Duplicate content and foreign language sites

[vianna]

I tried looking for this in the past forums, but haven't had much luck finding an answer. Here is my question:
If a company has an english website (.com) in the US - and they take that same site and translate it into a German site with the .de extension, will that be duplicate content and hurt their position?

In other words, the content on the two (or more) sites is the same, but it is in different languages.

Anyone have an idea?

[qbania]

I do not have an answer for that particular question, but, I'd like to add a question to this post to be answered by someone in the know.

If I were to do the same for a .ca and put my site on it, or lets say a .co.uk extension...what are the rules for this?

[RAUS]

Originally Posted by vianna

I tried looking for this in the past forums, but haven't had much luck finding an answer. Here is my question:
If a company has an english website (.com) in the US - and they take that same site and translate it into a German site with the .de extension, will that be duplicate content and hurt their position?

In other words, the content on the two (or more) sites is the same, but it is in different languages.

Anyone have an idea?

As long as you are asking for an idea, rather than a definitive answer, I will chime in here.

Two web sites, in two or more languages, do not constitute duplicate content, even if the meaning of the words is the same.

If you are using the same graphics on the different sites, I suggest that you translate the Alt text also.

Of course, you will want the title and other Meta content to be translated too.

I believe that the change in language is enough to satisfy the search engines.

In addition, the fact is that even if you want the different language web sites to say the same thing, they won't.

The grammar in different languages is different. Many words to not have an exact translation. Either way, the text will not be considered duplicate content.

On the other hand, a page of English text, is a page of English text.

qbania:

I may be wrong, but if the text of a web site is the same, I do not believe having .ca or .uk in the URL will make a difference. It will still be considered duplicate content.

I suggest that you forward the .ca or .uk domain, with masking turned on, to a home page in a directory on the main site, or even the main home page.

This will not be considered duplicate content because the page that the SE will see, will just have some meta text and a frame for the other page to load into.

I suggest that the meta data be specific to .ca and .uk visitors.

However, the visitor will see the .ca or .uk URL in the address bar.

The meta text will get the page listed in .ca or .uk specific search engines, although I do not know how they will rank.

I hope that this helps, and I am sure that more experienced people will chime in to correct and expand upon what I wrote.

Harris

[incrediblehelp]

With different languages and domain names (I.e. German, Russian, Chinese, etc.) you should be OK.

It gets a lot trickier with the .ca and co.uk. I would not recommend duplicating the English website on those two domain extensions. I would recommend making unique websites for these two utilizing small language differences like "optimization" versus "optimisation".

I good example of all different languages is what large companies like Kelkoo does:

http://www.kelkoo.com/

[geoffreygag]

Two languages with common content is not duplicate.

[amabaie]

I do multi-lingual SEO for clients.

The search engines read the words on your pages. "J'ai perdu mon nounourse" are not the same words as "I lost my teddy bear." You are safe.

As for two different TLDs with the same content, that is duplicate content. However, your positions will not be hurt unless Google et al. think you are trying to game them by claiming multiple spots for the same search terms using different domains. At worst, the results from all but one site will be filtered out.

The smart thing to do is to change the wording enough, which should not be hard, given that a .ca site should mention Canada and/or locations in Canada and contain lots of words ending in our that the .com site probably would not have.

I hope that helps.

[kapur]

I don't think this should make any difference as languages are different. If you would have two URL's(TLDs) with same language and content then it would have counted as duplicate content.

[TrafficProducer]

difference as languages : difference designs.

I've heard that different Countrys like a different feel, style, design to thre sites.

For a higher level of vistors consider, (almost), a total rewrite.

By the way China is said to be the growth area.

Fluent language is of course best.
Translation Links are usually quick but not good enough for true users of the Language.

[incrediblehelp]

Lets not forget location where the website is hosted.

[alextj]

Vianna,

We had a similar problem but found no problems or penalties.

We have a main site covering our main market in Italy in Italian and English, with a 301 redirect from the .it extension, and a one page frontpage with .co.uk covering the UK and slightly different wording from the main site, linking back to the English version of the main site.

We've never had any problems (touch wood), in fact it might actually have helped our click-throughs as we often see the main site ranked first (when searching in English) with the .co.uk site second and indented, making it stand out. The same goes for some other terms that are on both the Italian and English versions of the site.

SEs don't return results for the translations of keywords e.g. when you search for 'German course' you don't also get 'corso di tedesco' and 'Geschäftsdeutsch' returned in the same results.

As for the .ca and .co.uk question, I'd go for what I said above and change the text as much as possible, if only by modifying the keywords slightly (though both the .co.uk and main site domains are on the same server in Germany).

And finally, I really don't recomend using an automatic translator for site text, as anyone who has used a software translator to translate from one language to another and then back again can testify - the results are hilarious at best and downright ridiculous or disastrous at worst. Plugging blatantly....if you need some help with translations try out Translation and language tools, and if you prefer to ask a professional translator to help you out, you can also request a quotation.

Good luck with the site,
Alex

[lagoaemar]

It is a little amazing how less people in the US know about things outside the US.

I run a travel website in Brazil in six different languages with nearly the same content in every language. Of course it is not duplicate content in the sense of search engine punishment. For a person who doesn't speak all these different languages every page is a unique content. You can visit my landing page here:
http://www.hotellagoaemar.com.br

I don't use different URLs for each language page. The URL of the landing page has an extension for every language, like:
/ingles.htm for English,
/alemao.htm for German,
and so on.

And all language pages rank in Google and Yahoo between #1 and #6 in their corresponding language results for the keywords 'hotel salvador bahia'.

[khurramali]

different language pages are not duplicate content.

Take google for an example.

They have lots of country specific domain names with same content, but in different languages.