Best practice for multilanguage website ( PHP feature based on Browser or Geolocalisation)
-
Hi Moz Experts
I would like to know what does it the best practice for multilanguage website for the default language ?
There are several PHP features to help users to get the right language when they come from SEO and direct; present the default language by browser language, by gelolocalisation, etc. However, which one is the most appropriate for Quebec company that try to get outside Canada ? PRO and CONS.
Thank you in advance.
-
I love it Kate Moriss.
it make it simple with the small questions. 
-
Thank you. So, I will need to add the hreflang for the first strategy.
For the Webmastertool, I'm not so sure, because we didn't have subdirectories. We have www.mycompany.com and www.mycompany.com/fr. So, actually, I have webmastertool for www.mycompany.com. However, we have a Google plus page, but we didn't have a Content marketing strategy.
that's all we have for the moment in place?
-
I built a tool to help people understand how to best go about international expansion. It's here: katemorris.com/issg
-
Not sure if you could really call it a best practice - but in Belgium (3 different languages) the normal configuration is not to determine the default language automatically but rather to present a first time visitor a "choose language" page and store the choice in a cookie for future visits. This is mainly for direct visits.
People coming in via search engines use queries in one of the languages, so normally Google will direct them to pages in that language. Again, on first time visit, the implicit choice of language is stored in a cookie.
All pages contain a link to switch to the other language(s) - which also changes the choice stored in the cookie.
Disadvantage of this system is that you add an additional layer to the site (choice of language) - advantage is that error margin is zero.
Systems which are based ip, browser language, ...etc are not 100% reliable - which could lead to unwanted results (in Belgium quite a sensitive issue if you server a Dutch page to a French speaking person - idem for French & Dutch speaking).
Hope this helps,
Dirk
-
Hi there
Look into hreflang attributes - if you have the same site with multiple languages, this is a best practice.
You can also look into setting up Webmaster Tool accounts for different sites (if they have different country codes or subdirectories) and geotarget those for the country they are supposed to appear to.
Does this help? Let me know - good luck!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Seperating Different Parts Of The Website
Hi There, I have a client with two parts to his business both for different types of customer with different language and copy needed. At the moment they have one website and I am trying to figure out the most search engine friendly way to present these different types. So for example if a client came in looking for service A, he would see the home page for service A and if he came in looking for service B he would come across the home page for service B. I know I could have seperate service pages for each service he provides, but I think it would be off putting to come to a home page of a site and see completely unrelated services on one page. I hope I am explaining myself here. As far as I can see the options are:- subdomains for servicea.examplesite.com, serviceb.examplesite.com and a split page (see attachement) where you click which you are interested in (don't like this idea) seperate websites a home page which shows all the services (too confusing) Any advice would be most grateful. Regards Neil MpYSKqN
Web Design | | nezona0 -
Best Practices for Leveraging Long Tail Content & Gated Content
Our B2B site has a lot of of long form content (e.g., transcriptions from presentations and webinars). We'd like to leverage the long tail SEO traffic driven to these pages and convert those visitors to leads. Essentially, we'd like Google to index all this lengthy, keyword-rich content AND we'd like to put up a read gate that requires users to register before viewing the full article. This is a B2B site, and the goal is to generate leads. Some considerations and questions: How much of the content to share before requiring registration? Ask too soon and it's a terrible user experience, give too much away and our business objectives are not met. Design-wise, what are good ways to do this? I notice Moz uses a "teaser" to block Mozinar content, and I've seen modals and blur bars on other sites. Any gotchas that Google doesn't like that we should be aware of? Trying to avoid anything that might seem like cloaking. Is it better to split the content across several pages (split a 10K word doc across 10 URLs and include a read gate on each) or keep to one page? Thank you!
Web Design | | Allie_Williams0 -
Wordpress SEO/Tag plugin recommendation for sports (soccer) website
I own a Wordpress website which covers soccer in the DC MD VA area called DMV Soccer http://www.dmvsoccer.com/ We write weekly recaps where we tag a player who has scored a goal or performed well in a game. For each player, obviously, a tag is created. What I'm looking for is a plugin or solution that would allow me to tag a player, but also automatically assign a team to that player so that the team name and player's name are optimized on the individual player's tag page. So if I were to tag George Murphy on a recap, and I assign him to a team, let's say DC United. The tag page would have a title, something like: George Murphy Soccer Player for DC United and the meta description: George Murphy, soccer player from MD who players for DC United archives Or something similar, if that makes sense. Should I skip using tags and instead start assigning each player as a sub-category under each team? I'd like to try to avoid that, because not each category will be based on a player. Any suggestions in terms of existing plugins or other recommendations?
Web Design | | georgetsn1 -
Website 'stolen', no contact details
Hi all, Wondering if anyone could help out here, good a very strange issue.... Went into Google Webmaster Tools and looked at the incoming links to a client's site (new client, only just gained access to WMT) and noticed 2563 links coming from a domain. Upon viewing said domain it is a 100% copy of the clients site, I mean 100%; the phone numbers, email address etc are still pointing to the client's site. Everything is the same, the pages, the navigation etc. When I click on a link on the copy site it loads the same pages but at their site, the internal linking points to the version of the pages on their site. It seems to be an ongoing thing because the last time the client updated their blog was last week and this is on the copy site. Obviously this cannot be helping with regard to seo. The client knows nothing about it so not come from them. The copy site is indexed in Google!!. The first thing to do is to contact these people and ask what they are doing. This is proving to be easier said than done, the contact details (as mentioned above) on the pages still point back to the client and the whois gives no details. What would be the first step to take here? Obviously there is the whole legal area about stolen content but that can wait until we have the site down and out of Google. Is there somewhere in Google to report things such as this? I will speak to client and if they are happy I will share both the domains in question, they know I am seeking alternative opinions Many thanks Carl
Web Design | | GrumpyCarl0 -
Where should I spend Money on my website?
My website is www.capitolshine.com what do you think? Where should I spend money to enhance SEO search results? I do have a limited budget but the company is growing quickly and I might have more funds to invest in a few months. Where should I spend money now (less than $500 per month) and where should I spend money in the future? I am afraid the person who coded my website wasn't well versed on SEO. There also might be coding errors. I'm trying to work through the errors myself via the repots from SEOmoz.
Web Design | | CapitolShine0 -
Website using javascript to serve up content - SEO Friendly?
I'm checking out a dentist website http://www.sagedentalnj.com/ I was referred by a friend so just taking a little peek at it. When you click on the menu items, the url at the top doesn't change. When you view source, the page titles are all the same. when I do site:http://www.sagedentalnj.com/ none of his pages are indexed by google. What can be done with his site so that google sees his pages? Maybe submit sitemap?
Web Design | | Czubmeister0 -
Bing free mobile website
When editing my Bing business listing, I have noticed that they offer a free mobile website. I was actually looking to build one and I'm not sure if this is what I'm looking for. I want to be able to customize it as well. Anybody tried it already? arBS3.jpg
Web Design | | echo10 -
How would restructuring the navigation of my website affect my rankings?
I want to restructure the navigation of my website for a few reasons: 1. It isn't intuitive/clear to the user 2. It is way too big, it has too many links and thus causes the number of links on many pages to be >100. 3. I want to get rid of file extensions as part of the URLs (.html, .php) 4. I want to achieve a "tree"-like navigation system, with categories, subcategories and so on. In the process of cleaning up my website, I had to 301 redirect a lot of duplicate pages, fix broken links, etc. I have a lot of 301 redirects already, and in the process of restructuring the navigation of my website I know I'm going to get more. Will the addition of new 301 redirects have an effect on my rankings? (I'm basically going to be changing all of the URLs) What kind of SEO effect will restructuring the navigation at the top of the page (reducing the # of links on the main menu) have on my site? What is the best strategy to implement in this situation?
Web Design | | deuce1s0
