Are pages translated from one language to another duplicate content?

[Planet13]

Hi there, Everyone:

If I translate out sites pages (written in English) into another language (say Italian) and put it on a different domain, would google consider the Italian version a duplicate?

Will I have to come up with all new content just for the Italian version? (I do want to keep the English version up as well.)

Would it be better to keep both the English version and the Italian version on the SAME domain? I should imagine that the Italian version would do better if it was on an Italian top level domain, right?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[peterdaly]

No. In my experience, it's exact phrase matches that matter...word for word.

Sometimes something as simple as change one word in what Google uses for the "snippet" causes a page to get through the duplicate content filter.

Words translated to other languages should be no problem at all.

[Planet13]

Thank You, Peter!

[gn_wendy]

...would google consider the Italian version a duplicate

No. Just don't use Google Translate to translate it ;)


You can have the same page with the exact same content (translated well) into every language in the world. Google will never see those as duplicate, especially if they are on different domains. The English version will rank for English Google SERPs and the Italian for Italian Google SERPs and so on.

This is true even if you put everything on the same domain.

No. In my experience, it's exact phrase matches that matter...word for word.

Okay. Erm. No. -- as far as changing one word in the metaDesc goes; then yes. But if you change one or just a few words on a page... even if you change many words on a page you will probably still get hit with a duplicate filter in the SERPs. Google does pretty well at filtering similar results.

In some tests I did I reached the conclusion that you need to variate at least every five words and not just with synonyms, but varied language to be 100% sure and get through.

[peterdaly]

In some tests I did I reached the conclusion that you need to variate at least every five words and not just with synonyms, but varied language to be 100% sure and get through.

I suspect we are both correct, as I know what I have seen and have no reason to doubt what you say.

It probably depends on the different variables involved in the specific situation....PageRank, Domain Authority, clearly identifiable root content source, optimization of the non-duplicate elements on the page, etc.

[roxbest]

No. Just don't use Google Translate to translate it ;)

Why can not use the google translator?

[g1smd]

You'll get something back that a native speaker of the language will have a hard time reading.