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I have a site that shows in two different domains. www.example.gr and www.example.com.

Both are from the same setup and and both sites have a Greek and an English version. Is that bad for seo?

  • Should I just have one redirect to the other?
  • Does google see it as duplicate content?
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A .gr domain will only ever rank on Google for searchers from Greece. There is no way to target a .gr domain to worldwide users of Google. See I'm using a vanity country code top level domain (ccTLD), can I persuade Google to geotarget a different region?. It doesn't make sense to put your English content on a .gr domain name unless it is focused just for English speakers in Greece.

I don't think there are many Greek speakers outside Greece, so it is OK to have your Greek content on that domain. In fact, it will probably enjoy a ranking boost on the .gr domain compared to on the .com for searchers from within Greece.

When you publish the same content on two different domains (or any two different URLs), Google does see it as duplicate content. Google doesn't usually penalize for duplicate content, Google usually just picks one of the two to index. See What is duplicate content and how can I avoid being penalized for it on my site? Rather than let Google choose, you usually want to choose yourself. It is usually best to host the content in just one place and redirect the other to it.

I would recommend putting your Greek content on the .gr domain and putting your English content on the .com domain. That way:

  • The content will be on unique URLs and avoid any duplicate content issues.
  • Your Greek users will have a local and comfortable .gr domain name which should rank better within Greece.
  • You will be able to target your English content worldwide which you can't do on your .gr site.
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  • Stephen, have you used hreflang tags in an implementation like this?
    – keepkalm
    Commented Aug 26, 2019 at 15:30
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    If you have translated pages between the two domains, you can use hreflang tags between them
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Commented Aug 26, 2019 at 16:54
  • Thank you for taking the time to help me, I will make it so the english version is on the .com domain and the greek content on the .gr.
    – Stavros Gkikas
    Commented Aug 28, 2019 at 7:36
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Since both URLs target the same content I suggest using a canonical URL, specifying either the .com or the .gr as the canonical version of your site.

If what you wanted was to safeguard your domain from fraud by also purchasing the .com TLD but you actually want to focus / show / target the other domain, you might also want to set up a 301 redirection from one domain to the other.

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  • You should set a canonical URL, but you also need to set a rel alternate URL for hreflang so that it doesn't get dinged for duplicate content.
    – keepkalm
    Commented Aug 26, 2019 at 15:07

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