Duplicate Content Issues - help needed

Will we be penalised by Google?

[bezzer]

We currently have a .co.uk site and we are soon to launch a .ie site. Bothe sites are in English but would we be penalised by Google if we use an almost exact copy of the UK site for the IE site? We have heard lots of different opinions on this subject and I would welcome any help or advice. If it is a problem then obviously we will have to create brand new content for the IE site :(

[aakk9999]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, bezzer!

It is no wonder you heard different opinions because even for Google this is not a clear cut. Here is what Matt said about it a few years ago (emphasis mine):

Is the same content posted under different TLDs a problem?
25 May 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ets7nHOV1Yo [youtube.com]

.... If you have them on a different TLDs, so for example .uk, .ca, nz, .au, so you know all of these countries we expect to find English content, but you know units of currency may be different or things like that, then we might or might not duplicate them, depending on the exact content within the each page ...

Further on in the video Matt comments on a number of domains with a duplicate content being a factor, apparently having a small number of domains which have their own TLD and have a duplicate content is not a problem.

I am not sure how other search engines may treat it though.

[bezzer]

That's great, thanks. We are mainly concerned with Google so this is quite a good insight for us.