SEO and multilanguage websites

[larry144]

First of all, I'd like to say thank you all for maintaining this great forum. It's very helpful, and if I ever reach a level in the SEO area where I can say something useful, I'll be sure to do so!

I have two questions regarding a recently launched website.

1. I am currently working on multilanguage support for the website and plan to have separate pages for different languages in various sub-folders of the root directory. When I register the website with directories and search engines, should I just register the global URL, e.g., "test.com", and place links to country-specific subfolders from the global URL, or should I register, e.g., "test.com", "test.co.uk" and "test.de" separately and include cross-links on each page? I don't want to be thrown out of Google for registering essentially the same website (although in different languages) under different URLs. Note also that test.com and test.co.uk would be in the same language but have slightly different content.

2. In part because I plan to have country-specific websites, I am currently using a leader page that redirects users to country-specific subfolders based on browser information. Based on recent experience (I may be completely wrong), I suspect that Google does not follow redirect tags and collects only information displayed on the referrer page. Should I therefore include meta tags and a brief description using the relevant keyword (displayed in white so people don't see it) on the referrer page?

Thanks very much.

Larry

[sfowler]

If you start hiding text, you're dead! There is probably no quicker way of getting banned. If you have different URLs for the different languages, then register them all in the directories. By all means connect them with a series of links so people can switch to their own language. I tend to search in English, but if they have a version in German, I will switch and be happy to do so.

[larry144]

Thanks. That's very helpful. I will make index.php the start page and not have index.php redirect users to home.php, which is what I currently do.

One more question, though: It sounds like it's okay to register different language versions simultaneously. But what about .com and .co.uk? These two sets of pages would be almost identical, except, possibly, for a few very minor content differences. My question is: Should I do a permanent redirect from .co.uk to .com and get rid of those differences or are a few differences enough to justify registering each URL separately?

Larry

[webcertain]

Hi larry144,
The best really in that case would be to create a few pages (for the uk domain..) dedicated to the UK market. I know it's not an easy task but it is well worth it (a .co.uk domain will have better result in eg UK results..), and to write specifically for UK visitors will improve your conversion rate.. Whatever the product, there is differences between a Uk prospect and a US one..
Good luck,
Johann

[sfowler]

I agree with the comments above. You want UK specific content on a UK site. Where is your server based BTW? This will define where your .com site appears to be based.

[larry144]

I live in London but the server is based in Austria - it's world4you.com (Servus sfowler - you seem to come from Vienna, too!!!). If I understand you guys correctly, the .com website is actually deemed to be an Austrian site - that's interesting. And unfortunate in a way, since the .com version doesn't have Austria-specific content on it.

I've also got a related question re directories (let me know if I should open a new topic for this one). It seems like you can spend yourself out of your depth if you try to submit your URL to each of yahoo, goguides, joeant, etc. How effective is this strategy?

The background to my question is that I want to offer speed dating events (in the UK) and 100% free online dating (globally). There seem to be a number of ways to get people to sign up for free online dating but to generate traffic for speed dating in the UK you really need to rank very prominently in Google (the market leader, speeddater.co.uk, is consistently the first link that appears for virtually any keyword you can think of - I once tried "tennis" and "EC1", which stands for East London, and instead of the local tennis clubs, the first link that came up was to speeddater.co.uk - of course, this is true only if you are based in the UK). It's true that Speeddater got some coverage on BBC and Channel 4 in the past (and possibly some links) but that can't explain the incredible effectiveness of their SEO efforts. So, for me, the question whether I have any realistic chance in the UK speeddating market depends on whether I can come close to Speeddater in the Google ranks. If there is a good chance that getting listed in yahoo, goguides, joeant, etc. will get me there, I'm happy to spend a fair amount of money, but otherwise, I don't know. A difficult question, I know, but any qualitative feedback you guys might have would be great!

Thanks, Larry

[sfowler]

There is a thread here showing a whole bunch of directories, a lot of them are UK directories. Start submitting!
I find it intersting that you are on an Austrian server. We have just mved most of our sites because they were all a) expensive b) slow
BTW, I'm a fraud, I come from Derby originally!

[Conficio]

Originally Posted by sfowler

Where is your server based BTW? This will define where your .com site appears to be based.

Sorry to say, but I believe this is not true. the physical location of your IP can't determine your domain.

However, you might want to do your customers a favor and want to host the different version locally in the markets. Just for reasons of speed. Although that should not be to important.

Also don't worry much about the similarity of .com and .com.uk. The search engine will ignore it for the most part. Two identical copies do not set off their banning filters. A dozen might do this. However send your local URLs to the local versions of the big search engines, they should prefer your localized URL for display in the search results.

Kind regards

K<o>

[webcertain]

Originally Posted by Conficio

Sorry to say, but I believe this is not true. the physical location of your IP can't determine your domain.


Also don't worry much about the similarity of .com and .com.uk. The search engine will ignore it for the most part. Two identical copies do not set off their banning filters. A dozen might do this. However send your local URLs to the local versions of the big search engines, they should prefer your localized URL for display in the search results.

Kind regards

K<o>

Sorry but Google does look at the Ip address (eg http://www.webpronews.com/insiderrep...SSearches.html )
Two identical copies do not set off their banning filters.: True, but one will be ignored..

Cheers,
Johann

[larry144]

Thanks for all the helpful replies.

One last note on Austrian webservers, since sfowler brought up the topic - world4you.com is the only ISP in Austria I have experience with it (it was recommended to me), and I have to say it's very fast (at least, I have not had any issues - granted traffic on my website isn't exactly high (yet) but still), the service is very cheap (the base package for a virtual server costs EUR 7.50 a month), and customer service is excellent: Emails to support are usually answered within 30 minutes (including on weekends), and the people at the company are very flexible when it comes to customizing their systems to your requirements. If anyone is looking to change, I can recommend them.

Larry