Using the correct top level domain for geographic targetting

Way back when this was all fields, and SEO was not even an after thought, I setup my site and registered the following tld's for my chosen domain name:

foobar.com
foobar.co.uk
foobar.net

For no particular reason I chose to run the site on the .com tld. After doing a load of work on SEO I am now rank in 4th place for my primary keywords, i.e:

uk <widget> forum

The 3 sites that rank above me are all on .co.uk domains and have keywords in their URLS - for example

thewidgetforum.co.uk
ukwidgetforum.co.uk
gbwidgets.co.uk

Now, it really isn't feasible to change my domain name to something that includes keywords as I have an entire brand built around the "foobar" name. However, it would be feasible to move to the .co.uk domain.

Would this move have any impact on rankings for searches within the UK?

I think the key here is:
Do you ONLY cater to the UK?

If the answer is no, you should stay on the .com.
If you only cater the the UK, then yes, i would suggest migrating to the .co.uk tld. If you expect ANY us/etc traffic, I would stay on the .com. I RARELY see .co.xx results in any of my search results unless I'm looking up something uk specific, ie, 'queen of england'.

Originally Posted by mreyes

Now, it really isn't feasible to change my domain name to something that includes keywords as I have an entire brand built around the "foobar" name. However, it would be feasible to move to the .co.uk domain.
Would this move have any impact on rankings for searches within the UK?

A move from .com to .co.uk will definetly impact your search engine rankings, I will strictly avoid doing this mistake.

Originally Posted by Brian Cummiskey

I think the key here is:
If you only cater the the UK, then yes, i would suggest migrating to the .co.uk tld. If you expect ANY us/etc traffic, I would stay on the .com. I RARELY see .co.xx results in any of my search results unless I'm looking up something uk specific, ie, 'queen of england'.

Brian switching from .com to .co.uk is not an optmial solution, instead,

Set your .com domain In google webmaster tools -> SiteConfiguration -> Change of address -> to server your country search results.
This shall help you cater your .com domain to server country specific search results. (google.co.uk in your case)
Make sure to apply this setting to root level domain only.

You can use special GEO metatags for the project.

<meta http-equiv="content-language" content="de" /> de for german langauge you can use en for english
<META NAME="geo.region" CONTENT="DE,AT,CH"> DE for Germay At for Austria and CH for switzerland.
I tested these codes and working well. Setting from googl webmaster tools is not enough for bing and yahoo and other searche engines so make sure you use these metatags.