Belgium & Netherland both speak Dutch - duplicate content?

domain.nl & domain.be

[designaweb]

For obvious reasons, I'd like to setup domain.be and domain.nl. Both would use the same template, and should have the same copy. Should I be worried about a duplicate content filter?

I mean, it would make sense to set it up like this, right? So why would G. or any other SE for that matter penalize us/me?

Yes... The Belgian people speak french as well ;)

[Staffa]

Yes... The Belgian people speak french as well ;)

and German ;o)

[designaweb]

Ha! Even though I don't like to ignore anyone, the German speaking population of Belgium adds up to only a few 1000's or so...

Now, back on topic plz - even though it makes sense to put up a similair site on a seperate domain, would you be scared of dup-content filters?

[Rumbas]

>Should I be worried about a duplicate content filter?

In short, yes you should. If you run the same template and exact same copy/language, you're facing a dupe content issue.

However if you change language to fx. dutch and flemmish, you're perfectly ok.

To resolve the problem with the same copy on the 2 different domians, I would 301 redirect one to the other and stick with one of them. In a perfect world, I would make 2 different sites with different copy.

[designaweb]

To resolve the problem with the same copy on the 2 different domians, I would 301 redirect one to the other and stick with one of them. In a perfect world, I would make 2 different sites with different copy.

That's not an option. Translating the content into Flemish is, so I guess I'll go with that option, thanks for the reply.

I do hate it when SEO intervienes with common sense...

[Frank Altair]

My experience, stick with one domain. This will benefit the position of the site on dutch & belgian google.

I stopped doing sites on .be and .nl because traffic coming in on the secondary domain is only 5 to 15% and it does lower SE positions for both sites. It's better to focus on just one site and let it rank higher.

[wmuser]

You should be concerned

[sherwoodseo]

...Or a compromise: pick one domain to be the winner in search results, and robots.txt the other one. This way, you can market the appropriate domain names to each country through non-search channels, while creating the one-site advantage in the engines.

[glengara]

*while creating the one-site advantage in the engines.*

You could also use a .nl domain and host it in .be....