Currency and Duplicate Content

Are you using duplicate copies of your website to handle pricing issues?

Example:
Bluewidgets.com – US pricing
Bluewidgets.ca – CND pricing
Bluewidgets.co.uk – GBP pricing

Sound like a great idea, but this strategy comes with some serious Search Engine Optimization (SEO) risks. Websites with duplicate content will be penalized by Google and subsequently suffer a drop in search rankings. The more duplicate copy, the poorer the rankings for all websites concerned.

What should you do? Either build entirely separate websites with unique content tailored specifically to each local market, or you need to pick your biggest market and use only one domain name. Don't discard the other domains or their link power – simply use a 301 redirect.

Now here's the tricky part: What do you do about different pricing and currencies? Displaying the appropriate currency is easier than you think and you have several options:

1) Display the US price and add a currency converter.
2) Display all 3 prices – make sure the customer knows which price they will be billed in.
3) The best solution is IP Delivery – which presents the correct price, based on the location of the visitor.

If you need more specific help, feel free to call us.