Comments on: US v British/Australian English in Website Copywriting http://www.divinewrite.com/blog/copywriting/us-v-britishaustralian-english-in-website-copywriting/ All things copywriting - and quite a bit about SEO Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:04:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: Glenn Murray http://www.divinewrite.com/blog/copywriting/us-v-britishaustralian-english-in-website-copywriting/comment-page-1/#comment-32369 Glenn Murray Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:15:34 +0000 http://www.divinewrite.com/blog/2008/10/17/us-v-britishaustralian-english-in-website-copywriting/#comment-32369 Hi Eric. Sorry for my delay in responding. I had some issues with my blog's comments. You're right. If you have different domains for each localised version (i.e. yoursite.co.uk for the UK version and yoursite.com for the US version), you'd have all the duplicate content issues. You can, however, reduce the risk of duplicate content issues by specifying (in Google's Webmaster Tools) which domain is for which location. Then the most appropriate page should usually be returned. Probably the bigger problem is that you end up splitting incoming links between each of your domains, thereby diluting domain popularity of each individual site. There are two ways around this: 1) Use a sub-domain (i.e. uk.yoursite.com) and you reduce that dilution of domain popularity somewhat. 2) You could use a sub-folder (i.e. yoursite.com/uk/) and you eliminate dilution altogether (all inbound links contribute to your domain popularity). Unfortunately, however, these approaches aren't that intuitive for users. Also, with both of these options, you can't host each localised version in the appropriate country, which can be important. More on all of that here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hSoXutuj0g&feature=player_embedded#t=700 and here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/seo-guide-international-versions-of-websites. Cheers. Hi Eric. Sorry for my delay in responding. I had some issues with my blog’s comments.

You’re right. If you have different domains for each localised version (i.e. yoursite.co.uk for the UK version and yoursite.com for the US version), you’d have all the duplicate content issues. You can, however, reduce the risk of duplicate content issues by specifying (in Google’s Webmaster Tools) which domain is for which location. Then the most appropriate page should usually be returned.

Probably the bigger problem is that you end up splitting incoming links between each of your domains, thereby diluting domain popularity of each individual site.

There are two ways around this: 1) Use a sub-domain (i.e. uk.yoursite.com) and you reduce that dilution of domain popularity somewhat. 2) You could use a sub-folder (i.e. yoursite.com/uk/) and you eliminate dilution altogether (all inbound links contribute to your domain popularity). Unfortunately, however, these approaches aren’t that intuitive for users. Also, with both of these options, you can’t host each localised version in the appropriate country, which can be important.

More on all of that here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hSoXutuj0g&feature=player_embedded#t=700 and here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/seo-guide-international-versions-of-websites.

Cheers.

]]> By: Eric Mayfield http://www.divinewrite.com/blog/copywriting/us-v-britishaustralian-english-in-website-copywriting/comment-page-1/#comment-32319 Eric Mayfield Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:40:10 +0000 http://www.divinewrite.com/blog/2008/10/17/us-v-britishaustralian-english-in-website-copywriting/#comment-32319 So my question is what do you guys exactly think is the best middle ground? I'm in this exact quandary at the moment and would love to have localized versions. My biggest problem is that if one version is US optimized and one UK optimised ;0) I'll still suffer from Google due to all the other duplicate content. So really each version would need to be unique in at least content if not "look and feel". I feel this would be a great subject to be discussed more in-depth. So my question is what do you guys exactly think is the best middle ground? I’m in this exact quandary at the moment and would love to have localized versions. My biggest problem is that if one version is US optimized and one UK optimised ;0) I’ll still suffer from Google due to all the other duplicate content. So really each version would need to be unique in at least content if not “look and feel”. I feel this would be a great subject to be discussed more in-depth.

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