Two domains, same content: Bad Idea?

[Goshua]

Hi everyone!

I have my business website in a .com domain and it´s already been indexed by Google. I want to specialize the website strictly for Mexico, so I bought a .com.mx domain, the domains are exactly alike the only thing that differences them is the .mx part.

Should I "turn-off" the .com domain, loose all the SEO efforts made and then "turn-on" the .com.mx and start from scratch?

Or should I have both domains, with the exact same content, running?

Could Google penalize me for that?

NOTE: The domains are been hosted in the same server.

Thanks a lot!

[clickagent75]

I can't confirm but I recall reading that if Google identifies two sites with the same content, it deems it as content scraping and will blacklist one of the sites.

Can anyone confirm or provide more details?

[pagespank]

Yes, Google will penalise you for anything it sees as "duplicate content".

As your main target is the Mexican audience, you can set up a permanent redirect (or '301 redirect') from your old domain to your new one. This will redirect both traffic and spiders to the Mexican domain and any past SEO efforts will therefore not be lost.

[Goshua]

Great, thanks a lot! :)