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Hi, I had a website with .com and target market was UK. Site performs well in .com but when I got .co.uk website conversion goes up. As you mentioned above that very little SEO work has done on current website I would suggest you to get .co.uk domain and no need to use 301 redirect in your case ("Its a young company with little or no SEO pedigree, and under 50 external links.). My suggestion is purely based on my experience. Thanks