Are .co.uk Domains Having an Increased Influence in Google UK
Over the last couple of weeks many people have noticed several ranking changes in Google.co.uk. Reports so far suggest that the Google algorithm is currently favouring .co.uk domains over .com and other top-level domains.
Is this a positive change?
Recently Google have appeared to be moving away from heavily relying on TLD information and trusting a wider range of factors in order to assess a website’s geographical location, so the algorthim update seems quite surprising. In my opinion the new rankings would reduce the relevancy of Google UK listings as many high-quality, non .co.uk domains may be replaced by weaker .co.uk websites.
We’ll be keeping an eye on how this progresses as the flucations in Google UK probably haven’t finished just yet. I’d expect to see this even out a bit more during July, but it does go to show you can’t always predict what Google’s going to do next!
I’m in South Africa and have definitely noticed a tendency for South African results to rate above international on google.co.za. From a user perspective it seems logical - the results have seemed more relevant to me.
Comment by Richard — July 5, 2008 @ 7:45 am
Google results might indicate that they might be favoring co.uk at the moment but it has to be looked on a wider perspective.the idea of switching to co.uk just for a chance to be favored does not appear to be a good idea.
Comment by Amaan Goyal — July 5, 2008 @ 10:46 am
Interesting post - is it a positive change?
I’d say ‘no’ it’s not a positive change. Just because a URL contains ‘.co.uk’ should not give this URL an advantage against a ‘.com’. If this theory does become reality, there will be a lot of very unhappy people.
I look forward to reading your next update on this theory!
p.s - SPHINNED!
Comment by mrpurple — July 7, 2008 @ 11:22 am