I have a fairly successful domain at EditFast.com providing proofreading and copy editing services (http://editfast.com) and I also own http://editfast.ca and http://editfast.us Right now I have the country specific domains redirecting to the dot com domain. I would like to change that and add the site to the country specific domain. That is, set up three sites. However, the only difference in the sites would be the contact telephone numbers (I have a virtual office in US) and the spelling of certain words. These sites will be huge (7000 pages). My concern is that I may get penalized for duplicate content but I think the Google bot is intelligent enough to figure this out. What do you think?

I have done a test with a smaller site at http://safemarina.com which provides boat security and checking services (http://safemarina.com) and at http://safemarina.ca and http://safemarina.us. Once again the only difference is the telephone numbers and some spelling variation. This has only be done in the past 2 days so I don't know yet what is going to happen. Can anyone enlighten me with their own experience or ideas as to what the search engines will think of this? Your help is appreciated.

They will most likely filter one website out considering the duplicate content.

They will most likely filter one website out considering the duplicate content.
Thanks for posting Jann, but I wonder why they would do that since it would affect the relevancy of their results in a negative way, which is what they are trying to avoid. The two country specific domains are more relevant to users in their respective countries. There is a good post here on duplicate content: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogsp...e-content.html but it does not mention country domains except to say that it is best to use the top level domain rather than a subdomain.

Sure i agree, but they don't mean to do it. It happens automatically and algorithmically.

Sure i agree, but they don't mean to do it. It happens automatically and algorithmically.Yes, I know but their algorithms are sophisticated enough to "see" that this duplicate content is necessary. Google is not trying to force a site to create different content for each country domain for the same site. That would be pointless. In addition, I have been unable to find any evidence that Google punishes country specific top level domains for duplicating the content of the parent site (the dot com site) If you can point me to specific instances of this type of penalty or some hands on experience of this, I would be appreciative (I am already, but this would help).

You wont get penalized by Google if you using same site(content) with different country level domain.

I had experience and proof that you wont get penalized by Google. PM me for the details if you want to see the example.

I use automated website translation script for a domain its convert site into 12 different language and create a cache directory like . http://domain.com/de like this

I suggest you that if try to use automated website translate script.This will surely help you.

This is a bit off-topic but I'd really watch out with translating scripts. Also slightly more on topic, not sure how you're doing it, but if you're not a webprogrammer remember you don't have to copy all your pages and can just use a variable to change the phone number on the main site depending on the domain. About the actual topic I wouldn't think they'd give you a penalty for that either. I'm sure they check the domain though I can't be 100% sure.

You wont get penalized by Google if you using same site(content) with different country level domain.

I had experience and proof that you wont get penalized by Google. PM me for the details if you want to see the example. Thank you that is what I was hoping for.

I use automated website translation script for a domain its convert site into 12 different language and create a cache directory like . http://domain.com/de like this
The search engines (Google anyway) would prefer we use the top level domain as it is easier to see that it is for a different country. The URL above does not necessarily make it a different country domain whereas http://yourdomain.de does. Once again, take a look at this post: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogsp...e-content.html

I suggest you that if try to use automated website translate script.This will surely help you.
I would stay as far away from this as possible. In fact, I think it is a great mistake, but then I am a translator and owner of http://translationhelp.com so machine translation offends my sense of correct grammar (no matter what the language). In translating a Web site the supposed intention is to attract native speakers of that language and sell them something. These people will surely be wary of any site that has errors or oddities in the language and will "walk" away (or run). I know I do. When I see a site with errors in English (or in Japanese) I think: "What? They don't have enough money to spend 1-4 cents per word to have the page proofread by a professional?" Why don't they have enough money? Because people don't trust them.

The biggest hurdle to overcome on the net is gaining the user's trust. Spelling and grammar errors on a site are the primary cause of the loss of that trust. I see it all the time. That is why I am in the language business -- it is a huge market.