Duplicate GB2312 and Big5 sites Google problem

Could they be seen as duplicate content?

[HarryM]

I have a site in Big5 hosted in the UK, and a virtually identical site in GB2312 hosted in China. At one time all pages for both sites were indexed by Google, but now most of the pages in the GB site appear to have gone supplemental.

Does anyone know if there could be a duplicate content problem?

(I note that a search in traditional characters will produce serps in traditional characters, but although an entry may be in traditional characters the actual site may be in simplified. So Google clearly knows the relationship between the encodings.)

[bill]

This is a very good question. I have a new Traditional site that essentially mirrors my Simplified site. It's not an exact translation, but follows much of the same content. I would be very interested to hear how others sites have fared.

[HarryM]

Deathly silence! Should I take it that no one has had a problem with this?

I have done a few tests.

If I search for a phrase in traditional characters that only occurs in my Big5 site, it shows correctly in SERPS for google.com, google.com.hk, and google.cn. Similarly if I search for a phrase in simplified characters that only occurs in my GB site, it shows correctly in all three.

But if I search for certain keywords which occur on both sites, then the GB page shows in SERPS for all three search engines irrespective of whether I enter the search term in traditional or simplified characters. In effect anyone outside mainland China is being directed to the site in the wrong character set which also will be slow to load because it's behind the firewall.

[bill]

Thanks for following up on that Harry. It sounds like the GB SERPs are winning out here, but I would expect them to be a bit more competitive in a situation where you are using keywords that cross-over in both charsets.

Have you tried your tests with the Google Taiwan [google.com.tw] SERPs as well?

[HarryM]

Thanks Bill

I did a quick test in Google Taiwan with a term that occurs on both sites.

TAIWAN

Searching "the web" with the term in traditional chars:

.cn GB site = #10 (with the title and snippet displayed in trad)
.com Big5 site = #14

Searching "the web" with the term in simplified character:

.cn GB site = #8
.com Big5 site = #15

Searching "traditional characters only" with term in traditional chars:

.com Big5 site = #6

I did the same test on Google China:

CHINA

Searching "the web" with the term in traditional chars:

.cn GB site = #9
.com Big5 site = not in first 40 results

Searching "the web" with the term in simplified chars:

.cn GB site = #6

Searching "simplified characters only" with term in simplified chars:

.cn GB site = #6

That's a lot more encouraging!

The fact that the GB site is higher in Taiwan may be due to it having a higher rank, rather than a language issue.