Autoswitching of language

[digitec]

Hi all,

I got a resort & spa hotel that has as index page an autoswitching language that redirects you to EN if you're English, ITA if you're italia, ESP, RU etc etc.

Does this affects the ranking?

The root index.php only has this programming lines that redirect users to their browser language.

This was done cause we really hate intro pages that lets you select language.

[AlanMosley]

The programming on the home page redirecting is more then likely going to upset rankings, what does the search engine see? You will have 3 home pages trying to rank, when people link to domainname.com where will the link juice go?
You may also have duplicate content issues but I am not sure how SE’s handle the fact that they are in different languages you maybe ok I don’t know
I have a couple of solutions I am not sure if they are options for you

SE’s will not do you for duplicate content if your sites are hosted in different countries on different TLD’s ; .au .uk .ru , so splitting into 3 sites may help you, each country will more then likely find the site from their own geo area.

In ASP.Net we have globalization, I assume php has something simular, this is where you put all content into resource files, one for each language, depending on the settings of the users computer it pulls out the correct content

[digitec]

Hi Alan, thanks for your reply, and many sorry for my english..

the php makes this, there's just the title tag and no descripton and anything.

if your italian goes to www.url.com/it-it else www.url.com/en-en and so on.. every installation of language is not generated but is made with 5 different subfolders cause the accessibility between languages is different...

In your opinion I should create an intro page with

"select your language?"

I absolutely trust your advices.

Thanks again.

[AlanMosley]

i don’t really like the idea of users having to select language, but it is better then the coded redirects I believe.

I would rather go for one of the 2 solutions i suggested before.