Best way to deal with multiple languages
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Hey guys,
I've been trying to read up on this and have found that answers vary greatly, so I figured I'd seek your expertise.
When dealing with the url structure of a site that is translated into multiple languages, is it better SEO wise to structure a site like this : domain.com/en domain.com/it etc
or to simply add url modifiers like domain.com/?lang=en domain.com/?lang=it
In the first example, I'm afraid google might see my content as duplicate even though its in a different language.
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I'd concur with this approach - however you can only Geo-Target with Google Webmaster Tools, not language target.
You might be better to implement rel="alternate" hreflang = "x" via your sitemaps to help Google understand which content is intended for which audience. See - http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2620865
I hope this helps,
Hannah
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Careful with this
Content in different languages shouldn't be viewed as duplicate, however I have seen sites run into problems when they have say US English and UK English content which is very similar.
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I always use the /es approach and you can use Google Webmaster Tools to Geo target different sub- directories
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Its a fact that different languages are not considered as duplicate content
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