Sites penalized for similar content, but both sites are mine

[cartoonle]

Hi!

I have two sites, one of them is international version and second one is very similar to the first one, but it's a local version. Both are hosted on the same hosting account, separate domains. But it seems, that Google penalized them because of duplicated content. (low PR, dissapearing inbound links from Google webmasters tool).
What can i do about it?

[Test-ok]

Get rid of the duplicate content. Make them unique.

[cartoonle]

Is there no way i can tell Google, that both sites are mine? What about if i place them both on the same domain? For example if local one is www.domain.xx and international one is www.domain.xx/en/ ? And redirect international domain to www.domain.xx/en/?

[KernelPanic]

I don't think you have a duplicate content problem on 2 sites that share much of the same text. You would have a problem on 1. If the sites share content that is on lots of other sites then they both would be effected

[ssctechno]

I think if you've 2 websites having same purpose or business target then you don't need to make 2 websites with different language, you just use Google translate on your website like uscashatms.com. Then you'll never be tensed like this.

[Dr.Marie]

Is there no way i can tell Google, that both sites are mine?

The problem is that even if you did own both sites, why would Google want to show to exact copies of the same thing to searchers? This is why they only allow one of them to rank well.

Here is a link that shows Google's guidelines in regards to multinational sites:
Multi-regional and multilingual sites - Webmaster Tools Help

[tstolber]

Put a canonical tag on the local site telling Google where the original content is and then use the local site purely for local listings. Or, you could combine them. Just make sure that the one you end up with is the one that was considered original by Google.
Also, KP points out that if you have a problem on both sites, you probably have other issues on top of your duplicate content issue.

[Sinclairos]

Test-ok is right, you should make the two sites as unique as possible, in every way from each other.

However, I am sympathetic. Here's a couple of threads we have discussing lately - there are no closing answers but some info here may help you.

Duplication and Google

SERP frustration regarding unique content

I believe that there are instances where duplicate content is legitimate, and even required, possibly in the case you describe, possibly in franchise operations and the like. The duplication issue has been around for many years, and there is still no answer to it, or allowed method from google. It's not even the case that google will punish the new site with copied content, I have seen an original site penalised for being a duplicate !

There is no tool to tell google hey this is an ok site, the content is meant to be duplicate and this is why. Until then you'll just have to reword and rephrase your text, and I'd probably recommend a redesign on 1 site to be safe.