UK and US Targeting Simultaneously - Domain Setup and Duplicate Content?
-
I have a site that will be targeting the US and the UK. However, it will need to display slightly different content to the two. Should I use a .co.uk and a .com, or uk.themainsite.com for the UK, or themainsite.com/UK?
This is of course setting up multiple country targeting within Google Webmaster Tools. Am I likely to run into duplicate content issues?
-
I think separate domains would be the preferred choice in a perfect world, but of course we live in a far-from-perfect one!
You're quite right to flag a potential duplicate content issue. Two separate domains may help you to rank in two different search engines, but this would require you to have completely unique content for both sites. Navigation and layout can obviously be the same, but the content within your pages will need to be unique, which, depending on your industry, may simply not be possible (there are only so-many times you can reinvent the wheel, or re-write it as it were).
With a localised site on a .com domain (you would be fine with either subdomain or subfolder, but if pushed, I'd pick a subfolder - www.domain.com/uk/page1.html for example) you may not need to rewrite as much content - as you can informational pages and other similar style pages sitting on the .com domain for all local subfolders to use, for example. However, you will still need to rewrite other pages that would have similar content, such as products or services.
If you have the time and resource, I'd go for two separate domains. There's definitely a lot of data and results to support that a .co.uk domain will have an easier time ranking higher in Google UK over a .com (although not essential), which can help get you going. It will require a lot of writing and re-writing, but if you get it right now, at the first stage, it would save any headaches in the future.
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
-
Canonical Tags - Do they only apply to internal duplicate content?
Hi Moz, I've had a complaint from a company who we use a feed from to populate a restaurants product list.They are upset that on our products pages we have canonical tags linking back to ourselves. These are in place as we have international versions of the site. They believe because they are the original source of content we need to canonical back to them. Can I please confirm that canonical tags are purely an internal duplicate content strategy. Canonical isn't telling google that from all the content on the web that this is the original source. It's just saying that from the content on our domains, this is the original one that should be ranked. Is that correct? Furthermore, if we implemented a canonical tag linking to Best Restaurants it would de-index all of our restaurants listings and pages and pass the authority of these pages to their site. Is this correct? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | benj20341 -
Migrating domains from a domain that will have new content.
We have a new url. The old url is being taken over by someone else. Is it possible to still have a successful redirect/migration strategy if we are redirect from our old domain, which is now being used by someone else. I see a big mess, but I'm being told we can redirect all the links to our old content (which is now used by someone else) to our new url. Thoughts? craziness? insanity? Or I'm just not getting it:)
Technical SEO | | CC_Dallas0 -
Quickview popup duplicate content
Hi We have an eccomerce site. We just added to the product list view a quickview tab - when you roll mouse over it a popup window with the product image and short description shows up - is this a problem of duplicate content( its the same content that's on the product pages except there we also have a long detailed description) - t is done with javascript. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | henya0 -
Duplicate content or titles
Hello , I am working on a site, I am facing the duplicate title and content errors,
Technical SEO | | KLLC
there are following kind of errors : 1- A link with www and without www having same content. actually its a apartment management site, so it has different bedrooms apartments and booking pages , 2- my second issue is related to booking and details pages of bedrooms, because I am using 1 file for all booking and 1 file for all details page. these are the main errors which i am facing ,
can anyone give me suggestions regarding these issues ? Thnaks,0 -
Duplicate page content & titles on the same domain
Hey, My website: http://www.electromarket.co.uk is running Magento Enterprise. The issue I'm running into is that the URLs can be shortened and modified to display different things on the website itself. Here's a few examples. Product Page URL: http://www.electromarket.co.uk/speakers-audio-equipment/dj-pa-speakers/studio-bedroom-monitors/bba0051 OR I could remove everything in the URL and just have: http://www.electromarket.co.uk/bba0051 and the link will work just as well. Now my problem is, these two URL's load the same page title, same content, same everything, because essentially they are the very same web page. But how do I tell Google that? Do I need to tell Google that? And would I benefit by using a redirect for the shorter URLs? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | tomhall900 -
Duplicate Content for Multiple Instances of the Same Product?
Hi again! We're set to launch a new inventory-based site for a chain of car dealers with various locations across the midwest. Here's our issue: The different branches have overlap in the products that they sell, and each branch is adamant that their inventory comes up uniquely in site search. We don't want the site to get penalized for duplicate content; however, we don't want to implement a link rel=canonical because each product should carry the same weight in search. We've talked about having a basic URL for these product descriptions, and each instance of the inventory would be canonicalized to this main product, but it doesn't really make sense for the site structure to do this. Do you have any tips on how to ensure that these products (same description, new product from manufacturer) won't be penalized as duplicate content?
Technical SEO | | newwhy0 -
How to resolve this Duplicate content?
Hi , There is page i get when i do proper menu navigation Caratlane.com>jewellery>rings>casualsrings> http://www.caratlane.com/jewellery/rings/casual-rings/leaves-dew-diamond-0-03-ct-peridot-1-ct-ring-18k-yellow-gold.html When i do a site search in my search box by my product code number "JR00219" The same page is appears with different url http://www.caratlane.com/leaves-dew-diamond-0-03-ct-peridot-1-ct-ring-18k-yellow-gold.html So there is a duplicate content. How can we resolve it. Regards, kathir caratlane.com
Technical SEO | | kathiravan0 -
KW Targeted Domain Format For Local Biz
My brother owns a laundromat...Im putting together his site.....I am targetinga small geographic area obviously.... Which domain is more seo friendly for the kw north brunswick nj laundromat? northbrunswicknjlaundromat.com north-brunswick-nj-laundromat.com northbrunswick-nj-laundromat.com northbrunswicknj-laundromat.com I doubt there is a huge difference between any of them and my first instict was to go with "northbrunswicknjlaundromat" but it seems it may be too wordy to not use hyphens. Do search engines care? Thanks in advance for any and all help Nolan
Technical SEO | | NInc810