Can having similar content on my company's two sites hurt our rankings?

[comellortho]

We have a very successful website that has been up for a number of years (www.comellaortho.com). We rank high in the natural rankings for that site.

A few months ago, we started seeing patients in another nearby city. I purchased a new domain name, www.dansvilleortho.com, and had our web company duplicate the website under the new domain name. The reality is that the content on these two sites are nearly identical. Some of the pages are different; for example, there are fewer pages on the new site. But the pages that do exist are nearly identical.

My question is: Can having similar content on my company's two sites hurt our rankings?

Based on what I've read thus far, I believe the answer is "Yes". However, I'm curious how bad this may hurt us.

I'm not as worried about the new site (dansvilleortho.com) because our competition in that city is slim to none. But I AM worried about harming the original site/business (comellaortho.com).

Which site(s) rankings may be affected by this, and if so, how bad?

Thank you.

[comellortho]

Thanks! The problem is, the businesses have two completely different names/branding/logos, etc. I'm trying to create a seamless & separate experience for both cities.

Would an alternative (albeit less desirable) option be to re-write the content on the duplicate site? Or at least change it enough to not be so identical?

[irvingw]

Absolutely can cause a penalty. I would take down the dupe site immediately.

Also two sites are against Google TOS. Instead of having a second site, create city/state pages for your main site and get those ranked instead.

[SandyPardal]

Rewriting or repurposing the content wouldn't hurt you.  Thumb rule is to never have identical content on any two pages on the web.