Two domains

I have one site with .co.uk and .com domains, the latter is forwarded to the .co.uk domain.

I'm getting a lot of linkbacks from the .com domain. What's the best way of dealing with a secondary domain seo-wise as I'm sure blocking/blacklisting it would not be good but I don't want replication either.

Originally Posted by sdebank

I have one site with .co.uk and .com domains, the latter is forwarded to the .co.uk domain.

I'm getting a lot of linkbacks from the .com domain. What's the best way of dealing with a secondary domain seo-wise as I'm sure blocking/blacklisting it would not be good but I don't want replication either.

You are doing the right thing currently, you should always 301 redirect the second domain to the first, this will pass the link weight over to the second domain and eliminates and duplicate content.

Question is then about your target audience, are you targeting UK visitors or are you targeting a Global market... the reason I ask is because depending on the answer will depend which domain should be the primary and which should be the secondary.

For example .co.uk domains will generally rank better on google.co.uk than they do on .com... and vice versa .com domains rank better on google.com than .co.uk domains do...

Hi Ceri, it's predominately a UK targetted site.

Originally Posted by sdebank

Hi Ceri, it's predominately a UK targetted site.

In that case you are doing everything right, keep the .uk domain as your primary one and 301 redirect your .com domain to the .uk one.. Passing any linkback weight for the .com to the .uk and also making your site highly accessible.

Originally Posted by Ceri May

In that case you are doing everything right, keep the .uk domain as your primary one and 301 redirect your .com domain to the .uk one.. Passing any linkback weight for the .com to the .uk and also making your site highly accessible.

I take it I add a line to custom redirect in the vbseo cp? Any idea of the type of line to enter?

Originally Posted by sdebank

I take it I add a line to custom redirect in the vbseo cp? Any idea of the type of line to enter?

Ahh sorry I though you mentioned in your first post that you already were redirecting the .com to the .co.uk

The .htaccess file that comes with vBSEO as standard has two lines commented out, you simply need to uncomment them and change the domain's to your own.

This will redirect all domain's that are not your main domain to the main one... including subdomains etc.

Cheers!

I have two recommendtion for you. 1st you can add the com and co .uk in google webmaster tools and move your site to old site to new site by using google webmaster tools. (com -> co.uk) There is one reason for you to do that, moving via webmaster tools is "site wide" carrys all history reputation comes from backlinks and the 301 redirect is only "url base". It's good you use two redirect method together. Because right now only google let you move a site on side wide. Bing yahoo etc still need 301 links.

Secondly, there is a geo target metatag code which is highly important for local searchs. Geo Tag Generator (this tool can provide pinpointed adress for your site) This metatag code can help you Though your site is not hosted in UK location. You can still tell search engines where is your targetted visitors are.