UK publisher lost 98% of Google News visibility in two weeks after .co.uk to .com migration
gaganghotra_ · x · 2026-09-05
SEO expert JShehata reports that a major UK publisher migrated its entire site from .co.uk to .com to unify its global brand and avoid being classified as UK-only by ad systems — a rationale that holds for direct and branded traffic but not for news search.
NewzDash UK tracking data shows the .co.uk domain held a steady 1%-2% visibility across Top Stories and organic news results for 14 months (similar sites sit at 3%-6%). Visibility fell off a cliff in the migration week, landing at 0.02% two weeks later — a 98% loss — with no apparent handoff to the .com domain. A cautionary case for any publisher weighing domain consolidation.
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