Duplicate content question. (Need SEO experts to answer please)

I have 2 websites “abc.com.au” for Australia and “abcid.co.nz” for New Zealand, Both websites are having same content (duplicate content) because I am providing the same service in Australia and in New Zealand.
Is Google considered it as a copied content and penalized my website? If yes, kindly let me know how can I overcome with this. I want the same content for my 2 websites.

 

Hello,friends

Yes,of course Google considered your website content as a duplicate and your site will be panellize.If you want that your site don't penalize by Goggle then you use unique content for that in both website,it is best for your website.

 

The advice the other guy gave is BS: they won't penalise you. You just might outrank yourself with the incorrect ccTLD.

Google actually has a help page regarding this kind of situation:

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=182192

It does include a bit about duplicate content at the end. However, I realise their page doesn't answer your question too well regarding duplicate content. My personal advice would be this: use the .com.au and .co.nz for marketing purposes, but 301 both of them to a .com site. No duplicate content issue. It's not the most ideal solution, but it's going to be the easiest one to implement. Or stick with the .com.au and redirect the .co.nz to it, or vice-versa. Again, not ideal, but due to the fact it's the same language, there is no ideal solution.

 

Hi James, Thanks for your reply, I have one more questions - Like big brands those are having same content but different domain like for every country So why those website were not penalized??

For example - 1) http://www.apple.com/ and for Australia "www.apple.com/au"[/B] they have.

If I want to use the same content for both of the website than what i need to do???

 

Thanks for your help, But i don't have .com website and abc.com.au and abcid.co.nz both are not the same domain.. I have "id" in New Zealand domain name is that would be a problem?

 

It's going to look like duplicate content and Google might end up preferring one over the other (and you wouldn't want your .co.nz to be the one ranking in AU and NZ search results). In your situation, you're just better off going with one domain. Either:

1. The .com.au and redirect the .co.nz to it.
2. Buy a .com and redirect the two other domains to it.

Sadly, there's not really any other way around it. Target the language and not the country, when it's the same language.

 

Thanks for your reply, One last question. If I redirect both website to .com domain, can i do SEO for .com.au and .co.nz? differently or i need to promote .com ??

 

they way it tool it is 100% duplicate content but since you are targeting different country you can use distribution tags by that you can tell Google where your site is for.
<meta content='Global,worldwide' name='DISTRIBUTION'/>

I see some sites having similar situation, 1 site but targeting different country I see most if it in classified sites why not try to analyze how they do it and apply it to your site.

 

It's entirely up to you, mate. If it was me, I would do a bit for all three: for local links/branding/marketing, I would mainly link to the .co.nz on NZ sites and .com.au on AU sites (but sometimes to the .com). And for international sites, some links for the .com, too. All the juice is going to flow to the .com due to the 301 redirect. It will be slightly diluted, but not by much.

You can also set up the .com.au and .co.nz in Webmaster Tools and set the geo-targeting options for their specific countries.

By the way, you could even have domain.com/AU/ and domain.com/NZ/ and they shouldn't be seen as duplicates as long as you use hreflang to specify which variant of English each one is. You might be wondering why you can't just do that with abc.com.au and abcid.co.nz, but the chances are it will just be seen as duplicate due to aforementioned reasons.

 

A 301 will not cause duplicate content. That's a very basic fact.

That won't help, it's about ranking for two countries, which the distribution meta tag is not used for. The distribution meta tag is useless and pretty much not used any more.

 

The advice given by ryan_uk is quite correct. I would want you to consider your position as to why you want two entirely different domains for your brand for two countries that are linguistically and territorially very close to each other. It would be better if you make your website a .com domain which usually yields better SEO results. Moreover, is your brand purely local and different for the Australian and NewZeeland customers? If not, then why use two domains for the same purpose.

 

I don't think it will penalize it but one of these 2 websites can't get ranked in Google.
Which one is the first unique content site and it will be get ranked.