Link .uk site to .co.uk implications?

[denchomsky]

Scenario:

The client has an underperforming .co.uk website that cannot be improved (SEO) because it is a crappy CMS that has limited editing capabilities.

All the sales are done through this site, products are auto updated, payments processed...e.t.c, so no desire to get rid of it.

Plan:

Build a new site on .uk that acts as a shop front to .co.uk linking to the pages/products on the .co.uk

The content will not be duplicated.

Looking at the competition, ranking the .uk above the .co.uk shouldn't be a problem, but what are the possible implications of doing this?

Surely google has to treat both sites as separate entities, so I guess the two sites will be competing for SERPS, but this in itself is not really a problem as long as the new one ranks higher.

Would like to hear opinions on this, especially from SEO experts.

 

[dazc]

why not just use a sub domain?

 

[denchomsky]

Yeah, good point, but if I were to go down that route I would rather the shop (original site) was on the subdomain, this would mean having to 301 all the links to not lose any link juice.

 

[Retired_Member42]

Can you share the URL? What is it that you want to change exactly for SEO purposes that the CMS won't allow?

 

[denchomsky]

Don't really want to share the URL.

But these are a few things you can't do

- None of the images have ALT tags and you can't add them.
- Can't add custom page titles and descriptions to category pages.
- Can't edit navigation to link to category pages.
- Can't update meta info
- Can't create custom content on existing product pages
- Can't update the URL structure to more friendly URL's

Basically, all you can do is create new pages using a WYSIWYG, and a few other minor changes.

 

[Blossom]

Ditch the crap CMS. It's the only answer. I've seen companies spend £500k+ on doing it (one was a 50+ employee company with tens of thousands of product pages). It's the only way.

Using a .co.uk and .uk like that is going to cause massive confusion for customers. Some are going to assume it's two different websites/companies, and others will suspect some kind of hacking or phishing attempt.

 

[Skinner]

I agree with blossom, I have worked with companies like this who refuse to change CMS. I recently posted on here about the problems I was having with a company.

They had MySQL queries taking MINUTES, literally 2-5 minutes to run, but still insisted on throwing money at making the current one "work". When in reality, it could have been redone 10x better for half the final cost. Each time they have to work on it, they only see xxx, but when you add all these xxx's up, they become insane.

Stop playing nice, and break it down to them.

 

[denchomsky]

Ha ha, thanks for the advice.

I met with the client last night and discussed the options, the CMS site is really a sideline, its a big florist network that dish out these pre-built sites to florists which they then add their branding to.

The CMS site will be used for online ordering only, the new site will be the real online presence for the business from now on.

I am still pondering on whether to build the new one on .uk and leave the shop on the .co.uk, I am not really concerned about confusing users as ultimately it doesn't really matter which site they land on.

Ideally, I would move the shop to /shop/ but I have to check out the implications of doing this.

Thanks.

 

[Skinner]

You may see it as irrelevant which site they land on, but you are NOT the customer.

I would outline a plan to create some kinda or hierarchy and then bite the bullet and begin the process. Highlighting along the way the lack of foresight of the original chimp, and demonstrate potential future changes which the new hierarchy will allow.

Will be a hard slog, but bit of a papercut now, vs amputation at a later date is easier to swallow

 

[Retired_Member38]

Having things split across a .co.uk and a .uk is a horrific idea. You're going to end up with your user metrics, incoming links, brand searches and everything else spread across 2 sites. Its just mental to even consider it.

 

[denchomsky]

Well, that's pretty forthright advice, and appreciated.

What would you do Monkey?

note: rebuilding the shop is not an option, there is no budget for it, and it is linked to a UK wide florist network.

 

[Retired_Member38]

Well, that's pretty forthright advice, and appreciated.

What would you do Monkey?

note: rebuilding the shop is not an option, there is no budget for it.

If there isn't any budget then there isn't really much/anything you can do by the sounds of things

You really need to try your hardest to keep everything on one domain. The 6 points in response to Redemptions question don't seem like big jobs to fix though. I would have thought some money could be freed up to fix them? They're major issues if not fixed, but probably < £1000 to actually just do them.... imo its madness if they can't find the budget to do that.

 

[denchomsky]

Yeah, if the Client/Myself had any control over the shop CMS these things would be easy to rectify, but we don't. The editing capabilities are very restricted.

As I see it my options are:

1 The crazy idea
2 Put new site or shop on subdomain (As far a I am aware google will treat these as separate sites anyway, so would this be much different from number 1?)
3 Put shop in /shop/ directory (Don't know if I can do this as the url is probably linked to florist network for payments and analytics)

 

[Retired_Member38]

If it were me I'd just walk away from the job.

They are putting too many restrictions on this and saying the only sensible solutions, they aren't going to implement. For me personally it wouldn't be worth the pay cheque for all the hassle, stress and inevitable blame thats heading in your direction :lol:

 

[denchomsky]

Ha Ha, I like a challenge.

I don't think it's going to end badly, the clients are decent people and they just want to rank higher in the SERPS as they are losing a lot of business to out of town competition because crappy CMS site has no SEO qualities.

I am pretty confident I can achieve that with the new site and increase sales as a consequence, the competition is pretty poor.

 

[Darren]

I don't think it's going to end badly, the clients are decent people and they just want to rank higher in the SERPS as they are losing a lot of business to out of town competition because crappy CMS site has no SEO qualities.

Is that not a good enough reason to change CMS?

 

[murph]

I'd say this would mean heavy cross-linking which may or may not get the sites into trouble with G. *should* be ok with just 2 sites but is still a risk!

 

[Skinner]

Sadly Monkey is right, you should walk. I wish I had walked on the client I had like this. They had compiled/prop software and 3rd party systems interfacing, all of these were closed source, so my hands were tied like yours seem to be here.

Is there any reason you can't gain access to the CMS to made some basic changes ?

 

[denchomsky]

I'd say this would mean heavy cross-linking which may or may not get the sites into trouble with G. *should* be ok with just 2 sites but is still a risk!

There will obviously be linking from the new website to the shop website, but probably none the other way around.

I don't think this will be a problem as the content will be unique enough on both sites, I can also no-follow the links if it is a problem.

I think if it is done properly (descriptive anchor text, and not from every page) it should be ok.

 

[denchomsky]

Is there any reason you can't gain access to the CMS to made some basic changes ?

I can get access and I can make some changes to the copy to help with SEO, but the reason I am building them a new site is I can't do enough to have a realistic chance to get the site on page 1 of SERPS.

I am pretty sure I can get a fresh site on page 1 possibly even position 1.