uk vs com domain

[onedaydayone]

I have 2 websites for 2 different locations. For the entire US I'm using a .com domain, and for the UK, a .co.uk domain.

Currently, I'm creating content and blog posts for both and publishing them through both domains. Topics are the same, but the content differs slightly, I'd say ±15-20%, mainly in language changes such as soccer vs. football, etc.

It seems that in some cases, when I search for a specific long-tail term in the US, I get UK domain results instead of .com domain results. Does that mean I can't avoid cannibalization?

One domain has been live for 3+ years, the other for only half a year. What would you recommend? Remove all the content from one domain, or keep growing both and check the results later?

 

[NirvanaWolf]

If both of them essentially have the same content, why compete against yourself?

I'd personally stick to just the .com one and redirect .co.uk one to the .com

 

[ads studio]

this is actually the worng way to go about this even if the domain service are the same it shouldnt be the same comtent each country have its own selling keywords to use and content, so it wont work at all

 

[BlackShield]

here I wouldn't delete anything yet. Keep both domains, make the content more locally relevant, and use proper hreflang + self-canonicals. Monitor GSC for a few months; only consider removing/merging pages if Google consistently chooses the wrong version.

 

[Galilei]

dont delete anything, this is literally what hreflang is for, add en-us and en-gb tags linking each article to its twin on the other domain, has to be both directions or google just ignores it. once it kicks in google swaps the right domain into results for each country and they stop competing. had the same issue with 2 english sites, took a few weeks after adding the tags but the wrong country results mostly disappeared. and put it on every page pair not just the homepage, thats where most ppl mess it up

 

[Panther28]

Have you got 2 different revenue streams? As well as 2 different host packages? If so you made a smart move. Keep them. Otherwise, well think Ebay operates 2 different sites and so do many others, and they share content. If you are finding you can make it work, then you have an advantage with 2 stacked options in the card deck of SEO.

Also if you sell advertising, you might be able to get different options and rates for each site, depending on the analytics. Keep what you can manage though. If your issue is costs, and scalability then maybe yes scale back and consolidate to one site, like @NirvanaWolf says redirecting to the .com daddy.

I never heard what hreflang (thanks @Galilei ) is but yes, you can use that if you want as a first call, to see if you can consolation your domination with both sites still up and running? Up to you. Try, and test.

Good luck.

 

[dimdavid0]

I have 2 websites for 2 different locations. For the entire US I'm using a .com domain, and for the UK, a .co.uk domain.

Currently, I'm creating content and blog posts for both and publishing them through both domains. Topics are the same, but the content differs slightly, I'd say ±15-20%, mainly in language changes such as soccer vs. football, etc.

It seems that in some cases, when I search for a specific long-tail term in the US, I get UK domain results instead of .com domain results. Does that mean I can't avoid cannibalization?

One domain has been live for 3+ years, the other for only half a year. What would you recommend? Remove all the content from one domain, or keep growing both and check the results later?

Nothing should be removed at the moment, Google is capable of understanding geo-targeting; however, similar topics within two different domains may confuse signals. I would suggest you to localize the content and use proper hreflang; then, give some time to see the results.

 

[MajestySEO]

I have 2 websites for 2 different locations. For the entire US I'm using a .com domain, and for the UK, a .co.uk domain.

Currently, I'm creating content and blog posts for both and publishing them through both domains. Topics are the same, but the content differs slightly, I'd say ±15-20%, mainly in language changes such as soccer vs. football, etc.

It seems that in some cases, when I search for a specific long-tail term in the US, I get UK domain results instead of .com domain results. Does that mean I can't avoid cannibalization?

One domain has been live for 3+ years, the other for only half a year. What would you recommend? Remove all the content from one domain, or keep growing both and check the results later?

curious, at what point does the content difference between two geo targeted domains become enough for google to treat them as genuinely separate? is 15-20% variation actually sufficient or does it need to be closer to fully localised content?