Best Way to Handle Multi-Language Sites
-
In the last year we've made a few significant changes to the structure of our site - namely adding translations for a few languages. We have historically been gaining in organic search by about 10% each month, but in the last two months we've leveled out and seen a slight dip.
I am wondering if this has something to do with the addition of the second language, and namely if there's a chance we've been penalized due to duplicate content.
We have almost all pages / content on the site translated by a translator, but the way the development works the site will grab the english version if a translation hasn't been added - potentially adding some duplicate content?
The URL structure remains the same, other than the addiion of the language - site.com/our-tour vs site.com/de/our-tour
We also haven't translated the tour name itself, so that remains the same.
Just wondering if anyone has any feedback on best practices here or things I should be looking out for.
Thanks in Advance.
-
You need to share your website. If you want to show publicly, you can send me as private.
-
Adding the English content when the translation hasn't been added is an error on your side, mainly for the following reasons:
- You are posting duplicate content to the English version.
- You are posting English content on a page targeting another language/location.
- You are then deleting the English (duplicated) content from the site and replacing it with the translated one, causing confusion in regards to keyword ranking, or even dead links.
It would be a much better solution to wait for the content to be translated first, and then posting it to the second language version.
Besides that, don't forget that there are always ups and downs when it comes to SEO and that it is normal to have some dips as long as the trend is maintained and quality content is added.
Daniel Rika - Dalerio Consulting
https://dalerioconsulting.com/
info@dalerioconsulting.com
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
-
Keyword Cannibalization vs. Optimizing Site
I am in the process of optimizing our website and I am having a hard time reconciling two best practices I have found on Moz. 1. You should avoid having multiple pages focus on the same keyword because you will lose some control of which result will show. 2. You should identify your core keywords and weave these keywords multiple times (naturally) throughout your site. I have spent months identifying our top 7 keywords and am working through the site now. The first piece of advice keeps giving me pause. Can anyone weigh in with other considerations or advice on how I can reconcile these two strategies. Thank you
On-Page Optimization | | NikCall2 -
Thoughts on archiving content on an event site?
I have a few sites that are used exclusively to promote live events (ex. tradeshows, conference, etc). In most cases these sites content fewer than 100 pages and include information for the upcoming event with links to register. Some time after the event has ended, we would redesign the site and start promoting next years event...essentially starting over with a new site (same domain). We understand the value that many of these past event pages have for users who are looking for info from the past event and we're looking for advice on how best to archive this content to preserve for SEO. We tend to use concise urls for pages on these sites. Ex. www.event.com/agenda or www.event.com/speakers. What are your thoughts on archiving the content from these pages so we can reuse the url with content for the new event? My first thought is to put these pages into an archive, like www.event.com/2015/speakers. Is there a better way to do this to preserve the SEO value of this content?
On-Page Optimization | | accessintel0 -
Should I use nofollow when interlinking large, networked sites?
My company runs a network of very large networked sites, each with thousands of content pages. In our main navigation we are currently not nofollowing links between these networked sites. The links appear on every single page in the top navigation, and there are thousands of pages on each site. I am worried this will look to Google like we have suspiciously received thousands of links from one domain - one link from every page on the domain. Should we be nofollowing these navigation links between the different sites in our network?
On-Page Optimization | | Natasha90040 -
Should I remove the Jetpack Plugin From A SIte
I dont know if anyone has any experience with the jetpack plugin, but personally I prefer yoast. My point is someones site I am looking at has both Yoast SEO plugin and also Jetpack for wordpress, should I just remove the jetpack as it seems to be a very heavy loading plugin.
On-Page Optimization | | propertyhunter0 -
Need help ranking my site
Hi, Can anyone help me out? I am trying to get this site ranked for "Villa General Belgrano". It was on the first page of Google and then it disappeared. Did I over optimize the anchor text? http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/anchors?site=www.lawebdelvalle.com.ar
On-Page Optimization | | Carla_Dawson0 -
Changing my site (dramatically)
I am about to do a complete site change. I am going to WordPress. I am ranked #2 on SERPS. Will I lose rank for changing everything on my site? I have 500 pages indexed but I am about to have 30k indexed. It is a real estate site that is switching from a "framed" solution, to a listing indexed solution. If I make good use of my keywords etc (on site optimization) will I be at risk of losing risk just for changing my site?
On-Page Optimization | | JML11790 -
What is the best way to manage industry required duplicate Important Safety Information (ISI) content on every page of a site?
Hello SEOmozzer! I have recently joined a large pharmaceutical marketing company as our head SEO guru, and I've encountered a duplicate content related issue here that I'd like some help on. Because there is so much red tape in the pharmaceutical industry, there are A LOT of limitations on website content, medication and drug claims, etc. Because of this, it is required to have Important Safety Information (ISI) clearly stated on every page of the client's website (including the homepage). The information is generally pretty lengthy, and in some cases is longer than the non-ISI content on each page. Here is an example: http://www.xifaxan.com/ All content under the ISI header is required on each page. My questions are: How will this duplicated content on each page affect our on-page optimization scores in the eyes of search engines? Is Google seeing this simply as duplicated content on every page, or are they "smart" enough to understand that because it is a drug website, this is industry standard (and required)? Aside from creating more meaty, non-ISI content for the site, are there any other suggestions you have for handling this potentially harmful SEO situation? And in case you were going to suggest it, we cannot simply have an image of the content, as it may not be visible by all internet users. We've already looked into that 😉 Thanks in advance! Dylan
On-Page Optimization | | MedThinkCommunications0 -
How to Define Best URL Structure for Product Pages?
I am working on my website to edit structure with help of Google's search engine optimization starter guide. There is really good instruction to define URL structure which help us to perform well over Google's organic search. I have resolved issues regarding category pages but, I have confusion to define best URL structure for product pages. My website's product page URL structure is as follow. http://www.vistastores.com/marketumbrellas-californiaumbrella-slpt758-f13-red.html http://www.vistastores.com/homefurniture-winsomewood-93630.html URL structure is constructed with following terms. 1. Root Category Name (Market Umbrellas or Home Furniture or ....) 2. Brand Name 3. Manufacturer Part Number I am not happy with this structure and also not performing well over Google's organic search. I am thinking to include product name or title tag in URL after root domain. But, it may create very long URL and create issues in organic search display. Does it really matter to perform well over Google's organic search? How can I define best URL structure for product pages?
On-Page Optimization | | CommercePundit0