Mirror Site for Another Language - How to do?

Run same database for two domains w/ redirect

[kittykat]

Hi all,

I have a directory site that is in both Spanish and English.

The thing is, i have a hard time getting listed on some search engines because the main site is in Spanish. DMOZ categories, for example, have much higher page rank in English than in Spanish, but I can't get listed because my main site is in Spanish.

What I would like to do is get another domain and have a redirect going to the English side of the site that kicks in when people go to this new domain.

1) Anybody have any specifics on how to best set this up?

2) Not too worried about duplicate content, cuz while the database is the same, other langage on the page is different. Should i be?

3) Any other issues or suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

[lazerzubb]

You can set up a virtual domain, and point it to a sub-category beneath the original domain, i've done this with loads of domains, works very well.

If you know about it you are somtimes able to enter it via www.originialdomain/newdomainname/

Where the new domain is pointed to the "newdomainname" category.

[heini]

Kittykat, welcome to WebmasterWorld!
Any reason why you don't want to set it up as two independent sites?

[kittykat]

thanks guys,

heini, only reason for not setting up as independent sites is hosting cost. is that what you would recommend?

[heini]

>recommend
It would solve all indexing problems. Generally there are pros and cons to setting up bilingual content on seperate domains.
Hosting costs however would be a minor consideration to me. Why not set up the second domain as Lazer suggested in a subfolder of your presence, but not do the redirect?
Not sure about the situation with the database though.
If it's only for pics and stuff the it should be no problem to use the db for both sites.

[1Lit]

Am I allowed to post a link to a URL here if it is not my website and I have nothing to do with them? I believe it might help 'kittykat'.

example.com [example.com] caters for visitors using several languages. Have a look at their source code. See their metatags? I know it's not exactly what you are talking about, but maybe you can use that lang="en"/lang="es" thing to sift out your visitors somehow?

Anybody got any ideas how it could be done by our friend 'kittykat'?

[edited by: heini at 6:54 pm (utc) on Feb. 8, 2003]
[edit reason] as per TOS / thanks [/edit]

[heini]

1lit, those tags only tell bots and browsers what language is used on the page, see here:
[webmasterworld.com...]
All major search engines however use automatic language detectio. Therefore those tags are good to have but should be of no consequence to the problem kittykat describes.

Kittykat, coming back to your question, when you say you are having problems getting indexed in some search engines, do you mean engines or directories? Or is it that your english pages don't get good ranking?

[kittykat]

basically want i want to do is get a higher page rank for my English data, but this is hard, because for example, Yahoo (english) will only put a link if the site is in English. I have English content, but the home page is Spanish.

Same with DMOZ. The English side of DMOZ will only link to you if the home page is in English; as it happens, the DMOZ category that I am in has a much higher page rank in English than in Spanish.

So, I would like to have an English language domain and "brand" that I can use to try to get higher PR for my English content, and promote in Yahoo, DMOZ and elsewhere.

hope that is clear. thanks!

[heini]

That's what I thought, thanks kittykat. It's about PR from directories and links.
Yes, a seperate domain is definitely the best solution. It should be said though, many sites have listings for each of their featured languages without seperating them.

I would really suggest setting up two doamins. You can do it on the same hosting account.