Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
How to fix the duplicate content problem on different domains (.nl /.be) of your brand's websites in multiple countries?
-
Dear all,
what is the best way to fix the duplicate content problem on different domains (.nl /.be) of your brand's websites in multiple countries?
What must I add to my code of websites my .nl domain to avoid duplicate content and to keep the .nl website out of google.be, but still well-indexed in google.nl?
What must I add to my code of websites my .be domain to avoid duplicate content and to keep the .nl website out of google.be, but still well-indexed in google.nl?
Thanks in advance!
-
In that case, I'll go for the Alternate link tag as mentionned before:
By using it, you will guide Google and tell him to show the flemish version in first position for your user in Belgium and vice-versa for the dutch users in Holland.
Hope this helps!
Maxime
-
Dear Maxime,
there texts and content are pretty much the same / identical. Maybe there are some slight textual differences since Flemish and Dutch are different sometimes.
Overall, all content is nearly the same.
Thanks for both of your help!
-
BenVer,
Please can you tell us what kind of duplicate content do you have on your different domains (.nl /.be) ?
Are the dutch and belgium page exactly the same? What are the differences?
Thanks,
Maxime
-
Maxime,
I saw this too, and there are certainly variants. Given, that for Google I have generally used WMT as the final source and usually that worked, I lean a bit more that way. But, your point is well stated and not wrong. For purposes of being absolutely safe, it will not hurt to have the hreflang attribute there. A better question might be: is it really necessary given the you have ccTLD's and the same language?
From WMT:
Some example scenarios where
rel="alternate" hreflang="x"
is recommended:- You translate only the template of your page, such as the navigation and footer, and keep the main content in a single language. This is common on pages that feature user-generated content, like a forum post.
- Your pages have broadly similar content within a single language, but the content has small regional variations. For example, you might have English-language content targeted at readers in the US, GB, and Ireland.
- Your site content is fully translated. For example, you have both German and English versions of each page.
I will assume that it is a given that google uses the ccTLD as the indicator of country and that it is considered a "Strong" signal to Google.
WIthin GWMT re: multilingual/regional sites (the bolded/italics are mine
Websites that provide content for different regions and in different languages sometimes create content that is the same or similar but available on different URLs. This is generally not a problem as long as the content is for different users in different countries. While we strongly recommend that you provide unique content for each different group of users, we understand that this may not always be possible. There is generally no need to "hide" the duplicates by disallowing crawling in a robots.txt file or by using a "noindex" robots meta tag. However, if you're providing the same content to the same users on different URLs (for instance, if both __
example.de/
andexample.com/de/
show German language content for users in Germany), you should pick a preferred version and redirect (or use the rel=canonical link element) appropriately. In addition, you should follow the guidelines on rel-alternate-hreflang to make sure that the correct language or regional URL is served to searchers.Again, thanks for the replies. I find it really helpful to discuss back and forth as it adds to the learning adventure we are all on.
Best to you,
Robert
-
Maxime,
While I agree the speed might be different with in country hosting given they are both European countries. (Not true in some others.) But the question was around content duplication.
Again, I think your intent is good. But, since he has two separate domains. ExampleSite.be and ExampleSite.nl, he has no need of hreflang="x" since both are in Dutch. If he had Dutch and English it would not matter if it were the same domain or not:
From Gianluca Fiorelli mozPost**if Page A (US version) exists also in Page B (Spanish), C (French), and D (German) versions from other countires, no matter if they are in the same domain or different, then on page A you should suggest the last three URLs as the ones Google must show in the SERPs in their respective targeted Googles. **
Again, since they are ccTLD's and they are already geotargeted by virtue of same and since they are both in Dutch, there is no other worry re duplicate content.
I am open to being shown I am wrong as it will not be the first time
Best to you, thanks so much for your replies,
Robert
-
Hi Robert, 1. Yes indeed you are right, for a ccTLD, there is no geotargeting in GWMT. 2. Dutch is spoken in both Netherlands and Belgium so having the same content appearing on both .nl and .be domains is likely to be considered as duplicate content. Using rel=”alternate” hreflang=”x” seems to be the most appropriate solution. 3. In my opinion, hosting each website in the country targeted is a plus (server response will be quicker) but this is indeed not decisive. So do it only if you have a large budget.
-
Maxime,
I have to question this as you have it. The intent is there, but you are throwing everything at a problem and some of it does not work:
1. for a ccTLD, there is no geotargeting in WMT: from GWMT:
Sites with country-coded top-level domains (such as .ie) are already associated with a geographic region, in this case Ireland. In this case, you won't be able to specify a geographic location.
2. He does not need this in a cross domain setting.
3. Given he has ccTLD's this is an unnecessary expense and will add no value.
Hope this clarifies for you,
-
BenVer
In a short answer, not much. This is from GWMT:
Websites that provide content for different regions and in different languages sometimes create content that is the same or similar but available on different URLs. This is generally not a problem as long as the content is for different users in different countries.
Since you are using ccTLD's, Google already knows that you are targeting that specific country.
While this will not guarantee that the .nl doesn't outrank the .be in Belgium, it will take care of your duplicate content concerns.
-
Is this the best way?
http://googleproducts-nl.blogspot.nl/2012/02/meertalige-en-multiregionale-websites.html
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Moving from single domain to multiple CCTLDs
Hi, I have a website targeting 3 markets (and therefor 3 languages). I was currently using a single domain with each market being targeted in the following format: www.website.com/pl
International SEO | | cellydy
www.website.com/de
www.website.com/hu It's clear to me by looking at organic results, that in my industry (Real Estate) Google is putting a large emphasis on local businesses and local domains. Top 10 organic results for all my keywords in all markets have country specific CCTLDs. I decided to migrate from a single domain strategy to a multi domain strategy. I own the domains. The new structure is www.website.com/pl -> www.website.pl
www.website.com/de -> www.website.de
www.website.com/hu -> www.website.hu All the website have been added to google search console and 301 redirects are in place and working correctly. The pages are all interlinked and have rel=alternate to each other. The sitemaps are all done correctly. My question is how do I tell Google about this. The change of address feature only works for changing one domain to one other domain. It's been a week and the old www.website.com domain is still showing up (even considering 301 redirects). Or do I just need to be patient and wait it out? Any tips?0 -
Why Doesn't Google Use My Title Tag and Meta Description?
Hi fellow Moz SEOs, Need your URGENT help! We set an optimised title & meta description for our client websites. These titles are approved by our clients. Before somedays, they checked on Google, noticed the title & meta description were not the same. Next moment, they notified me about this issue. The title & meta description looks fine when I checked the source code. So, why Google use title & meta description differently? For example: Title approved by client: Top Specialist Divorce & Family Lawyer - Yeo & Associates LLC
International SEO | | Verz
Google set our title: Yeo & Associates LLC: Top Specialist Divorce & Family Lawyer Title approved by client: Filing For Divorce Online in Singapore | DivorceBureau®
Google set our title: DivorceBureau®: Filing For Divorce Online in Singapore Title approved by client: Halal Buffet & Bento/Packet Meals Event Caterer Singapore | Foodtalks
Google set our title: Foodtalks - Halal Buffet & Bento/Packet Meals Event Caterer Singapore Title approved by client: Child Care Centre in Singapore| Top Preschool | Carpe Diem
Google set our title: Carpe Diem: Child care Centre in Singapore| Top Preschool Every day, they are requesting me to update Google's title with their approved title. Also, asking me these questions.
Why did this happen?
Why didn't set their recommended title? Is there any way to set our approved titles? Please, help me to find the solution. ASAP Thanks in advance!0 -
Targeting Countries in the Middle East
Hi guys, I have a client based in the Middle East using a generic top level domain (.com), and they want to target multiple countries in the GCC (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar etc). I’m thinking that using the hreflang tag would be the best solution here, however the pages will mostly have the exact same content. There will only be slight changes on some pages in terms of using localised title tags [client service] followed by [targeted country], h1's and meta descriptions. Is this the correct approach? And if so should this be implemented side wide or can it be implemented on selected pages only? The site will be in English only.
International SEO | | Jbeetle0 -
Can you target the same site with multiple country HREFlang entries?
Hi, I have a question regarding the country targeting aspect of HREFLANG. Can the same site be targeted with multiple country HREFlang entries? Example: A global company has an English South African site (geotargeted in webmaster tools to South Africa), with a hreflang entry targeted to "en-za", to signify English language and South Africa as the country. Could you add entries to the same site to target other English speaking South African countries? Entries would look something like this: (cd = Congo, a completely random example) etc... Since you can only geo-target a site to one country in WMT would this be a viable option? Thanks in advance for any help! Vince
International SEO | | SimonByrneIFS0 -
Thai Characters in URL's
Does anyone have experience with non-Latin characters in URL's? We've launched a website in Thailand and picked Thai characters for URL's. However, when you copy it, it turns into something like this: http://www.imoneythailand.com/บัตรเครดิต Can it impact our website's crawlability? Also, is keyword in URL a ranking factor for non-Latin languages? Thanks in advance for help!
International SEO | | imoney0 -
Which hreflang tag to use for .eu domain
Hi there, We're trying to solve a problem with one of our domains, we have a .eu CCTLD and we're trying to implement hreflang tags. On our US and UK sites, we use "en-us" and "en-gb", but it's not clear how to approach this european problem, as there is not a "en-eu" tag. The site is in English, but serves several European countries speaking different languages. What's the best hreflang code to use in this situation? Any help much appreciated, Thanks!
International SEO | | dennis.globalsign0 -
Website Target in Europe
Hi, I am planning a site to target in Europe and I expect to translate my site into ten different languages namely English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, Greek, Portuguese, Dutch and Swedish. I am doing some study of this case in targeting different countries for SEO, most of the advise are the following: a. Build 10 different websites and target different geographical location in Google Webmaster b. Get 10 different country specific domains for 10 different websites I would like to hear any suggestion if there is anything better than this ? I had all the materials and translation ready but building 10 different websites or getting 10 different domains are very time consuming and costly. I would be appreciated if any one had any advise for me to make the website more management friendly. Thank you. Tom
International SEO | | Stevejobs20110 -
How to rank in Google for a specific country?
Hi, I've a relative good ranking for a specific keyword in google.com (english queries (hl=en)), but searching for the same keyword in google.com.br (Brazilian Portuguese (hl=pt-BR)), my rank for that keyword is far worst. The question is: I need to do something specific to rank in google.com.br (hl=pt-BR)? I'm doing the regular link building. Creating some blogs, blogging for 10 days before droping my links, and creating link wheels the same way. The blogs I create to make links are written in Brazilian Portuguese, also, the blog that I'm trying to rank higher, is also written in Brazilian Portuguese. Sorry for the english, it's not my native language. Thanks
International SEO | | izaiasalmeida0