US and UK Websites of Same Business with Same Content

[CommercePundit]

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.

[ThompsonPaul]

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.

[VeroBrain]

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

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[ThompsonPaul]

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

[VeroBrain]

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

[ThompsonPaul]

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

[GastonRiera]

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 Blog

Hope it helps.
Best Luck.
GR.