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Google Sitemaps and Multiview

Discussion in 'Google Sitemaps' started by Vladd44, Nov 14, 2005.

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  1. #1
    I have a new site I am getting off the ground that has been translated into 11 different languages.

    My concern is that I am using MultiView rewrite with the apache server. This allows the page to display in the default language of an users browser. If there is no language that matches it defaults to english.

    To the user it is seamless, the links are identical to the user regardless of their selection of language.

    On the server pages are listed in this general concept.

    page1.html.en <--- english
    page1.html.de <---- german
    page1.hrml.fr <---- french
    page1.html.html <--- the default page if there is no lanuage match.

    I was wondering if anyone using googlesitemap has used this alternative apache offers for languages.

    If there is a direct match, such as http://domainname.com/page1.html.de , the german page will load due to their being a match, and this is what I have been considering using to specify the individual languages for google. However I was wondering if anyone else had any better ideas.
     
    Vladd44, Nov 14, 2005 IP
  2. softplus

    softplus Peon

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    Always make direct links to your language pages. Think like a search engine - if you crawl and spot the english text, it'll be listed in english. If you crawl the same URL and it's in german all of a sudden, who knows what they'll do.

    So... I'd recommend:

    1) split your site for the language versions, at the very least subdirectories, perhaps even subdomains, best yet even seperate TLDs matching the country codes your're targeting. You want to get listed in the local pages, not just in the US index.

    2) Make direct links to your language pages, don't do anything automatic (at least for the search engines to notice).

    3) If you must, make a doorway page with the default language pre-selected. Or if yuo want, add a 302-redirection based on the client language code. Keep in mind that this is often set wrong! perhaps based on the IP location would be a better idea? Even that can get it wrong when you look at a country like Switzerland with German, French, Italian and whoknowswhat as official languages in different regions.

    Sometimes the simple things get so complicated :)
     
    softplus, Nov 14, 2005 IP