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We are working on a a project for two local hospitals that are partnered. What they want is to have two separate domains (one for each hospital), but there will be content in both that is shared and they want them to look & feel the same to show their partnership.

For example, they want to have a "Patient Services" section that shows all of their services and indicates beside each one which hospital provides that service. My concern is that this would be considered duplicate content and not good for SEO. Am I mistaken on this?

Similarly, they will have a news section that shows news from both of them...again, a possible duplicate content issue. And if we use canonicals, then only one hospital receives the credit, which also doesn't work.

Any suggestions and thoughts? Thanks!

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    Yeah. This sounds like a 70's disasters movie. Everyone dies at the end. Even the hero!
    – closetnoc
    Oct 19, 2017 at 0:25
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    It's not even the 70s era movies. They're pitting themselves against themselves. Google isn't a race - it's the Hunger Games. They're just adding one more opponent they don't want to kill. They'll need to pull it out of their arse with a suicide pact to win and frankly Google will encourage them to eat the damn berries for ratings.
    – L Martin
    Oct 19, 2017 at 16:13

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You would be much better off convincing them that a single hub would be a better option, with dedicated localised sections for ease of user experience.

Maybe a little like vidahealthcare.co.uk as an example. 2 Locations, offering the same services and content.

You can always redirect "vanity" domains and mask URL's for end user experiences. ( Use canonical correctly )

You essentially would have each vanity domain leading to a landing page/sections on the main hub, which has unique content for each location section while the rest is global.

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@Randomer11 is absolutely correct. Do not turn a blind eye to the seriousness of the known consequences of duplicate content. Additionally, another solution could be to use a root url for the blog, about, etc. pages, and a subdomain for each unique location if decision makers absolutely insist on having the organizations separate. Ex: locationA.vidahealthcare.co.uk & locationB.viahealthcare.co.uk

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  • Makes sense...the subdomain format is a good idea.
    – DanH
    Oct 20, 2017 at 13:28

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