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    4. Two Different Domains exact same content

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    Two Different Domains exact same content

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO
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    • techdesign
      techdesign last edited by

      Hello,

      I suspect I know the answer to this but would like to have it confirmed.

      I have been speaking to a company the last couple of weeks who have 2 domains with the exact same content. Possible a third but they haven't supplied a link.

      This from all I've read would be a huge problem for ranking and SEO. What would be the best way to deal with this ?

      I did do a search and found articles/questions on same content on the same site and in articles etc but nothing about exactly the same websites on 2 domains.

      Cheers David.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • techdesign
        techdesign @MarieHaynes last edited by

        Upon a basic inspection using Google and keywords, neither site appears to be ranking, except for Google local business page.

        And that is so far for only one specific keyword. Where one website shows and the others Google+ page does.

        From looking at the replies and doing more reading on this I have 2 options.

        1. Make 1 site the only site and redirect the others to it. Create landing pages for each suburb serviced with unique content

        2. Recreate each site with unique content with a link to the other sites.

        Essentially remove most if not all duplicate content (words and images)

        Am I correct? And if the group wishes to keep the individual business names option 2 would be best ?

        Cheers

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • MarieHaynes
          MarieHaynes last edited by

          There's a lot of stuff written about duplicate content that just isn't true.  John Mueller from Google has said several times that there is no duplicate content penalty.  However, if two pages have the exact same content, Google won't want to show both to the searcher.  They'll pick the most relevant one, or perhaps the one that Google has decided is the originator of the content and show that one.

          So, if you have two sites that are identical, most likely one won't rank well.

          techdesign 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • ColeLusby
            ColeLusby @Alick300 last edited by

            Hi,

            I believe Alick300 may be misunderstanding what Matt Cutts is communicating. Cutts is communicating different domains in different countries in this circumstance.

            Thanks,

            Cole

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • techdesign
              techdesign @Alick300 last edited by

              Its the same ccTLD. and it appears to be 2 or 3 different businesses, different domain names, run under a group business from 2 (possibly 3) different areas.

              It appears that it may have been an attempt to link 3 businesses after a buyout.

              But the content is simply duplicated across both working domains with no changes at all.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • Houses
                Houses last edited by

                Hi,

                If there's a reason to have both sites live then instead of a 301 (which would only show the content from one site) you could use a canonical (if the content can't be updated to something different enough) and chose the main of the two sites

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                • Alick300
                  Alick300 last edited by

                  Hi David,

                  If same content using on different ccTLD like  then that won't be consider as duplicate content. I am sharing Matt cutts

                  video on this .Please watch once.

                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNApwW2KdKQ&index=199&list=UUWf2ZlNsCGDS89VBF_awNvA

                  Thanks

                  techdesign ColeLusby 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • ColeLusby
                    ColeLusby last edited by

                    First, ask why they're doing this. If they're attemtping to rank for multiple locations. Change the content enough to be localized.

                    Second, if it's truly just duplicate content for no real purpose, then 301 redirect the domains to the domain with a higher "domain authority."

                    Find domain authority at opensiteexplorer.com.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • TheeDigital
                      TheeDigital last edited by

                      Sometimes this is done unintentionally, and there may be no ill-intent. Either way, one should be properly redirected to the other.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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