: SEO implications of having multiple languages available at same URL I am in the process of translating a set of websites to multiple languages. Would there be any negative implications if I

Posted in: #Google #Internationalization #Multilingual #Seo #Url

I am in the process of translating a set of websites to multiple languages. Would there be any negative implications if I were to serve each different language from identical URLs?

I fully intend to fully implement translated URLs, hreflang meta tags, etc. But before I do that (and start risking making a mistake where Google might start seeing duplicate content) I'd like to be able to implement the translations to make sure everything "works" OK.

But will Google see that as "cloaking" or something else "black hat" because I'm serving different content from the same URL?

Just to be clear, the language would be selected by a POST form, set a session variable for the user, and then use that session variable for the rest of the session.

Edit
I'm aware of the best practices for multilingual sites. I just don't want to implement them all at this time. It's a large project, so I'll be doing it in phases. I mostly want to know if I could be penalized by Google in any way.

Also, the websites sniff the users Browser language, and if we have that translation will serve it to them seamlessly. If we don't have that language, they'll get the English default.

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: How reliable is the number of hits provided by Google site: command? A partner of my company (not sure whether i can tell their name here - i´ll use example.com instead) asked me yesterday,

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: Lots of good answers here. Another point that should be added is that the pixel-width of a hyphen is smaller than an underscore, which may allow you to get another keyword into the SERP.

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: A best practice is a method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved by other means.

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: Virtual hosting refers to the practice of hosting multiple websites on a single server. Virtual Hosts can be name-based, or IP based. Name-based Virtual Hosts (common in shared hosting environments)

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@Michele947

make Sure that your page language will be one for per page not multiple.

Google allow multiple language in a URL so don't worry about it.
Google like unique content so don't use copy content so Google doesn't take any action against you.
If there is any issue about robot.txt so include the issue in robot.txt file for indexing purpose.
From Google Webmaster Tools/ Search Console you can select Geography area also

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@Kristi941

Here's Google's own tips for multilingual sites. In summary:

Make sure the page language is obvious by sticking to one language per page.
Keep the content for different languages on separate URLs. Don’t use cookies to show translated versions of the page. Consider cross-linking each language version of a page.
Tell Google if your site is targeting a particular geographic region.
Use robots.txt to block search engines from crawling automatically translated pages on your site.

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: SEO implications of having multiple languages available at same URL I am in the process of translating a set of websites to multiple languages. Would there be any negative implications if I

More posts by @Bryan171

: How reliable is the number of hits provided by Google site: command? A partner of my company (not sure whether i can tell their name here - i´ll use example.com instead) asked me yesterday,

: Lots of good answers here. Another point that should be added is that the pixel-width of a hyphen is smaller than an underscore, which may allow you to get another keyword into the SERP.

: A best practice is a method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved by other means.

: Virtual hosting refers to the practice of hosting multiple websites on a single server. Virtual Hosts can be name-based, or IP based. Name-based Virtual Hosts (common in shared hosting environments)

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