I hope I'm posting this in the right area. We're redesigning our website to have information in 6 languages. We're planning on letting the user select the language they want from a drop-box such as the one here: http://europa.eu.int/comm/index_en.htm We were wondering what we should have as our default page - what should be our domain.com/index.htm? Should it be a page that lets users first select the language they want, or would this hurt our page's SEO? Should it default to English? Is there a way for it to default to the language of the country the IP is from? (So if someone visits from Brazil, it automatically takes them to the Portuguese language page at /domain.com/pt/index.htm). Any advice you could provide would be most appreciated. This is our first foray into a multi-lingual site.
Personally I would have it in English (Not a language selection screen but a full content one) and then clickable flags for the different languages. The pulldown may be fine for the subpages but I think you will find by having a picture rather then text, it will be easier for multilingual users.
I agree with yfs1 that it should be a full content page and not a language selection page. I would do this and in this order: (Giving preference to 1. A Cookie, 2. Browser lang setting, 3. User's physical location) 1. Check for your site's cookie and show the last language they looked at the site in. 2. Check the HTTP headers sent from the browser to determine if the browser has a default language set, if so, show that language. (And set a cookie- see #1) 3. If there's no default browser langauge set, OR you don't have the website in the default language, check the user's IP address against a geolocation database and show the language associated with the country they're in. (And set a cookie) If the above 3 options fail, or they return a language that you don't have a template for, show English.
Excellent suggestions! Thanks guys! Would anyone else care to weigh in? RE: Flags. I've been considering that route as well. One thing we're worried about is scalability - we'd like to be able to add more languages in the future without radically altering our page design. A drop-box seemed like the easiest way to do it, but it should be do-able with flags if we set it up right.
I agree with yfs1, leave the page in english since it is widely known around the world. You can either mention the names of the countries, or leave the flags to indicate the language.
How about a drop-down box with CSS/Javascript that displays the flag next to the language name How's that for an idea?
I really like how you've dealt with the "choose a language" issue on your page, Maldives. One question: Where did you get those little flags?