Have google spider the english version of my website

Vido · #1 (**permalink**) 05-27-2005, 09:30 AM

Hi everyone,

I am trying to have google index the english version of my site, which is stored in a subfolder (www.mysite.com/en/). It seems that google prefers the pages in the root compared to those in the subfolder.

I was thus thinking about a new virtual host pointing to that very same folder. I will have two domains both pointing to the default.asp page of my site:
www.mysiteinitalian.it
www.mysiteinenglish.com
I will redirect the user to the correct folder (root folder or /en/ folder) based on the host the user requested.

Is this a good practice or should I consider a different approach? Again, my goal is to have google spider the english version of my site.

I already have some domains that I bought in the past. One of them contains my keyphrase in english, but the domain extension is .it. Will google give less importance to the keyphrase contained in the domain because of this (since .it is the extensions that italian sites usually have...)?

Thanks for all the hints you will give me!

Vido

KeithO · #2 (**permalink**) 05-27-2005, 10:38 AM

I'd say create a robot.txt file and direct the spider to your folder.

Vido · #3 (**permalink**) 05-27-2005, 10:49 AM

Hi KeithO,

and thanks for your answer.

I already have a robots.txt file, but I thought that file can be used only to tell the SEs which folders NOT to spider. My goal, on the contrary, is making google spider a particular folder, to which it seems to give lesser importance.

Could you please explain me how I can make google do that with the robots.txt file?

Thanks!

KeithO · #4 (**permalink**) 05-27-2005, 12:33 PM

sorry, I"m wrong. you can only disallow. you are correct.

what kind of redirect do you have set up?

Vido · #5 (**permalink**) 05-27-2005, 01:04 PM

CURRENT SITUATION
The Italian version is under the root folder, while the English version is under a folder called /en/.
Google seems to spider only the italian version, while the English version seems to be skipped (maybe because it's not under the main folder?)

MY SOLUTION
I was planning to create a second domain pointing to the homepage of my current site. Based on the url the user/google is coming from, I'll show him the default.asp in the root folder or the default.asp in the /en/ folder.

Do you think this is the best solution? Or is a better way to have google spider the /en/ folder?

KeithO · #6 (**permalink**) 05-27-2005, 03:02 PM

try creating a seperate folder for the italian version under /it/ and have a gateway page in the root folder giving options for italian or english. so you're root would be:

Quote:

/en/
/it/
default.asp

is the english version linked to at all on the main page?

Vido · #7 (**permalink**) 05-27-2005, 03:20 PM

Yes it is. It seems, though, that google gives higher importance to the pages in the main root folder and doesn't spider all of the pages in the /en/ folder...

emils · #8 (**permalink**) 05-28-2005, 01:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vido

Yes it is. It seems, though, that google gives higher importance to the pages in the main root folder and doesn't spider all of the pages in the /en/ folder...

Vido,

You are completely missing the point here. And the point is in the way Google determines what a site is about, and how it applies localization.

We had a lot of experience with regional sites (like yours) even high pr sites and having english subsections - exactly like yours. The problem is that this doesn't work, actually it works a little but by far worse than the remainder of the site. The reason is simple, Google determines your site purpose and geotargetting as a whole and once it did that, it puts you in the .it basket. And you're going to stay in there. Obviously, the english pages aren't going to rank well there. Why? Because you are attempting to rank well with english pages in an .it index. If you believe the english pages will be well indexed alike the other english pages on the web, you're wrong. You are not going to see that with Google.

Also - if the majority of backlinks to you is coming from the .it area, this is another indication for Google to keep you in the same regional basket.

If you want to have some effect with your english pages, my suggestion is to purchase a separate domain (a .com domain would be good), put all your english pages there, get backlinks to it, brace yourself with patience for sandbox time, do content, keep your site updated - and wait for results. This will pay off much better in time than what you are trying right now.

emils · #9 (**permalink**) 05-28-2005, 01:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vido

Yes it is. It seems, though, that google gives higher importance to the pages in the main root folder and doesn't spider all of the pages in the /en/ folder...

For Google, your english pages look like something very different that has been dumped there and does not have much to do with the rest of the site. Google is not going to pay much attention to that.