Duplicate Content and SEO

problems with duplication and SEO

[markov]

Hi - I have a question about duplicate content. I have a Client that is part of a large Corporate Network. He has been given control of the Asia-Pacific area and thus has been given control of two websites - one in New Zealand and one in Australia. Both websites offer exactly the same content and product range. They are hosted separately - one in Aus and the other in in NZ.
How can he organise any SEO for these two sites without being penalised for duplicate content. It would be a major task to rewrite a website to have different text etc - so what can he do?

Thanks for any advice you can offer

[Quadrille]

He probably needs to look at the template or page design.

Part of each page will be product-specific, and therefore will be largely the same on each site - even that could be tweaked slightly, for example, emphasising Australian Dollars, New Zealand dollars ...

Other parts may be company specific; they could be rewritten slightly to emphasise the local connection; 'Australia's leading ... '

The 'samey' stuff is only part of the page; SEs will look at the whole page, and are developing particular interest in local content - That may include extra local content, or use of 'local' images and ALT text.

The key is to focus on customer differences, and use that to better focus each site on local needs, which would differentiate the sites as a side effect.

There are other possibilities; does the company actually need two sites? If the products are the same, it may just be the shopping cart stuff that needs to be kept apart - but if distribution is separate, pricing significantly different or local hosting an issue, then keep two sites.