Ranking in the UK

[Traffic29]

Hi all,

I am fairly new to SEO, having lots of fun with it but its also very frustrating.

I run Omio.com an online mobile comparison site for the UK. The original plan was to target all geographic regions to provide mobile information but now I really want to focus on driving UK traffic.

The problem is that I can't get the site to rank well here at all. I was told to 1) Add "UK" to the homepage title 2) Set UK on webmaster tools 3) Host in the UK 4) get UK links

Unfortunately due to the cost of changing the infastructure moving to a UK host is a way off. However, I have done all the other 3. Do I have enough UK links? Are there any other ways I can rank in the UK better?

It is frustrating to see the site ranking number 2 in the US for "mobile phone deals" and is on page 6 in the UK!

Thanks in advance,
Matt

 

[temi]

Matt,
You should search this forum, If I remember correctly a few years ago we did a UK site ranking or you can read post which is about improving visibility in Google UK

Thanks

Hi all,

I am fairly new to SEO, having lots of fun with it but its also very frustrating.

I run Omio.com an online mobile comparison site for the UK. The original plan was to target all geographic regions to provide mobile information but now I really want to focus on driving UK traffic.

The problem is that I can't get the site to rank well here at all. I was told to 1) Add "UK" to the homepage title 2) Set UK on webmaster tools 3) Host in the UK 4) get UK links

Unfortunately due to the cost of changing the infastructure moving to a UK host is a way off. However, I have done all the other 3. Do I have enough UK links? Are there any other ways I can rank in the UK better?

It is frustrating to see the site ranking number 2 in the US for "mobile phone deals" and is on page 6 in the UK!

Thanks in advance,
Matt

 

[Traffic29]

Thanks Temi, that's a much bigger list than I have!

 

[someone_]

having a dot co dot uk domain increases uk rankings, right?

 

[smeagain]

You have a .com hosted in the USA and that will always struggle to rank in the UK. Change to a UK Located host and you will stand a chance of getting goos positions for UK searches.

 

[suzane.carter]

you will need good backlinks from .com and .co.uk beside good content

 

[wvw]

really good site

 

[RCAds]

You have a .com hosted in the USA and that will always struggle to rank in the UK. Change to a UK Located host and you will stand a chance of getting goos positions for UK searches.

As he said though right now that's really not going to happen. The economy in the UK isn't the best right now, however I am surprised that with the weak pound that outside hosting is affordable.

 

[Traffic29]

Thanks WVW, glad you like the site! We just need people to find it easier.

RCAds & smeagain thanks for the feedback on the hosting. I guess it makes sense. We are looking at hosts now. You are right about hosting costs as well so its a no brainer really. We had compelling reasons at the time but things have changed since.

So 1) Host 2) UK links. Fingers crossed!

 

[eUKhost]

Hosting account on UK based server is more beneficial and you can get better results in less time.

 

[Arleigh]

having a dot co dot uk domain increases uk rankings, right?

Yes, this may help but if there's no more way to have this domain, I think you can still have better rankings in UK provided that you build backlinks from sites that are either hosted in UK server or have domain with dot co dot uk.

 

[markweyner]

Matt,
You should search this forum, If I remember correctly a few years ago we did a UK site ranking or you can read post which is about improving visibility in Google UK

Thanks

Thank you bro. I think this link will be very useful in my optimization. Hugs!!

 

[surreypcsupport]

So I guess to summarise we could say this:

For high Google.uk ranking you need to:

1) Use a co.uk or other uk TLD;
2) Add 'UK' to the page title of the home page;
3) Add 'UK' to the meta description of the home page;
4) Add 'UK' to the content of the homepage at least once;
5) Add a sprinkling of 'UK' throughout the site content;
6) Make sure the server the site is hosted on is in the UK;
7) Get inbound links from sites in the UK with co.uk TLD;
8) Add outbound links to topically related sites with high PR that are in the UK and with a co.uk TLD:
9) Add site to UK based local web directories:
10) Write your content in English;
11) Use a GB character set instead of a US one.

Two more for a top ten list Any suggestions?

EDIT: Just added 9, 10 and 11.

 

[temi]

Here is the two more to complete a top ten list
9. In GWT, add your site to the local business directory, this help enhance your UK status even more.
10. Contents of your site should be written in UK English (for example, categorised not categorized).

 

[surreypcsupport]

Here is the two more to complete a top ten list
9. In GWT, add your site to the local business directory, this help enhance your UK status even more.
10. Contents of your site should be written in UK English (for example, categorised not categorized).

Nice one - thanks added. Now we've got 11 cos you just made me think of one more.

use a GB character set as apposed to a US one.

Will edit my list.