My uncle has a very large construction company in the US, he plans on launching in France. Right now, the main domain for his site is xxxxxx.com, since he is launching in France the domain will be xxxxxx.com.fr he plans to use the same design, the only thing that will change is the content which will differ in languages. Will Google penalyze my uncle's current ranking for his xxxxxx.com and find xxxxxx.com.fr a copy of the original domain?
no because they have been totally different in content so there is no problem if you have the same design
Design doesn't matter, it doesn't count as duplicate content. A .fr domain is not necessarily easy to get: you need to be a French citizen to qualify.
Agreed with Phillip - You don't need to worry about duplicate content because of the same design. Think about all those free website templates that are available online. If Google penalized you for the same design 90% of the internet would be penalized. I have a suggestion as well. I would make your website available in French and English online with the .com.fr ccTLD. You can even use the same content from the English site and host it on the .com.fr version. Google and other search engines are smart enough to serve the French site to users in France without resulting in a duplicate content penalty for yourself. It sounds a bit strange, but the strategy really does work. Also, if you can, host the French site on a server in France. From my experience you'll get better search engine results that way. Also, I'm sure you know this, but try to get some links from local French sources to that site as well. Good luck. I hope you bulldoze that French competition. Pun intended because your uncle owns a construction company. Let me know if you need any clarification on this.
no design is not matter but change only Logo, Content, interlinking bcz this type of factor will effect on second site.