Should I be using both my .com and .co.uk domains?

[Mikey77]

Hey everyone! I am stuck on what to do and I was hoping that someone could point me in the right direction.

So I have built my website under my .com domain and submitted the sitemap to the Google Search Console. My primary market on Shopify is set to the United Kingdom, however, I have also added the United States as a market. 

My question is if I should now point the UK market to the .co.uk domain and the United States to the .com domain. If this happens to be the correct route to go then would I need to make any changes to my url's as currently they all point to the .com domain? Or am I better just leaving both markets under the .com?

I do also have the .shop and .store domains, should I add these in the domain section of Shopify, or does this not matter. 

Any help is appreciated.

Many thanks

[StephensWorld]

If you are just selling to 2 markets:

I'd point the .co.uk domain to your UK market (make it the primary domain), and then point the .com to your United States market.

The other domains (.shop and .store) can be added and forwarded to your .co.uk domain.

If you're selling to more than the above markets, then I'd just stick with your .com domain as the primary, and then add all of the rest of the domains to your domains section, and have them forward to the .com domain. 

It's really just personal preference / branding to consider. There's no 'wrong way' to do this -- it's however you want it to work. 

[Mikey77]

Thats great! Many thanks for your reply.

Eventually, I would like to add more markets so I think I will stick to the .com domain then. 
My concern was that by using the .com I would rule out any organic traffic from the UK. However, I am assuming that this is not the case.

Cheers

[anillrao]

Totally agree with @StephensWorld 

Also, make sure your "hreflang" tags are properly assigned.

[Mikey77]

Hope you're doing well!

Since you last helped me, things have changed a bit with our setup, and I was hoping you might be able to offer some guidance.

Currently, we have two separate Shopify stores:

• .co.uk store targeting the UK market

• .com store targeting the US market

Eventually, the .com store will expand to include subfolders for other countries, but for now, we're just focusing on the UK and US with their own dedicated websites.

The issue I’m running into is this. When a UK-based customer lands on the .com (US) store, I’d ideally like them to be automatically redirected to the .co.uk store. Similarly, US customers should remain on the .com site.

From what I understand, Shopify’s built-in geo-redirect feature only works with both domains and multiple markets tied to one Shopify account. Since we have separate domains and separate accounts, that solution doesn’t seem to apply.

Do you know if there's a way to implement automatic geo-redirects in this kind of setup? Or any workaround you’d recommend?

Appreciate any insight you can offer!