Same Content, Multiple Sub-Domains?

[.Joel]

Hi All,

Question, more related to a new site build than it is a domain sale. I want to localise the way some information is presented, so the theory:

Domain.com >> Detect User Country >> Redirect to Country Subdomain

Australia = http://au.domain.com
United States = http://us.domain.com
China = http://cn.domain.com

Now the content on all 3 sub domains is the same, however under the au.domain.com sub domain the content is more localised for Australian viewers. So the news, information, and general operation of the site is customised for Australian users, and likewise for the United States and China sub domains.

My question is, how can I avoid being penalised by Google? How can the local subdomains be relevant to local search, without Google penalising me for having the same content, all be it displayed in a different order, across multiple sub-domains.

Can I tell google to reference the subdomain local to that country? Or another way?

 

[FirstPageResults]

You can add each sub domain to Google Web Master tools separately and set the appropriate geo locations.

Internationalisation (i18n) is pretty common on large sites, although it's recommended to use ccTLDs for each:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GyWx31GeQWY#!

 

[.Joel]

Hi, thank you very much for the information!

 

[James]

try and make them in sub folders if possible example (reason been it will work far better for internal linking)

domain.com/us
domain.com/au

As above then geo target the sub folders.