Avoiding duplicate content with multi-lagusage site

[fraserhannah]

Hi,

We have a client in China that is looking to create three versions of the same website, English, Chinese and Korean. They do not want to use a translation plugin like Google translate, preferring to have the pages duplicated.

What is the best way to do this bearing in mind that the site needs to be found in all three languages.

Would also appreciate if anyone knows of a good hosting company that has English support on the Chinese main land.

Thanks

Fraser

[RobertFisher]

First, good move by client to not use translation plug in IMO.

So, you have a Chinese site in Chinese and you are adding English and Korean or, it is a new venture? (server question made me think this). Good question on server hosting.

The answer is based on what all you want to accomplish: Is the site to be a multi lingual site, multi regional sit, or both?

If you are wanting to be multi regional then your client is  wanting to rank in Baidu for China, Naver - Korea, and Google US/UK/AU, etc. Or, for multi lingual, you could be just looking to sell to disparate people living in China. For both, you get the pic. 
HERE Is a great GWT link for setup of domains/sub domains/directories, etc  Note this has an excellent table further down.

Avoiding duplicate content can be accomplished multiple ways and Google has made some real strides with the use of rel-alternate-hreflang link elements

So, you have a bit of reading, but if you can supply a few answers, we can help you out.

All the best,