We offer apartment rental in the Algarve direct from the owners. Our
site includes information on other services including property,
beaches and travel - http://www.algarverentalapartments.com

We are keen to reach the uk audience a lot more, can you let me know
from a google perspective if it would be a good idea to have a .co.uk
domain name? I'd really appreciate any help you can give.

regards,
Neil
http://www.algarverentalapartments.com

Dear Neil, 

Here are several places where you can get a co.uk domain name: 

Pick-a-Web
<http://www.pickaweb.co.uk/> 

Names
<http://www.names.co.uk/> 

Easily 
<http://easily.co.uk/> 

1-2-3 Reg
<http://www.123-reg.co.uk/> 

Los Cost Names
<http://www.lowcostnames.co.uk/> 

Net Benefit
<http://www.netbenefit.com/> 

Net Names
<http://www.netnames.co.uk/> 

Free Parking
<http://www.freeparking.co.uk/> 

Internetters
<http://www.internetters.co.uk/> 

Regarding Google Listing (information, rules, etc.), read: 
Google Information for Webmasters
<://www.google.com/intl/en/webmasters/> 

I hope this answers your question. Please contact me if you need any
clarification on this answer before you rate it. My search terms were
[domain name co.uk]

---

Request for Answer Clarification by algarveapartments-ga on 18 May 2005 03:16 PDT

Thanks for your response. I actually had a domain registrat in mind it
was more a question of whether its better to use a .co.uk domain name
for people in the UK. e.g. if i search for algarve apartments from the
google.co.uk will the results be better for a .co.uk site than my
current http://www.algarverentalapartments.com? Hope that helps add
clarification.

---

Clarification of Answer by politicalguru-ga on 18 May 2005 09:23 PDT

Dear Neil, 

This is a different question altogether, but I'll answer it anyway.
Indeed, if one would use the possibility "search UK sites only" on
Google.co.uk, they have better chances of reaching you. However, as
frde-ga had mentioned, this is not always the case and it might be a
better idea to imporve the existing site: its layout, links (directing
towards it), and the keywords on the page.

You may read more about improving your site in the following answers: 

Golf Holiday in Spain
<http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=493841> 

Google search engine coverage 
<http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=76950>

useful but not quite what i was getting at

I'm sure you have been here before.

The .co.uk might help a bit 
- if people do a Google specifying pages from the UK only
- probably not that much, as people who are savvy enough to do that
realize that a lot of UK sites have .com suffixes.

Sadly my browsing options have ActiveX turned off (very firmly) so
your site looks most peculiar to me.
One big yellow blotch.

It also looks as if your web designer is a bit paranoid.
Stripping formatting from HTML has little effect on bandwidth.
- obfuscation is a sign of ignorance.

While my direct involvement in tour operating is 25 years old, I do
also know a bit about renting properties 'abroad'.

Your website is your brochure
- you need to get (qualified) people/punters to look at it.
- a search engine will just come up with a surfeit of results

IMO in many cases a website is just a 'brochure'
- one needs to use non-web methods to make people aware of it
- and non-web methods to 'bookmark it'

sorry i meant to put a better rating overall, the 3 was spposed to be
for the first part and i was going to give 5 for the rest as it has
been v useful.

let me know if i can change it as i do appreicate the help

regards
Neil
http://www.algarverentalapartments.com