Does a .com stop a UK visitor?

[activitysuper]

Hi,

If a E-commerce website based in the UK (and selling products only to the UK) have a .com domain will this stop UK visitors?

I kind of getting the feeling some potential visitors might not visit because they feel the website is not UK based because they see the .com.

Anyone else had any experience with this?

[RikkiD22]

.com domains are just as strong in the UK as .co.uk with regards to customer trust and CTR in my opinion - i.e. I don't believe a .com domain is restrictive in the UK.

From an SEO point of view make sure you registrar with Google (and other search engines) webmaster tools and set the target geographic location as UK.

[Highland]

The general rules of thumb on international are

1. Having a local domain helps (.co.uk, .fr, etc) but isn't crucial. A .com can tank well in the UK and a .co.uk can rank well in the US. Obviously the localized domain is easier to rank.
2. Having local hosting helps as well. A site hosted in the targeted country will rank better in that country (as well as have faster response times for your target audience)
3. Your links play a large role in localization. If your links are primarily in the UK, Google will weight you better for UK searches.

[PeterAlexLeigh]

.com is such a broadly accepted TLD that I find it hard to believe anyone in the UK would question it's not a UK site.

As long as the content looks UK focussed then you're fine. If you slap an American flag in the corner then that might cause a problem

Think of all the huge UK brands that have .com sites... moneysupermarket.com, moonpig.com, etc, etc. It's just as normal to have a .com in the UK as it is to have a .co.uk