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.
US and UK Websites of Same Business with Same Content
-
Hello Community,
I need your help to understand, whether I can use the US website's content on my UK website or not?
US Website's domain: https://www.fortresssecuritystore.com
UK Website's domain: https://www.fortresssecuritystore.co.uk
Both websites are having same content on all the pages, including testimonials/reviews.
I am trying to gain business from Adwords and Organic SEO marketing.
Thanks.
-
Yup, but doesn't matter. Hreflang works for this situation whether cross-domain or on a subdirectory/subdomain basis (and in fact is even more effective when cross-domain as you're also getting the benefit of the geo-located ccTLD.)
P.
-
Hi Paul,
If I understood correctly, we are talking about two different websites, not a website with subdomains.
Hreflang can be used for other languages and countries although not for masking 100% duplicated content as I stated above.site A: https://www.fortresssecuritystore.com
site B: https://www.fortresssecuritystore.co.uk
The recommendations that Google gives are for the purpose of having the pages crawled and indexed not for having success with 100% duplicate content which do not serve a good UX, therefore gain a high bounce rate, then the overall SEO fall down.
Mª Verónica
-
Unfortunately, your information is incorrect, Veronica.
Hreflang is specifically designed for exactly this situation. As Google Engineer Maile Oye clearly states, one of the primary uses of hreflang markup is:
- Your content has small regional variations with** similar content in a single language**. For example, you might have English-language content targeted to the US, GB, and Ireland.
(https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en)
There's no question differentiating similar content in the same language for different regions/countries is more of a challenge than for totally different languages, but it can absolutely be done, and in fact is a very common requirement for tens of thousands of companies.
Paul
- Your content has small regional variations with** similar content in a single language**. For example, you might have English-language content targeted to the US, GB, and Ireland.
-
Hi CommercePundit,
Sadly, there is not "a non painful way to say it".
You cannot gain business from Adwords and Organic SEO marketing having 100% duplicated content.The options; canonical and hreflang would not work in this case.
The only option is language "localization", mean rewrite the whole content by a local writer.
Canonical can be used for up to 10% not for the whole 100%. Hreflang can be used for other languages and countries although not for masking 100% duplicated content.
Sorry to tell the bad news. Good luck!
Mª Verónica
-
The more you can differentiate these two sites, the better they will each perform in their own specific markets, CP.
First requirement will be a careful, full implementation of hreflang tags for each site.
Next, you'll need to do what you can to regionalise the content - for example changing to UK spelling for the UK site content, making sure prices are referenced in pounds instead of dollars, changing up the language to use British idioms and locations as examples where possible. It'll also be critical to work towards having the reviews/testimonials from each site's own country, rather than generic, This will help dramatically from a marketing standpoint and also help differentiate for the search engines, so a double win.
And finally, you'll want to make certain you've set up each in their own Google Search Console and used the geographic targeting for the .com site to specify its target as US. (You won't' need to target the UK site as the .co.uk is already targeted so you won't' get that option in GSC.). If you have an actual physical address/phone in the UK, would also help to set up a separate Google My Busines profile for the UK branch.
Bottom line is - you'll need to put in significant work to differentiate the sites and provide as many signals as possible for which site is for which country in order to help the search engines understand which to return in search results.
Hope that all makes sense?
Paul
-
Hi!
Yeap you can target UK market with US site version. Always keep in mind that its possible that you might perform as well as in the main market (US).
Also, before making any desition and/or implementing, take a look at these articles:
Multi-regional and multilingual sites - Google Search Console
International checklist - Moz Blog
Using the correct hreglang tag - Moz Blog
Guide to international website expansion - Moz Blog
Tool for checking hreflang anotations - Moz BlogHope it helps.
Best Luck.
GR.
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
-
Duplicate content issues... en-gb V en-us
Hi everyone, I have a global client with lots of duplicate page issues, mainly because they have duplicate pages for US, UK and AUS... they do this because they don't offer all services in all markets, and of course, want to show local contact details for each version. What is the best way to handle this for SEO as clearly I want to rank the local pages for each country. Cheers
Technical SEO | | Algorhythm_jT0 -
Is duplicate content ok if its on LinkedIn?
Hey everyone, I am doing a duplicate content check using copyscape, and realized we have used a ton of the same content on LinkedIn as our website. Should we change the LinkedIn company page to be original? Or does it matter? Thank you!
Technical SEO | | jhinchcliffe0 -
How to create unique content for businesses with multiple locations?
I have a client that owns one franchise location of a franchise company with multiple locations. They have one large site with each location owning it's own page on the site, which I feel is the best route. The problem is that each location page has basically duplicate content on each page resulting in like 80 pages of duplicate content. I'm looking for advice on how to create unique content for each location page? What types of information can we write about to make each page unique, because you can only twist sentences and content around so much before it just all sounds cookie cutter and therefore offering little value.
Technical SEO | | RonMedlin0 -
How to resolve this Duplicate content?
Hi , There is page i get when i do proper menu navigation Caratlane.com>jewellery>rings>casualsrings> http://www.caratlane.com/jewellery/rings/casual-rings/leaves-dew-diamond-0-03-ct-peridot-1-ct-ring-18k-yellow-gold.html When i do a site search in my search box by my product code number "JR00219" The same page is appears with different url http://www.caratlane.com/leaves-dew-diamond-0-03-ct-peridot-1-ct-ring-18k-yellow-gold.html So there is a duplicate content. How can we resolve it. Regards, kathir caratlane.com
Technical SEO | | kathiravan0 -
.com or .co.uk in UK index? but the .com has higher domain authority...
Hi there i have a .com and a .co.uk for a site that has been around a while. However not much seo has been done on it, i was wonderign do i continue to optimise for the .com or switch to the .co.uk to rank in Google UK index for various search terms. .COM = 40 domain authority .CO.UK - 10 domain authority. Let the debate start 🙂
Technical SEO | | pauledwards0 -
UK website ranking higher in Google.com than Google.co.uk
Hi, I have a UK website which was formerly ranked 1<sup>st</sup> in Google.co.uk and .com for my keyword phrase and has recently slipped to 6<sup>th</sup> in .co.uk but is higher in position 4 in Google.com. I have conducted a little research and can’t say for certain but I wonder if it is possible that too many of my backlinks are US based and therefore Google thinks my website is also US based. Checked Google WmT and we the geo-targeted to the UK. Our server is also UK based. Does anyone have an opinion on this? Thanks
Technical SEO | | tdsnet0 -
Why is my website banned?
IMy website is Costume Machine at www.costumemachine.com . My site has been banned for 1 year now. I have requested that google reconsider my site 3 times without luck. The site is dynamic and basically pulls in feeds from affiliate sites. We have added over 1,500 pages of original content. The site has been running great since 2008 without any penalties. I don't think I got hit with any linking penalty. I cleaned up all questionable links last November when the penalty hit. Am I being hit with a "thin" site penalty? If that is the issue what is the best way to fix the problem?
Technical SEO | | tadden0 -
Has google panelized us ? If so, why ? How do I know if our website is panelized ?
We were ranked on first page among top 5 position a year ago for most of our pages. On one fine day, google decided to drop us from the results although google keeps indexing our pages. Google index our pages regularly but doesn't show them in its results. All google traffic we receive is for our own site name and its variations. I wanted to know - how do we know if google has panelized us. Why has google panelized us ? If they have panelized us, what can we do to get out of it ? Also I wanted to know if any tool will help me identify such thing. We have not done any link building. Our site page rank is 4 (it was 5 few months ago). All we did was on page optimization. Thanks for your help!
Technical SEO | | seoidea0