Best way to deal with multiple languages

[CrakJason]

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.

[Hannah_Smith]

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

[Hannah_Smith]

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.

[rmontanez]

I always use the /es approach and you can use Google Webmaster Tools to Geo target different sub- directories

[William.Lau]

Its a fact that different languages are not considered as duplicate content