.Com version of my site is ranking better than .co.uk for my UK Website for branded search. 301 redirect mess

[PeteC12]

Dear Mozzers,

I have an issue with my UK Website (short url is - http://goo.gl/dJ7IgD  ) whereby when I type my company name in to google.co.uk search the .com version returns in Search as opposed to the .co.uk and from looking at open site explorer the page rank of the .com is higher than the .co.uk ?. Infact I cant even see the .co.uk homepage version but other pages from my site.

The .com version is also 301'd to the .co.uk.

From looking at Open Site Explorer, I have noticed that we have more links pointing to .com as opposed to .co.uk.   Alot of these are from our own separate microsites which we closed down last year and  I have noticed the IT company who closed them down for some reason 301'd them to the .com version of our site as opposed to the .co.uk but If I look in http://httpstatus.io/  (http status checker tool) to check one of these mircosites it shows - 301 - 302 - 200 status codes which to me looks wrong ?. I am wondering what it should read ... e.g should it just be a 301 to a 200 status code ?.

1. My Website short url is - http://goo.gl/dJ7IgD   and an example of some of 10 microsites we closed down last year which seems to be redirected to .com is http://goo.gl/BkcIjy   and http://goo.gl/kogJ02

2. As these were redirected almost a year ago - it is okay if I now get them redirected to the .co.uk version of my site or what should I do ?

3. They currently redirect to the home page but given that each of the microsites are based on an individual category of my main site , would it be better to 301 them to the relevant category on my site. My only concern is that , may cause to much internal linking and therefore I wont have enough links on my homepage ?

4. How would you suggest I go about building up my .co.uk authority so it ranks betters than the .com- I am guessing this is obviously affecting my rankings and I am losing link juice with all this.

Any advice greatly appreciated .

thanks

Pete

[BenjaminMorel]

First off you definitely want to get rid of that redirect chain, the 301-302-200. That 302 temporary redirect isn't a good thing. Go back to your IT company them and ask them to do things properly by redirecting straight to the .co.uk site. That 302 is intriguing; I presume you've checked that they've used 301s to redirect the .com to the .co.uk domain, not 302s? If they have done it with 302s, first get them to turn those 302s into 301s then get a new IT company.

If the microsites are for different product categories then make the 301s point to your category pages; any user who goes through that 301 is going to prefer landing on the relevant category page to the home page.

Also, if you can do so and depending on the site you might want to look at changing the .com domain's DNS records, so that the changeover happens at the server level not just at the browser level.

A few ideas for improving the domain authority of the .co.uk quickly:

• Lok again in OSE at the links pointing to the .com and if any of those aren't from your own microsites then see if you can get them changed - most people are quite happy to do that if you ask them since it helps their customers find what they need
• Do the same with all your microsites
• Go through the full list of your suppliers, see which of them link to retailers, plant hires, or distributors but don't link to you, and ask for a link
• You have local branches, so get into the local directories
• If you exhibit at any trade shows, get any coverage in the trade press, or do anything else with someone that has a website, ask for a link
• Do you have customers with websites who have been customers for a long time, as in ten years or more? If so would any of them be happy putting a badge on their website? Wrap a link around that badge and there you go

[rjonesx. 0]

This is a clear case of needing to use the hreflang tag

Put this on the .com

Put this on the .co.uk

Preferably do this on every page, as long as the pages correspond with one another...

Put this on the .com

Put this on the .co.uk

[PeteC12]

Many thanks Ben, I will look at those things you mentioned.

Much Appreciated

Pete

[PeteC12]

Hi Russ,

I don't quite understand why I would need to add hreflang tags.

I don't have .com versions of any of my pages,  I only have a .com dominant homepage when I do search for my branch name in serps.

Or am I missing something here ? Can you please explain a bit more ?

thanks

Pete