Two domains, same site: good or bad for SEO?

[Bulldozer]

I just found out that 90% of the online market for the product that I am targeting with my keyword is in Australia, not the USA.

My site ranks well on Google.com but is nowhere to be found on Google.com.au - i.e. it doesn't show where 90% of the market is.

This means that 90% of all potential clicks and affiliate sales are lost for me because I don't have a com.au domain.
The Australian Google favors com.au sites and brings them to the front pages, while dumping generic .com domains down the SERPs for that same keyword.

How can I solve this problem???

• Will buying the same domain but with a com.au extension and then attaching the new domain to my existing site help in any way for me to rank well in Australia?
• Any tips & tricks about this?
• What happens SEO-wise if your site has more than one domains?
• Should I dum the .com domain or keep it?
• What about building backlinks?
• What about duplicate content? Will Google treat my site as two separate sites that have duplicate content on them?
• If I keep the .com, will my site get screwed on the SERPs for having two domains? Etc.

[Bulldozer]

^ I have read just the opposite.
But I definitely would like some first-hand advice from people with experience.

[oclseo]

Originally Posted by Bulldozer

I just found out that 90% of the online market for the product that I am targeting with my keyword is in Australia, not the USA.

My site ranks well on Google.com but is nowhere to be found on Google.com.au - i.e. it doesn't show where 90% of the market is.

This means that 90% of all potential clicks and affiliate sales are lost for me because I don't have a com.au domain.
The Australian Google favors com.au sites and brings them to the front pages, while dumping generic .com domains down the SERPs for that same keyword.

How can I solve this problem???

• Will buying the same domain but with a com.au extension and then attaching the new domain to my existing site help in any way for me to rank well in Australia?
• Any tips & tricks about this?
• What happens SEO-wise if your site has more than one domains?
• Should I dum the .com domain or keep it?
• What about building backlinks?
• What about duplicate content? Will Google treat my site as two separate sites that have duplicate content on them?
• If I keep the .com, will my site get screwed on the SERPs for having two domains? Etc.

Domain extension is only a few factor on Search Engine Optimization, you can compensate it by focusing on relevant content and backlinks.

[Khal]

OK, here is a first hand experience.
I have 4 sites located on 4 different servers with the same provider.
All 4 have the same exact names except for the very last word in the domain name.
By the way, this last word has nothing to do with any of my keywords.

One of my keywords has 1,320,000 results in Google.
I have 3 pages from 2 different domains on the first page and 3 pages from 3 different domains on the second page.

Hope the above helps.

[Bulldozer]

Originally Posted by Khal

OK, here is a first hand experience.
I have 4 sites located on 4 different servers with the same provider.
All 4 have the same exact names except for the very last word in the domain name.

My question was about two domains pointing to one single site, not about running different sites, sitting on different servers that have slightly similar domain names each.
What you are describing is basically running 4 completely different sites, which should not be a problem anyway.

[gtk29]

Matt Cuts, Google Developer, has talked about this issue before. You have to make relevant changes using scripting to show that .au site is for Australia like different contact numbers, different currency etc. If you keep both of them exactly identical then one of the domain is going to take the hit from Google.