Best practices for country homepage
-
Hi,
What are the SEO best practices for redirecting to the correct language site based on geographic location?
Right now, we're using a 302 redirect to point users to the right country landing page.
User reaches site: domain.com > Server detects location > 302 redirect to domain.com/french
We'd like to optimize the site for all languages, but which country gets the SEO rank for the domain.com?
Thanks for your help!
Roya
-
OZNAPPIES' idea is a good one, and the technical advice is totally sound.
Here's another idea: show the English language homepage by default, but determine the user's preferred language. If your site supports the identified language, include & display a hyperlinked text-box/graphic-banner suggesting the visitor "view this site in {the user's identified language}" which links to the homepage for that language.
Regarding which country gets the SEO rank for the "domain.com" - it depends on where your links come from, your overall domain authority, the page authority for your targeted page, and the geolocation factors referenced here.
The same site could rank well in multiple countries, by the way. For example, this page on "diagnostic troubleshooting" ranks well in the U.S., the U.K., France, etc. However, if you have the resources to make targeted sites for each language/territory, I recommend you do that.
-
If you want domain.com to get the rank for domain.com/french you can set in the head section of ./french .italian etc to pass the juice back to the main site. I would think that <a (anchors)="" would="" be="" better="" than="" 302's="" as="" these="" are="" not="" temp="" redirects="" but="" links="" to="" language="" variations.="" i="" also="" ensure="" that="" have="" a="" tag="" in="" the="" html="" section="" <span=""><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="fr-fr" lang="fr-fr"></a>
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Best way to link to multiple location pages
I am a Magician and have multiple location pages for each county I cover. I currently have them linked off the menu under locations/ <county>and also in the footer</county> However I have heard that a link from the page is much stronger, so I am experimenting with removing the Menu & Footer link and just linking to these pages from within the content. It's not really a navigation item and most people come in through search to the right page. Am I diluting the link by having it in the Menu/Page and Footer? I read a long time ago that Google only considers the first link to a page and ignores the rest - is that the case? Thanks Roger https://www.rogerlapin.co.uk/
Technical SEO | | Rogerperk0 -
Best way to fix duplicate content issues
Another question for the Moz Community. One of my clients has 4.5k duplicate content issues. For example: http://www.example.co.uk/blog and http://www.example.co.uk/index.php?route=blog/blog/listblog&year=2017. Most of the issues are coming from product pages. My initial thoughts are to set up 301 redirects in the first instance and if the issue persists, add canonical tags. Is this the best way of tackling this issue?
Technical SEO | | Laura-EMC0 -
Homepage no longer showing in Google.co.uk
Hi guys, Has anyone ever had this before? My clients website was appearing 4 & 5 in Google.co.uk for the keyword 'voltage optimisation'. Since moving up in the rankings after furiously optimising the website we have now gotten to position 3 in Google.co.uk but the homepage ranking has disappeared and now is just displaying our 'what is voltage optimisation' page. I'm guessing Google feels that this page is more useful to someone searching 'voltage optimisation' but my client wants answers?! It's almost like Google have said, "if you want to take position 3 were only going to list one of your pages" because everytime we drop back down to position 4 our homepage appears position 5.
Technical SEO | | TWSI0 -
Internal links best practices
In looking at the inbound links to a client’s Home page, I see that the link from each page of the website back to the Home page is an image, and the ALT text is “Home.” I have a few questions about this, and would appreciate help understanding best practices: --Does it matter that the link back to the Home page is an image (presumably the client’s logo)? -- If we keep the image link, wouldn’t it be better to use “client’s company name” as ALT text rather than “Home”? --Should I recommend using an HTML link back to the Home page, and using the company name as anchor text? (I don't think it's relevant, but the site is built in Drupal.) Thanks!
Technical SEO | | jrae0 -
Best practice for eCommerce site migration, should I 301 redirect or match URLs on new site
Hi Guys, I have been struggling with this one for quite some time. I am no SEO expert like many of you, rather just a small business owner trying to do the right thing, so forgive me if I say something that makes no sense 🙂 I am moving our eCommerce store from one platform to another, in the process the store is getting a massive face lift. The part I am struggling with is whether I should keep my existing URL structure in place or use 301 redirects to create a cleaner looking URLs. Currently the URLs are a little long and I would love to move to a /category/product_name type format. Of course the goal is not to lose ranking in the process, I rank pretty well for several competitive phrases and do not want to create a negative impact. How would you guys handle this? Thanks, Dinesh
Technical SEO | | MyFairyTaleBooks0 -
Best XML Sitemap generator
Do you guys have any suggestions on a good XML Sitemaps generator? hopefully free, but if it's good i'd consider paying I am using a MAC so would prefer a online or mac version
Technical SEO | | kevin48030 -
What is the best website structure for SEO?
I've been on SEOmoz for about 1 month now and everyone says that depending on the type of business you should build up your website structure for SEO as 1st step. I have a new client click here ( www version doesn't work)... some bugs we are fixing it now. We are almost finished with the design & layout. 2nd question have been running though my head. 1. What would the best url category for the shop be /products/ - current url cat ex: /products/door-handles.html 2. What would you use for the main menu as section for getting the most out of SEO. Personally i am thinking of making 2-3 main categories on the left a section where i can add content to it (3-4 paragraphs... images maybe a video).So the main page focuses on the domain name more and the rest of the sections would focus on specific keywords, this why I avoid cannibalization. Main keyword target is "door handles" Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Technical SEO | | mosaicpro0 -
Best way to Handle Pagination?
At the moment I my blog is paginated like so: /blogs > /blogs/page/2 > /blogs/page/3 etc What are the benefits of paginating with dynamic URLs like here on SEOmoz with /blog?page=3
Technical SEO | | NickPateman810