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.com and local tld

what is the best setup for google

         

hyperion

12:06 am on Mar 8, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



We've got an identical .com and a local tld (.de). Both are parked on the same ip, but deliver different content initally - if you type in the .com, you get the start page in english, else in german. But if you changed the language afterwards, or someone linked to a specific page like "something.com/red_widgets_de.html", he got the german page. Now, since both domains are listed in dmoz (the .com in a "normal" category, the .de in a regional one), both of them got spidered, and, necessarily, the content is identical in the end, since there was a "switch language" link on every page (and it was a relative link, so you stayed under .com or .de, regardless of the language chosen).
That is suboptimal, I think, since the PR gets distributed to two versions.
Now I changed the setup, and you get redirected (via php/header) to the same page under the other tld if you request a german page from the .com, and vice versa, and the other language version always links absolutely to the appropiate domain.
Is this ok? Or would it be better to always redirect to the .com?

jeremy goodrich

4:29 am on Mar 9, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I would leave the same content on each domain, but in the local language, and then link the 2 domains together with a link for the other language on that page.

After all, they are 2 different sites with 2 different audiences, yes? To me this seems the best way.