Forum Moderators: goodroi
We have a multi national client in process of a multi-national redesign. We will have either unique versions or redirected version in individual cctlds, but also want users to switch countries and languages if they prefer.
We are directional split among the following options:
1. Home page of each site contain a country selector.
2. Country selector page on all sites with lots of robust content and links leading into the main site.
3. Having a very generic country selection page w/out much content, but in submitting site maps to each engine in each cctld, designate the home as the default language home page rather than the country selection page. Idea here is that if this is done you wont get country selector page return in the SERP. Rather you receive the home page of that country as designated in the site map.
===> Additional caveat to #3, is to also put a no index, no follow on the country selector page.
The additional caveat sounds really dangerous to me.
I am trying to push for Option 2, followed by 1. But, many want 3.
Thoughts?
In my experience the need for a country selector can be minimized. If you register the appropriate cctld, host it in that country, write the content in the appropriate language for each country along with submitting sitemaps, the search engines usually do a good job matching each country site to the matching audience.
I prefer to utilize the homepage as much as possible. The homepage often gets the most links and therefore has the best chance to rank for whatever content you place on it. I usually do not prefer options that limit content.
ps dont forget you could place the country selector in an iframe to block it from the search engines but still provide it to visitors.
