How to fix the duplicate content problem on different domains (.nl /.be) of your brand's websites in multiple countries?
-
Dear all,
what is the best way to fix the duplicate content problem on different domains (.nl /.be) of your brand's websites in multiple countries?
What must I add to my code of websites my .nl domain to avoid duplicate content and to keep the .nl website out of google.be, but still well-indexed in google.nl?
What must I add to my code of websites my .be domain to avoid duplicate content and to keep the .nl website out of google.be, but still well-indexed in google.nl?
Thanks in advance!
-
In that case, I'll go for the Alternate link tag as mentionned before:
By using it, you will guide Google and tell him to show the flemish version in first position for your user in Belgium and vice-versa for the dutch users in Holland.
Hope this helps!
Maxime
-
Dear Maxime,
there texts and content are pretty much the same / identical. Maybe there are some slight textual differences since Flemish and Dutch are different sometimes.
Overall, all content is nearly the same.
Thanks for both of your help!
-
BenVer,
Please can you tell us what kind of duplicate content do you have on your different domains (.nl /.be) ?
Are the dutch and belgium page exactly the same? What are the differences?
Thanks,
Maxime
-
Maxime,
I saw this too, and there are certainly variants. Given, that for Google I have generally used WMT as the final source and usually that worked, I lean a bit more that way. But, your point is well stated and not wrong. For purposes of being absolutely safe, it will not hurt to have the hreflang attribute there. A better question might be: is it really necessary given the you have ccTLD's and the same language?
From WMT:
Some example scenarios where
rel="alternate" hreflang="x"
is recommended:- You translate only the template of your page, such as the navigation and footer, and keep the main content in a single language. This is common on pages that feature user-generated content, like a forum post.
- Your pages have broadly similar content within a single language, but the content has small regional variations. For example, you might have English-language content targeted at readers in the US, GB, and Ireland.
- Your site content is fully translated. For example, you have both German and English versions of each page.
I will assume that it is a given that google uses the ccTLD as the indicator of country and that it is considered a "Strong" signal to Google.
WIthin GWMT re: multilingual/regional sites (the bolded/italics are mine
Websites that provide content for different regions and in different languages sometimes create content that is the same or similar but available on different URLs. This is generally not a problem as long as the content is for different users in different countries. While we strongly recommend that you provide unique content for each different group of users, we understand that this may not always be possible. There is generally no need to "hide" the duplicates by disallowing crawling in a robots.txt file or by using a "noindex" robots meta tag. However, if you're providing the same content to the same users on different URLs (for instance, if both __
example.de/
andexample.com/de/
show German language content for users in Germany), you should pick a preferred version and redirect (or use the rel=canonical link element) appropriately. In addition, you should follow the guidelines on rel-alternate-hreflang to make sure that the correct language or regional URL is served to searchers.Again, thanks for the replies. I find it really helpful to discuss back and forth as it adds to the learning adventure we are all on.
Best to you,
Robert
-
Maxime,
While I agree the speed might be different with in country hosting given they are both European countries. (Not true in some others.) But the question was around content duplication.
Again, I think your intent is good. But, since he has two separate domains. ExampleSite.be and ExampleSite.nl, he has no need of hreflang="x" since both are in Dutch. If he had Dutch and English it would not matter if it were the same domain or not:
From Gianluca Fiorelli mozPost**if Page A (US version) exists also in Page B (Spanish), C (French), and D (German) versions from other countires, no matter if they are in the same domain or different, then on page A you should suggest the last three URLs as the ones Google must show in the SERPs in their respective targeted Googles. **
Again, since they are ccTLD's and they are already geotargeted by virtue of same and since they are both in Dutch, there is no other worry re duplicate content.
I am open to being shown I am wrong as it will not be the first time
Best to you, thanks so much for your replies,
Robert
-
Hi Robert, 1. Yes indeed you are right, for a ccTLD, there is no geotargeting in GWMT. 2. Dutch is spoken in both Netherlands and Belgium so having the same content appearing on both .nl and .be domains is likely to be considered as duplicate content. Using rel=”alternate” hreflang=”x” seems to be the most appropriate solution. 3. In my opinion, hosting each website in the country targeted is a plus (server response will be quicker) but this is indeed not decisive. So do it only if you have a large budget.
-
Maxime,
I have to question this as you have it. The intent is there, but you are throwing everything at a problem and some of it does not work:
1. for a ccTLD, there is no geotargeting in WMT: from GWMT:
Sites with country-coded top-level domains (such as .ie) are already associated with a geographic region, in this case Ireland. In this case, you won't be able to specify a geographic location.
2. He does not need this in a cross domain setting.
3. Given he has ccTLD's this is an unnecessary expense and will add no value.
Hope this clarifies for you,
-
BenVer
In a short answer, not much. This is from GWMT:
Websites that provide content for different regions and in different languages sometimes create content that is the same or similar but available on different URLs. This is generally not a problem as long as the content is for different users in different countries.
Since you are using ccTLD's, Google already knows that you are targeting that specific country.
While this will not guarantee that the .nl doesn't outrank the .be in Belgium, it will take care of your duplicate content concerns.
-
Is this the best way?
http://googleproducts-nl.blogspot.nl/2012/02/meertalige-en-multiregionale-websites.html
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Advise on the right way to block country specific users but not block Googlebot - and not be seen to be cloaking. Help please!
Hi, I am working on the SEO of an online gaming platform - a platform that can only be accessed by people in certain countries, where the games and content are legally allowed.
International SEO | | MarkCanning
Example: The games are not allowed in the USA, but they are allowed in Canada. Present Situation:
Presently when a user from the USA visits the site they get directed to a restricted location page with the following message: RESTRICTED LOCATION
Due to licensing restrictions, we can't currently offer our services in your location. We're working hard to expand our reach, so stay tuned for updates! Because USA visitors are blocked Google which primarily (but not always) crawls from the USA is also blocked, so the company webpages are not being crawled and indexed. Objective / What we want to achieve: The website will have multiple region and language locations. Some of these will exist as standalone websites and others will exist as folders on the domain. Examples below:
domain.com/en-ca [English Canada]
domain.com/fr-ca [french Canada]
domain.com/es-mx [spanish mexico]
domain.com/pt-br [portugese brazil]
domain.co.in/hi [hindi India] If a user from USA or another restricted location tries to access our site they should not have access but should get a restricted access message.
However we still want google to be able to access, crawl and index our pages. Can i suggest how do we do this without getting done for cloaking etc? Would this approach be ok? (please see below) We continue to work as the present situation is presently doing, showing visitors from the USA a restricted message.
However rather than redirecting these visitors to a restricted location page, we just black out the page and show them a floating message as if it were a model window.
While Googlebot would be allowed to visit and crawl the website. I have also read that it would be good to put paywall schema on each webpage to let Google know that we are not cloaking and its a restricted paid page. All public pages are accessible but only if the visitor is from a location that is not restricted Any feedback and direction that can be given would be greatly appreciated as i am new to this angle of SEO. Sincere thanks,0 -
MultiRegional site indexing problems
Hello there!!! I have a multiregional site and dealing with some indexing problems. The problem is that google have only indexed our USA site We have: -set up hreflang tags -set up specific subdirectories https://www.website.com/ (en-us site and our main site) https://www.website.com/en-gb https://www.website.com/en-ca https://www.website.com/fr-ca https://www.website.com/fr-fr https://www.website.com/es-es ..... -set up automatic GEO IP redirects (301 redirects) -created a sitemap index and a different sitemap for each regional site -created a google webmaster's tool for each country targeted -created translations for each different language and added some canonicals to the US' site when using English content. The problem is that Google is not indexing our regional sites. I think that the problem is that google is using a US bot when spidering the site, so it will be always redirect to the US version by a 301 redirect. I have used fetch as google with some of our regional folders and asked for "Indexing requested for URL and linked pages", but still waiting. Some ideas?? changing 301 to 302? Really don't know what to do. Thank you so much!!
International SEO | | Alejandrodurn0 -
What's the best homepage experince for an international site?
Greeting Mozzers. I have a question for the community, which I would appreciate your input on. If you have a single gTLD that services multiple countires, what do you think is the best homepage UX for the root homepage and why? So the example would be you own website www.company.org and target content to Germany, Japan and Australia with content through the folder structure eg. www.company.org/de-de If someone comes to the www.company.org from a region, would you: Redirect them based on location IP – so if from Germany they land on www.company.org/de-de Let them land on the homepage which offers location selection Let them land on a page with content and offer location selection eg. pop-up or obvious selection box Something I’ve not thought of… I'd appreciate your input. Thanks
International SEO | | RobertChapman0 -
Anyone knows/seeing this strange bump in traffic from Granada, Spain?
I have noticed a strange bump in traffic from August 14, coming from Granada Spain. I have a language specific website and there is no way I have suddenly thousands of readers in Granada. GA show the service provider is opera software asa and domain is opera-mini.net I am wondering the location shown in GA as Granda, Spain is the correct one. Perhaps Opera is proxying the traffic through it proxy server located in Granda. Or this is spammer trying to download content? Anyone else has seen this?
International SEO | | Maayboli0 -
Do you think the SEs would see this as duplicate content?
Hi Mozzers! I have a U.S. website and a Chinese version of that U.S. website. The China site only gets direct and PPC traffic because the robots.txt file is disallowing the SEs from crawling it. Question: If I added English sku descriptions and English content to the China site (which is also on our U.S. site), will the SEs penalize us for duplicate content even though the robots.txt file doesn’t allow them to see it? I plan on translating the descriptions and content to Chinese at a later date, but wanted to ask if the above was an issue. Thanks Mozzers!
International SEO | | JCorp0 -
Is it possible to geotag language folders on a .co.uk domain
Hi all, I'm going around in circles a little on this one, so I thought that I'd as as I haven't found anyone asking quite the same thing (sorry if someone has). I have a .co.uk site and would like to set up some different language variations. I've been looking at the subfolder route for now (budget is limited). Can I set a geotag in webmaster tools on a .co.uk site or does it need to be a domain that Google considers country neutral? Many thanks for any suggestions!
International SEO | | ceecee0 -
Hotel Multi country targeting + Google Local + TLDs => "MesSEO"
Hi guys, I own a guesthouse which is facing a messy structural problem in its own web presence: Portuguese: www.residencia-aeminium-coimbra.com.pt English: www.residencia-aeminium-coimbra.com Spanish: www.residencia-aeminium-coimbra.com/espanol Looking for success in the long term, a few years ago, we decided to host 3 TLDs: 1 for global international english, 1 for local portuguese and 1 for the main foreign market Spain (we already redirected it to a subfolder in the .com in the meanwhile). We tried to promote each one of these in their targeted markets - mainly the .com got back-links links and authority. With time, google local appeared and changed the face of google accommodation rankings. Google local are now the top results for most searches, even outside the country, and I came to the conclusion that the TLD assets were now a problem. For instance, I can only add 1 domain to google local..what language should this be? It is the same for most social media presence..How should international markets be targeted in a local page? Since TLDs do not seem to be an advantage right now, I am thinking we should be moving to a single domain and use a folder structure so we can use it everywhere. Questions: 1. In terms of structure (TLD or Folder) and multi-lingual targeting what is the current best practice for hotels that show in local results but promote internationally? 2. What language should I point google local results to? And our Facebook page, etc? 3. If I move things around to a folder structure, what domain should I use? the .com is in english and has the most authority and links according to opensiteexplorer the .com.pt is in portuguese, our local language and our main market (but only 35% share) should I create a new domain ".pt"? 4. I don't think that geo-targeting the languages is worth it in this case, what do you think? Kind Regards
International SEO | | retsimister
Ricardo Madeira
Residencia Aeminium Coimbra0 -
How long does it take for google to realize there is a new language sub domain?
I have a global client who just launched new sub domains of their site in new languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Japanese). Example: es.client.com pt.client.com ru.amdocs.com ja.amdocs.com How long does it take for Google to recognize these new subdomains? Would submitting an XML sitemap be helpful? If so how long can we see them pick up the site? What is the best way to check that your new subdomains are showing in each countries SERPs? Thanks for your help!
International SEO | | Scratch_MM0