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I have a website that contains world-wide suitable content, although it is in English. The site is just information; not ecommerce. However, it has a ccTLD of ".co.uk", so will search engines specifically drive UK users towards my site and divert the rest of the world away from my site?

Or, will the site simply rank marginally higher for UK users and be mixed in with the 'bigger pot' for the rest of the world?

Does having a .com site make it more 'world-wide' or do the search engines check to see where a site is actually hosted (by IP)?

MrWhite
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2 Answers2

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[Information below refers to Google, since you brought it up in your comment on other answer. Different engines may behave differently, though probably not by too much.]

Or, will the site simply rank marginally higher for UK users and be mixed in with the 'bigger pot' for the rest of the world?

This is more accurate than how you described things in your first paragraph, though the effect is relatively small versus other, more basic factors like the actual content of your pages. You should read the Webmaster Tools info on geotargeting.

Does having a .com site make it more 'world-wide' or do the search engines check to see where a site is actually hosted (by IP)?

.com domains are treated as generic by Google, with no particular geographic weighting. However, if you set up a Webmaster Tools account, these domains will have an option allowing you to tell Google if you're targeting a particular geographic area. Sometimes the IP is taken into consideration also.

Su'
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will search engines specifically drive UK users towards my site and divert the rest of the world away from my site?

No. They can language-specific filters in common, not country-specific

will the site simply rank marginally higher for UK users and be mixed in with the 'bigger pot' for the rest of the world?

No

Does having a .com site make it more 'world-wide'

No. Not for spiders, maybe only for men

do the search engines check to see where a site is actually hosted (by IP)?

Some search-engines can do it (and only on request, AFAIK)

Lazy Badger
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  • If UK sites don't rank any higher for UK users than the rest of the world then why, if I search google.co.uk for a particular keyword does my .co.uk site rank at #2, but if I search on google.com it appears at #8? Does this not suggest that .co.uk sites rank higher for UK users but when searching from outside the UK, it is competing against more/different sites? – MrWhite Oct 01 '11 at 14:14
  • @w3d Because pretty much everything above is completely wrong. – Su' Oct 01 '11 at 19:22
  • http://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/466/what-are-the-advantages-of-using-country-specific-top-level-domains/475#475 mostly identical to my statement, BTW – Lazy Badger Oct 01 '11 at 20:54
  • @Lazy Badger: The main similarity is that the other answer also provides absolutely no citation. Come on; it's not even "me" disagreeing with you. All I'm doing above is pointing at Google's own documentation. If you still think differently, you're going to have to back it up with links. – Su' Oct 02 '11 at 17:47