Problems with US site being prioritized in Google UK

[chrisvogel]

Our US version (.com) of our site is appearing above the UK version (co.uk) when using Google UK. I know Google has been giving US more priority in the UK market over the last couple years... What is protocol for fixing/dealing with this?

Also, and probably more importantly, how do we handle users who are looking for the UK site right now? Majority of our users are coming from the US so we don't want to cause them any inconvenience, but the UK users need an easy way to get to the UK version quickly.

Input is much appreciated!

[LoganRay]

Hi,

There are a couple things you can do to help Google serve up your preferred TLDs in each country.

First, you should identify (if you haven't already) the preferred geography in Search Console - see this link for more info on how to set that up: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/62399?hl=en

Next, you can add the appropriate hreflang tags to the pages on each of the different site versions. Moz has an extensive guide on how to do this here: https://moz.com/learn/seo/hreflang-tag

Hope that's helpful!

[katemorris]

Hi Chris,

With ccTLDs, you have your geo-targeting setup for the UK. You do need to set up the .com for the US if that is what the content is targeted to as Logan mentioned.

As to why the .com is showing higher, is the content identical between the two sites? If not, how are they different?

In the mean time, you can detect their location using IP and ask anyone on the wrong site using a JavaScript prompt if they would like to be on the other version. Give them the option, never redirect based on IP. You'll need a developer to do this.