[Michel Roberts]

I have had my existing web site www.carpetfitter.uk.com for some years now.

 I am thinking about trying to do a new one myself by buying a new domain name and
using templates such as the ones on easily .co.uk such as Chris Straker was talking about on another forum,  which I had already been looking at.

It,s not a money thing as I am just curious and would like to be able to do it myself without having to depend on others

My question is this. Does a web address ending  .com  rank higher with google than .co.uk if all other things are equal.

i.e www.carpetfitterhammersith.co.uk
     www.carpetfitterhammersmith.com

Easily has co.uk domains approx £5.00 and .coms approx £25.00

I am quite happy to spend the money on a dot com address if it produces a better ranking but if nit I might as well save the money.

Regards Michel

[Cloverleaf]

As far as I know it doesn't make any difference.
I would also think it's better to use .co.uk - rather than .com as people would know straight away that it's a UK based business

John

[Michel Roberts]

John

Good point I had not thought of that

More Please Guys

Regards Michel

[Cloverleaf]

These names for example are available at £2.59 each pa at www.123-reg.co.uk

www.carpetfit.co.uk

www.fit-me-a-carpet.co.uk

www.west-london-carpet-fitters.co.uk

John

[Ben Staerck]

Hi,

.com for the states
.co.uk for UK

You will most liekly rank higher in google.co.uk with the .co.uk and vice versa.

The content of your site is the main factor for ranking high though, make it unqiue and plenty of content. Have the words of the market you are targeting high up in a page, preferably in bigger text or bold. This puts emphasis on these words and you should therefore rank higher with them.

Get a few good sites to link to yours so the search engines can find it first though !

[heritagecleaning]

I would also say don't use dots or -'s in the address. Keep it one word even if it's two e.g. carpetcleaning.co.uk

[Liahona]

I think it has been said that it doesnt really matter.  I went with .com because I didnt want the business just associated with the U.K.  Most, client wise, of my business is still in California so it would be a bit odd with a .uk address.  BEST, Dave.

[davep]

What ways are there apart from adwords to get on top of Google?

[RAM Cleaning]

if your going to buy a web addy i would suggest using oneandone.co.u to purchase from as they have excellent customer support unlike some others

[calmore]

It's all about "pagerank". Google favours websites with a higher "pagerank".

Basically, the "Pagerank" of your site is determined by how many other sites provide a link to yours (aka a backlink).

(It's a bit more complicated than that in reality but you get the idea)

Backlinks, backlinks, backlinks!

[ianharper]

michel

two ways to look at domain names,

first if its online search purposes only it does not mater that much, but helps with ranking if it reflects what you do.
www.anynamemakenodifferancetosearchengine.net

second if its a name you want remembered then . co.uk or .com are easier for people to remember if it in an advert or your van.

also owning name that other want is a big business these days, i owned one that was for the allergstop network and i let it go only to be contacted by solution to be asked why i was advertising other allergy products on it.

it had been sold to a company that put an advert on it and had it up for sale to anyone for about £80 just for the domain name.

my advice to everyone is don't let any go once you have spent money on a site using it because you will be adding value to this domain name that can be sold on.

don't forget that you can add sub domain names to any domain name you own. for example if you owned carpetfitter.com you could then just add any town name to it as many times as you like

www.town1.carpetfitter.com
www.town2.carpetfitter.com
and so on.....................

sub domain names will not cost you anything and provided you have the space on your server not a problem.

respect

ian harper

[Michel Roberts]

Thanks every body for your replies very helpfull.

Michel

[Michel Roberts]

Ian

Thanks for your post re subdomains.

This sounds like the perfect solution for me as I have just renewed carpetfitter .uk.com for two years

I have tried clicking on the link you gave re "any name makes ect" but it does'nt seem to work.

Regards Michel

[ianharper]

michel

that link was just example.

don't for get in each sub domain to have lots of words like that town's name and carpet fitter as this will improve your ranking in Google as it will see it as more relevant to any search for that town and carpet fitter

respect

ian harper