Country specific UK domains

The major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN live treat the Top Level Domain (TLD) name differently. Getting a dot com domain can be difficult and I have previously offered inspiration for domain names. This means that if your site is targeting a specific country you would be better of going for a domain specific to that country.

UK domain names

Whilst dot com domains are good for a global audience you can gain a competitive advantage by registering a domain specific to your country. If you were a vet in the UK it would be pointless getting traffic from non UK residents. By registering a co.uk domain your site will be more prominent in the search engines for UK searchers. You can register UK domains at GoDaddy.

In addition to choosing a country specific domain name you can also improve your relevance in the eyes of the search engines by hosting your domain in the country your site is specific to. This also means that the response times of your site will be quicker as your site would be geographically closer to your audience. Search engines tend to take this into account as a factor when returning relevant results.

I recommend and use a hosting company called ResellerZoom. As well as providing good US based hosting they can also provide hosting in the UK.