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How do 302 redirects from Akamai content targeting impact SEO?
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How do 302 redirects from Akamai content targeting impact SEO?
I'm using Akamai content targeting to get people from countries and languages to the right place (eg www.abc.123 to redirect to www.abc.123/NL-nl/default.aspx where folks from the Netherlands get their localized site in dutch) and from the edge server closest to them. As far as I know Akamai doesn't allow me to use anything but a 302. Anyone run across this? is this 302 a problem? I did a fetch as googlebot on my main domain and all I see is the Akamai 302. I can't imagine this is the first time Akamai has run across this but I would like to know for sure.
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We provide that option (to change your language and country) but I have to balance that with user experience. The best user experience if for someone in France to see French content delivered from servers in France and for someone in Germany to see German content delivered from servers in Germany. It wouldn't be great for me if when I visit Sony's website it were all in Japanese until I clicked a box saying I wanted to see it in English. We're fortunate in that we have just as many visitors from outside the US as within the US so we can't tip the scale either direction. Have you seen anyone who uses Akamai and has a significant global presence that has done this single landing content page effectively?
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It's generally best practice to connect localized versions of your site with links in the header rather than redirects of any kind. Redirects tell search engines that only one of the pages should be indexed. A link indicates that both pages are important, and both should be indexed. My guess is that you'd like to have the English version of your site rank in America, and the Dutch version of your site rank in the Netherlands.
If you're worried that visitors will come to your site and get lost because there's just a small link in the header, you could create a pop up that says something like, "I see you're in the Netherlands, want to see our Dutch site?"
As an added bonus, when your American customers visit the Netherlands, they'll still be able to visit the American version of your site, since it's their choice.
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