Duplicate Website Content? (UK & Ireland)

HomePainting

My website is based in Ireland on a .ie domain. I would now like to enter the UK market on a .co.uk


Is it ok for me to copy the content from my .ie website and provide all the information on a .co.uk OR is this considered duplicate content in terms of Google Search.


(I'm led to believe that my own content on my multiple domain's is not considered duplicate & it's only considered duplicate content when you go from .com to .ie, .co.uk etc).
(all my content, images, branding are unique).


Advise is welcomed, how to have 2 same sites (ireland & england).

PaulPinnacle

HomePainting wrote: »

(I'm led to believe that my own content on my multiple domain's is not considered duplicate & it's only considered duplicate content when you go from .com to .ie, .co.uk etc).

Led to believe what?

Duplicate content is duplicate content, whether it's on your own domain (www.site.com and www.site.com/index.html), on multiple domains that you own or on multiple domains some of which you don't own.

I assume what you're trying to say is "it's ok to have numerous domains with duplicated content as long as they're targeting different geolocations"?

While technically that's true, it won't get you in 'trouble', it's far from ideal and wouldn't be the suggested way to go. If you're building authority to a domain, that's the one you would hope to rank. Spreading the authority and trust across multiple domains isn't ideal and (in a vast majority of cases) won't provide the best results.

If you want the two sites to be identical, with no optimising of content for local use of language or currency etc., then you're better off sticking with a single gTLD rather than two separate ccTLDs resolving to the same content.

BrianD

Can you not point both domain names and the same site?

I can understand the OPs concern - people tend to prefer or trust domain names from their own countries.

HomePainting

Let to believe?

Led to believe it's ok to have the exact same content on example.ie & example.co.uk. (obviously slight/relevant changes in terms of currency, spelling, address etc but essentially the same content as such). Here's an interesting video suggesting it's ok. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =Ets7nHOV1Yo

& yep that's what i meant geo targeting

PaulPinnacle

HomePainting wrote: »

Here's an interesting video suggesting it's ok.

If your concern is that it'll be flagged as spam and end up in deindexing of some or all of the domains, then as the video points out it's not a big problem. If your query is about if it's the optimal way to do it, to achieve the highest volume of traffic or the best results in either/both countries, it wouldn't be advised. They're different questions though, so it depends on what you're looking for.

HomePainting

PaulPinnacle wrote: »

If your concern is that it'll be flagged as spam and end up in deindexing of some or all of the domains, then as the video points out it's not a big problem. If your query is about if it's the optimal way to do it, to achieve the highest volume of traffic or the best results in either/both countries, it wouldn't be advised. They're different questions though, so it depends on what you're looking for.

My initial thought was about the spam / duplicate content but know i'm thinking it's not the most optimal way to do things. I'll re-consider copying content from .ie to .co.uk & do it a different way.

blue4ever

This whole area is so full of strange ideas.

Duplicate content is always going to happen, always. Press releases, reports for AP, PA The press association etc. My favourite one is Race cads – yep race cards. Issued by the Racing board ion ireland and the UK and licensed to the various media. In no way in hell can they be edited – nor should they; therefore massive duplicate content across the web.

What happens duplicate content: search engines determine which site to put higher. That’s all.

As to your predicament you could target the uk on a .co.uk – you could create a sub domain. But in reality you will not be given a look in if the content is not of relevance to the UK – and of genuine relevance at that. UK content, address helps , local mapping could work.

And – after looking at your site, you would have to change everything on it to make it relevant to the UK, not UK search engines,UK punters.

Since that’s the case – there is no issue with duplicate content.