Pointing .com and .co.uk to the same website

[wonder_lander]

We've built a site around a .com and we also have the .co.uk of the domain name.

What's the best way for us to set it up so that someone typing in the .co.uk get's the .com site but so that we don't start ranking for the .co.uk and thus flagging up as duplicate content!?

 

[wb]

Set up a 301 (permanent redirect) from the .co.uk to the .com in the .htaccess file.

Don't forget to geotarget the .com in Google Webmaster Tools to the UK or other appropriate country if you haven't already.

 

[vizzo]

I believe that the best way is to put this in your .htaccess file for the co uk domain

redirect 301 / http://www.yourdomainname.com/

It's what I've done with several domains having searched exhaustively particularly in respect of what Google would like best!

 

[wonder_lander]

.com is already correctly targeting the UK so everything is OK that side of things.

So I create a new site on my hosting for the .co.uk that merely has a .htaccess file? I then put a 301 redirect line in and then it's all good?

Thanks for the fast responses.

 

[Admin]

Don't forget to geotarget the .com in Google Webmaster Tools to the UK or other appropriate country if you haven't already.

I didn't know that was an option, thanks for that!

Admin

 

[Edwin]

You probably don't need a new hosting account. If you have a dedicated IP address, you can point both domains at that IP and then use a .htaccess file in the root directory of the website to redirect any .co.uk traffic to the equivalent page on the .com site.

 

[vizzo]

I'm not an expert. The solution i posted above is the one i use as I have a reseller hosting account and so can create unlimited accounts at no extra cost.
Not sure how Edwins solution works/ what exactly to put in the .htaccess file. Edwin may be you could add a little more info.

 

[Edwin]

I think the following should work as long as both domains resolve to the same IP (i.e. they're sharing one .htaccess file).

It means that all page requests with URLs that do not contain www.domain.com (e.g. in your case www.domain.co.uk, or domain.co.uk or domain.com) should get rewritten to the www.domain.com form. Of course you need to change "domain" to match the actual domain name!

Perhaps somebody who knows .htaccess could confirm/correct what I've posted below?

RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.domain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

 

[MASSEY]

This is the BEST thing to do.

Take out a hosting account and set up a website on the .co.uk - Place lots of relevant content on the home, put some articles on the site with anchor link internal links to the home of the .co.uk and build some links to it.

Wait a couple of months for it to build up some search engine love and THEN do a 301.

This way you are going to give your .com a good seo boost in the process.

Far better than just doing a 301 redirect in your domain admin.

Best practice, honestly.