Which Google do you use in Northern Ireland?

[N1CHOLAS]

Is it google .co.uk or google.ie? or google.com mainly.

This is for a local service search like Electrician in Belfast and similar.

Thanks ;-)

 

[shpr]

.co.uk - I can't speak for everyone as I suppose peeps can set their own preference, but .co.uk will be the main one

 

[link8r]

It would be Google.co.uk or Google.ie. Google.com will just get redirected to .CO.UK.

Its a brilliant question <bump> would love to see other replies

 

[andywozhere]

Most people search using google.co.uk. A lot of businesses also use it as their TLD... don't think many use .ie

 

[link8r]

Most people search using google.co.uk. A lot of businesses also use it as their TLD... don't think many use .ie

"Most" - fact or opinion? Most republican minded people I know use .ie and many companies buy .ie domains or .com's

 

[andywozhere]

Most people search using google.co.uk

- fact or opinion?


Well as you said yourself Google.com is redirected to google.co.uk. I would consider this to be a major factor in people searching via google.co.uk. Do I have an empirical evidence to support that claim? No. But I think it is highly likely (I'm also from Belfast and most people I know there seem to end up on google.co.uk - and I don't think it is for political reasons). If anyone has any harder evidence I'm all ears.

I did come up with some sort of related data that may be of interest though. If you compare the term UK and Irish locations searching for the term "Belfast" in Google Insights you will find that Ireland searches come to and interest level of 2 and in UK searches far outweigh Irish searches and come to an interest level of 67.


Comparing "Belfast" on Google Insights from Irish and UK locations


With regard to TLDs I think .co.uk and .com are the most common. Again this is not necessarily 100% empirical. I looked at "plumbers belfast" and "plumbers Derry" on the first page on yell.com. Here are the results:


"plumbers belfast"
.co.uk - 6
.com - 4
.ie - 0


"plumbers Derry"


.co.uk - 5
.com - 4
.ie - 0

 

[link8r]

<Argument Start>

- fact or opinion?
Do I have an empirical evidence to support that claim? No.

<Argument End (close case)>

 

[link8r]

In the continued spirit of not being entirely scientific, a search for sites with "Address" and "Belfast" from .ie's is about 1.5 million. Sure, a lot will be Republic companies with an address/virtual one in Belfast

http://www.google.ie/#sclient=psy-a....,cf.osb&fp=e5e3eed2ac8900ce&biw=1366&bih=667

 

[glinch]

Hi there,

Does any one have any recommendations to ranking high in searches both north and south of the border. Im creating a website for a company that operates on the border and has business both sides, although they are located in the republic. Currently they have a .ie domain name, would i need to get a .co.uk domain name and submit this to google.co.uk?

Would it be beneficial to also host a mirrored site on uk servers?

Not sure how to approach this, would be interested if any one had any ideas as to what would be the best method.

 

[kizinew]

That is google.co.uk
[h=3]Northern Ireland nearly England[/h]

 

[glinch]

I found a link with some useful information regarding cross border SEO

http://localonlinemarketingsolutions.com/blog/how-to-target-the-uk-with-a-ie-tld-website


Does anybody else out there have any opinions on cross border seo?

 

[Karina]

i would have thought it was .co.uk alright,

 

[IrishDog]

I find that Google.co.uk brings me up better results for both Northern Ireland and All Ireland information.

In fact I found this forum via google.co.uk (as well as other .ie websites I use).

Paul