Splitting a site into 2 international sites

[danfrost]

Hi all,

I have a client that currently has a .com domain that ranks in both the US and the UK for various search terms. They have identified a need to provide different information for UK and US visitors which will require 2 versions of all pages. If we set up a .co.uk domain and keep the .com obviously that will be a brand new UK site which will have zero rankings.

Any suggestions as to the best way to introduce this second version of the content without losing UK rankings?

Thanks

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi Dan,

Is there a reason you want to go for a .co.uk? Why not just add the UK content into a /uk/ version of the site and set HREFLANG to handle the different international pages? That way you don't lose any rankings and all you are doing is moving content around on a current domain.

No need to take it to another site.

Here is some good reading that will help you setup the site and make sure you don't miss anything:

• https://moz.com/blog/the-international-seo-checklist
• https://sites.google.com/site/webmasterhelpforum/en/faq-internationalisation
• https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en

The fact that is is on the same domain doesn't matter because HREFLANG will tell Google which content is for which country.

-Andy

[danfrost]

Thanks - that helps.