| The website design company I deal will recently had | | | | are cheap because they use shared hosting. This |
| a client, who, like most people when choosing a | | | | means that your site may be hosted on the same |
| domain name, chose a .com domain name as it | | | | server as literally thousands of others. This can have |
| makes the company sound bigger than a .co.uk. | | | | several issues such as slower loading time, and from |
| The cheapest hosting he could find was a German | | | | an SEO perspective if there are other sites that have |
| based hosting company. What this meant is that the | | | | been penalised by the search engines then this can |
| search engines seen his company as a German based | | | | have a negative effect on the other sites on the |
| company targeting global results, so his website was | | | | server. |
| not ranked in Google when people searched for | | | | Next thing is your domain name - If you are just |
| "pages from the UK". | | | | starting out and are choosing a domain name then it |
| This particular client made it clear to us he did not | | | | can help to have a keyphrase within the domain |
| want to trade outside the UK, and he needed to | | | | name if possible without being spammy. To achieve |
| rank in Google for "pages from the UK", So their first | | | | this they used a 301 redirect. Basically what a 301 |
| step was to move his hosting to the UK and transfer | | | | redirect does is tell search engines that to |
| his site to a .co.uk domain. | | | | permanently associate you old domain with your new |
| This knowledge enabled them to quickly get the | | | | one, |
| client Google rankings for "pages from the UK", which | | | | If you are looking for an ecommerce website I |
| highlights why the expert knowledge that they | | | | strongly recommend these guys as the helped me |
| possess can be the difference between being on the | | | | with my Website Rating and improved the overall |
| first page of Google and not existing in Google at all. | | | | visibility of my website. |
| Another important factor here was that, although | | | | Factors like this echo real life business practices, the |
| the new site location was on the .co.uk domain, he | | | | reason that the search engines give this importance |
| retained the .com and simply pointed it to the new | | | | is that: if you have had a website for a period of |
| site address meaning he got the best of both worlds. | | | | time then it has some standing with the search |
| It's also important to find out what type of hosting | | | | engines; just like new businesses struggle against |
| you have. For example, most of the cheapest hosts | | | | existing businesses until they become established. |