Language/country redirect best practice?
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Hi,
What is SEO best practice when it comes to redirecting users from www.domain.com to their specific language/country, let's say www.domain.com/de for Germany?
From what I heard in on of the whiteboard fridays, it seems to be Javascript based on IP and browser language, and then set a cookie - correct?
Or should we let our users manually select their language/country at the first visit?
Any suggestion appreciated, thanks!
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I recommend avoiding javascript redirects as they can be considered cloaking.
Here's an idea: show the English language homepage by default, but determine the user's preferred language (from the accept-language header sent by the browser). If your site supports the identified language, include & display a hyperlinked text-box/graphic-banner suggesting the visitor "view this site in {the user's identified language}" which links to the homepage for that language.
Useful links for reference:
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