name tag.
here is an example from my website. if u search for spicedabba(google.co.uk and google.com), my site is the first result.
once ur website meta tag is edited, it takes a few days for the changes to be updated by google.

k12chu · Post by **k12chu** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 3:42 pm

on the other hand, start a page on the wikipedia. as long as u have a website, the wikipedia page remains as confirmed data. it helps in search engines