International Version of Website

[smckenzie75]

Our website is AluminumEyewear.com and we're considering launching a specific version for Australia, naturally I want to avoid any dupe content issues but the content would largely remain the same.

I have read through this post and wondered if the options given here are still relevant?

I'm currently leaning towards using a sub-domain, i.e. au.aluminumeyewear.com or should I go for aluminumeyewear.com.au? Will there be dupe content issues if I do that?

Confused and hoping for help!

[john4math]

There will indeed be duplicate content with both solutions, but it's ok.  That guide is a bit outdated; one thing that's come about since then is the rel=alternate markup which is for this exact situation.  Read more about that here.  You'll put markup on your pages that tells Google what the alternate pages are, so Google can return the appropriate pages based on language and region.

EIther way, you'll also set your geographic target for the AU content in Google Webmaster Tools. You can also set your language and regions in Bing on your pages, either with meta tags or in your HTTP headers (Bing instructions).  That's more for if you decide to go with the subdomain solution, as Bingbot will know who your site is for with a .com.au TLD.

If you go with the .com.au site, it'll be starting from scratch and won't inherit any of the domain authority from your .com site.  However, Aussies would likely be more receptive to a .com.au site?

[smckenzie75]

thanks for the reply!

Just so happens I can't add the required markup to elements because of restrictions on our ecomm platform. I can certainly add it to the page though, just not where it should be.

Will this be a problem?

[john4math]

You can't add it to the body of the page.  Otherwise, people could add these tags to blog comments and product reviews!  It has to be in the .  Since you don't have access to the , you can try adding the markup to your sitemap?  That's another option.

[smckenzie75]

Does the markup need to be on both versions or just the international one?

Is it still worth 301'ing to the com.au to the subdomain?

[john4math]

The markup should be on both versions.  What it does is when Google is going to return a page in search results, it'll know to switch out to alternate versions of pages based on the users location or language.

If you're not going to use the .com.au as a standalone domain, you can 301 it.  It might make for good display URLs for advertising?

[smckenzie75]

thanks for your help - much appreciated.