.co.uk and .co coexistance?

[MarketingGH]

Hello,

Our business has been setup and has been targeting the uk. Therefore, we've always had a .co.uk domain. Now that we want to go international, we are looking into expanding in the U.S. and have bought a .co domain to do so.

My question is: would we get .co.uk penalised if some of the .co pages will have similar content to the .co.uk pages?

I know .co is a Generic Top Level Domain (gTLDs), but my understanding so far is that: as long as we set a country target & US language on the .co domain and follow basic cautionary steps and best practises from this article and others, we should be completely fine.

Is this also what you guys think?

Thanks in advance!

[Moreleads]

Hi MarketingGH,

with ccTLD (country code Top Level Domain) there is no problem with duplicate content in the same languages through these domains and when setting a country target for gTLD´s this wouldn´t be an issue either.

As far as i know though .co is a ccTLD for Columbia and not a gTLD so you should register the .com domain (unless this is what you meant than thats correct).

Hope this helps

[MarketingGH]

Not sure what you mean by ".co is a ccTLD for Columbia" as Google treats it as generic according to this article? https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/62399?visit_id=1-636422994188525421-4135517685&rd=1

[Moreleads]

.co is a ccTLD (https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db) and assigned to Columbia

.com is a gTLD (https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db)

The article you mention starts by saying "If your site has a generic top-level domain, such as .com or .org, and doesn´t mention .co

[GastonRiera]

Hi MarketingGH,

Try to use a gTLD domain. Leave the .co for Columbia.
If you cant by the .com site, try with another gTLD.

Remember to be extra carefull with the internationalization, try to give a read to these articles:
Google internationalization FAQs
Internationalization SEO Checklist

About the duplicate content, as cited in every article about internationalization, use hreflang tags and double check them to be sure that are correctly implemented.

Best luck!
GR.

[MarketingGH]

What I was pointing at on same article cited above is the following list of ccTLDs that Google treats as generic so as gTLDs and .co is one of them?

https://www.screencast.com/t/5YgjXIriy

[MarketingGH]

Hi Gaston,

Thanks!

My question was mainly due to the fact that all articles you and I have mentioned talk about using the same domain and internationalising that or buying a ccTLDs. My question is instead regarding adding a new domain gTLD to internationalise and whether if we do add a brand new domain (not subdomain), I need to do anything else apart from everything written on those articles.

Have a look at why I think .co is regarded as gTLD by Google: https://www.screencast.com/t/5YgjXIriy

Image from this article.

[Moreleads]

Hi MarketingGH,

Yes you are right, wasn´t aware of this list (learning everyday).  It is in fact a ccTLD but google treats it as a gTLD.

So just to clarify you would have a:

xxxx.co targeting the US (and setting up this geotargeting in your GSC)

xxxx.co.uk targeting the Uk (and no need to setup geotargeting in GSC since it already a ccTLD)

If this is the case you wouldn´t have any duplicate content issues.  If i misunderstood could you clarify.

[MarketingGH]

Hi Ramon,

Yup, that's correct on the setup - it's how we are thinking about it. Glad to hear you don't think we shold have duplication issues once we follow best practices.

Thanks for your help.

[GastonRiera]

Ups! My mistake, was not aware of that article from google. Im deepl sorry if i´ve confused you.

Yeah! Following the recommended precautions and steps in the cited articles you will be perfect! There is no need to do any further than that.

Best luck!
GR.