Content question about 3 sites targeted at 3 different countries

[ryanetc]

I am new here, and this is my first question. I was hoping to get help with the following scenario:

I am looking to launch 3 sites in 3 different countries, using 3 different domains. For example the.com for USA, the .co.uk for UK , and a slightly different .com for Australia, as I could not purchase .com.au as I am not a registered business in Australia. I am looking to set the Geographic Target on Google Webmaster. So for example, I have set the .com for USA only, with .co.uk I won't need to set anything, and I will set the other Australian .com to Australia.

Now, initially the 3 site will be "brochure" websites explaining the service that we offer. I fear that at the beginning they will most likely have almost identical content. However, on the long term I am looking to publish unique content for each site, almost on a weekly basis. So over time they would have different content from each other. These are small sites to begin with. So each site in the "brochure" form will have around 10 pages. Over time it will have 100's of pages.

My question or my worry is, will Google look at the fact that I have same content across 3 sites negatively even though they are specifically targeted to different countries? Will it penalise my sites negatively?

[TakeshiYoung]

Google's Matt Cutts recently responded to a similar question. Basically, Google does not generally penalize sites for having duplicate content unless they're being spammy about it. However, Google will only show one version of the same content to searchers. So your sites won't be penalized, but Google isn't going to show the US, UK, and Australia sites in the same SERPs for the same query for the same content. The geo targeting should also help.

http://searchengineland.com/googles-matt-cutts-duplicate-content-wont-hurt-you-unless-it-is-spammy-167459

[ryanetc]

Hi Tekeshi,

Thanks for your response. I am not expecting Google to show all the sites in the same SERP's results, because they are clearly targerted for different countries or different Google search engines. So I expect the Australian Geo Trageted site to come up google.com.au , and the UK Geographic Targeted site come on the search results of google.co.uk and so on.

Over time, and I am talking about a matter of a couple of months, they will each be having their own unique blog posts and articles, which I am hoping will help them differentiate from each other. Although "the broad subject" matter will still be the same.

So all the sites might be about "Chocolates" , but over time, the Australian site will talk about Australian chocolates, and different things effecting chocolate sales in Australia, and the US site ma be talking about how to make chocolate flavoured ice cream and so on. I am hoping this approach will help me on the long term.

[TakeshiYoung]

Yes, you should be fine in that case. Google is not going to penalize you.

[ryanetc]

Thank you much appreciated.

I joined Moz for forum would you believe it I wanted somewhere I could go and post SEO questions, and where I would hopefully get answer, and I was hoping to get answers from "credible" people. So thanks.

It's a shame that Moz took out the email the experts feature they used to have a few years ago. Anyway, onwards...