Country Code Top Level Domains & Duplicate Content

[jayoliverwright]

Hi looking to launch in a new market, currently we have a .com.au domain which is geo-targeted to Australia.

We want to launch in New Zealand which is ends with .co.nz

If i duplicate the Australian based site completely on the new .co.nz domain name, would i face duplicate content issues from a SEO standpoint?
Even though it's on a completely separate country code.

Or is it still advised tosetup hreflang tag across both of the domains?

Cheers.

[Andersberendt]

Yes you would face DC. I would recommend to use Google search console and tell Google you now have a new language on the same site. This should do the work for you as far as I know.

[LoganRay]

Jay,

This is pretty common, and as long as you follow international SEO best-practices, you'll be alright. Here's a couple resources that include everything you'll need to do this properly:

• Moz's Guide to International SEO
• Hreflang Tag Guide

The hreflang tag is basically a canonical tag that lets search engines know you have other versions of this content out there meant for different countries and/or languages.