Duplicate content on .com and .co.uk sites, but on different servers

[Rajiv]

Hello !

I have a site www.example.com hosted with HostingCompany-A. Now, I plan to register a new site www.example.co.uk (for the UK market) and host it with HostingCompanyUK-B (a different hosting company in UK).

If I copy the content from www.example.com to www.example.co.uk, will it trigger content duplication?

Thank you for the help.
Regards,
Rajiv

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 9:57 am (utc) on Dec. 30, 2009]
[edit reason] use example.tld - it can never be owned [/edit]

[Lame_Wolf]

Duplicate content is duplicate content, and treated as such. One will more than likely be penalised in some way - normally the second on that Google caches.

Why not reword it somewhat ?

[HuskyPup]

Do we assume example.com is hosted in the USA?

Can example.com be seen in the UK Serps?

Is example.com registered to a UK company?

[Rajiv]

Thank you Lame_Wolf and HuskyPup for your answers.. I appreciate Lame_Wolf for the frank explanation, which I believe is true. No matter what data center/server or location we prefer, a duplicate content is a duplicate content !

But, do we have a better way of handling this situation? My .com site has approximately 500 pages, which if I plan to re-write for the .co.uk site will take a lot of time, money etc., and for this discussion let us assume that I don't wish to do this.

I realize that the 301 redirect can be used from .co.uk to .com, but will the .co.uk site appear on UK SERPs ? I guess not, because I believe .co.uk site must possess some pages to be there on the SERPs..

Please help me analyze this situation where I want the .co.uk site to appear on the UK SERPs.

Thank you !

[Rajiv]

Hi HuskPup.. here are the answers to your questions:

Do we assume example.com is hosted in the USA?
A: Yes, the .com is hosted in the USA and the .co.uk site in UK.

Can example.com be seen in the UK Serps?
A: Yes, it can be, but my intention is to make .co.uk appear in UK SERPs.

Is example.com registered to a UK company?
A: EXAMPLE is a registered company in USA with example.com as the main site. Now we want to extend our services to the UK Market (there is no need of registering our company again in the UK) with the .co.uk domain.

Let me know if you can analyze this situation and provide some insight.

Thank you !

[tedster]

Here's my experience. If you duplicate content on a .co.uk and a .com domain, then the .co.uk domain will be filtered out of the google.com results. The .com domain will be filtered out of the google.co.uk results.

You will need to get backlinks to support both domains if you expect them to compete in their respective searches. Also, it is going to be much better for your .co.uk site if you make a "translation" of your text into the version of English that is used in the UK - different spellings, different idioms and so on. In addition, make it very clear on the UK domain that you serve the UK - with addresses, phone numbers, etc.

Do not be scared off by the idea of a duplicate content "penalty". It is a filter and not a penalty against either website -- and if you build the two domains soundly, then it can work as I explained above. This kind of "near-duplication" is a relatively common strategy among international businesses. I say go for it.

[Rajiv]

That was a sigh of relief.. Thank you Tedster !

As you've rightly put, I in fact want the example.com to appear in google.com and example.co.uk to appear in google.co.uk.

I'll certainly consider your advise of changing the content to match the geography, because I need to do that to match some of the obvious parameters such as the currency.

Thank you once again !