For multi language sites, what is best - two domains or one with both languages?

[RobertFisher]

We are assisting a client in setting up English and Spanish sites in Texas. They want to be able to find customers who are Spanish speaking predominantly or totally along with the customers they now get who are English speakers.

We are building them a new site and I have researched to find answers all over the board or less than clear. Should the structure be such that we have one site with a set of English and Spanish pages all with Spanish links to Spanish pages and English links to English pages.

Should we instead just have an English site for those people who utilize English and a different site for those who utilize Spanish?

Thanks

[RyanKent]

There are supporters of both methods.

The first suggestion I will make is to keep in mind your segments should be country-based, not language based. Your "Spanish" site will be "US-Spanish", "Mexican-Spanish", "Spain-Spanish", etc. There are not only linguistic differences but cultural differences along with monetary systems and units of measurements.

Prior to offering a recommendation I need to ask, are both the English and Spanish sites targeting a specific country such as the US?

[jargomang]

Is the spanish search traffic in Texas enough to make another site worth it?  Or are most hispanics using english search terms anyway?

I'd say if the spanish search traffic isn't that much I would make one site that is spanish and english.  But if there are considerable spanish searches in your area I would do a separate site in spanish.

Since this is probably a local business, you might confuse the local listings if you try to have two sites for one company.  So having two sites could require setting up two companies.

If this was for two different countries, I would definitely make two sites.  Since it's in the same geographical area I would lean towards one site instead of two.

[RobertFisher]

Thanks Ryan, I think I was less than clear. The sites target the South Texas region of Texas. If unfamiliar with it, there is a large population of non English speaking immigrants and their offspring. Our client wants to specifically target that area and then, potentially, follow later and target other areas with larger Spanish speaking populations within the US. Since my Spanish is "mas o menos" and I came to Texas as a kid, I am familiar with the cultural differences and the linguistic differences (depending on country of origin for Spanish speakers) and that is a very good observation on your part.

There is enough of a Spanish only population in Texas that many companies advertise in both languages so the client is wanting to insure they are penetrating that market. Hope the additional info helps.

[RyanKent]

Thanks for the clarification Robert.

I live in California and I believe the San Diego area is similar to your client's area in that it is close to the Mexican border and is home to a large Spanish population.

Translated content is considered unique. If you have an English and Spanish version of the same article, it is not duplicate content. Therefore I would recommend keeping all your content on one site.

Use the proper meta language tag on each page. There are many dialects of Spanish, and I know for certain a Mexican Spanish speaker can have a lot of difficulty understanding someone from Spain. If you use a translator, don't simply locate someone who speaks Spanish. I would suggest finding someone from Mexico who understands English very well to write the Spanish pages.

[RobertFisher]

I think on the whole this is a good answer and is what I was about 90% prepared to do. On the dialects it is a bit less tricky than the Castilian versus Mexican or American Spanish. The population in San Diego, Texas, etc. is going to be predominantly South American and all use essentially the same dialect. But, your advice is good advice for anyone not familiar with the language differences.

Thanks for the help, as always,

[RobertFisher]

Thanks for responding Jason (your pic looks like it was taken in a rain forest).

As to traffic in Spanish for our clients product/service there is enough to put up Spanish language. As I said in reply to Ryan, I am going to have one site for the main with both English and Spanish. I would ask this: you said if considerable Spanish searches you would do one English and one Spanish, why? (Just interested in the reasoning on any SEO) Frankly, I think you could be right as much as I think doing one with both languages could be right.