US English Vs UK English

[CreativeMind]

Hello folks,

I'm about to buy a domain name. It's a term in 2 words. The problem is that there is a different term for it in UK English (which is also available).
Would it be a good idea to buy both domain names and set up 2 websites with the same content? The only difference would be that term in UK English.

Thank you in advance.

 

[AussieDomainer]

I would buy both, setup a website on one of them (if mainly targetting US visitors then set the website up on the US spelled one). Then do a URL forwarding for the other domain to your main domain which has the website setup on. I hope this makes sense. I'll try illustrating practically below with a dummy example in case it doesn't:

brightcolours.com & brightcolors.com are both available. You register both as it is well worth an extra $8 to grab both and capture any traffic that may type the differently speeled version. As your main targeted traffic is from the US you create a website on brightcolors.com and then forward brightcolours.com to brightcolors.com so that whoever visits either will end up at the same place.

This way the search engines will not see two carbon copy sites and penalise you for duplicate content while you are achieving the same result. You will also not have to make changes on both sites if you update in the future.

 

[CreativeMind]

I would buy both, setup a website on one of them (if mainly targetting US visitors then set the website up on the US spelled one). Then do a URL forwarding for the other domain to your main domain which has the website setup on. I hope this makes sense. I'll try illustrating practically below with a dummy example in case it doesn't:

brightcolours.com & brightcolors.com are both available. You register both as it is well worth an extra $8 to grab both and capture any traffic that may type the differently speeled version. As your main targeted traffic is from the US you create a website on brightcolors.com and then forward brightcolours.com to brightcolors.com so that whoever visits either will end up at the same place.

This way the search engines will not see two carbon copy sites and penalise you for duplicate content while you are achieving the same result. You will also not have to make changes on both sites if you update in the future.

Thank you so much, AussieDomainer!

In this case, it's not about a different spelled version, but an entirely different word.
As an example (not exactly a perfect example, but it'll do): cookie (US) and biscuit (UK).
If I make a website with "cookie" and I do an URL forwarding for "biscuit", while in content there is "cookie", I doubt it would be beneficiary.

The last thing I want is to be penalized.

 

[AussieDomainer]

Thank you so much, AussieDomainer!

In this case, it's not about a different spelled version, but an entirely different word.
As an example (not exactly a perfect example, but it'll do): cookie (US) and biscuit (UK).
If I make a website with "cookie" and I do an URL forwarding for "biscuit", while in content there is "cookie", I doubt it would be beneficiary.

The last thing I want is to be penalized.

I understand the situation better now. However I would still do the same in registering both versions, developing the one most relevant to your content and URL forwarding the other. It will not matter at all what your content is in regards to the one that is forwarded as the SE's will not penalise based on this. Many companies have dozens, even hundreds of domains forwarded to their main website and it has no negative effects whatsoever. However if you were to develop the exact same website on both then this would most likely cause problems.

Registering both and URL forwarding one to the other is the way to go in my opinion.

 

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