: Does Angular browser language detection and redirection affect SEO? I'm building an Angular app that supports English and Japanese. The main site: domain.com, is displaying in Japanese. The other

@Hamaas447

The following might be the factors why Google showed you the English version of the website:


Browser Language - if you have set the default language of your browser to EN, most likely, Google will show you the English version of the site
Location of your IP - despite the fact that you use the Google.jp, if Google detects your local IP is not in Japan, you will still be served with the English version.
Cache version of the site - Google puts cookies in every search (especially when logged in, even in incognito mode).


so, why not try the following:


clean your browsing history; use a premium VPN (if you are not physically in Japan); or
ask a friend/colleague in Japan to do the manual search
try different browser (set the default language to JP)

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@Megan663

If you redirect away from the Japanese site for English users, Google won't be able to crawl it. Googlebot almost always gets detected as "English".

Redirecting users for language doesn't work very well. Language detection is often wrong. It usually relies on either identifying the country of the IP address of the user, or relies on the Accept-Language HTTP header. Both are problematic:


Geo IP databases are wrong an insignificant amount of the time (up to 10%)
Many users don't set up the Accept-Language header. It defaults to the language of the browser that is being used. It is especially problematic for non-English speakers who often get the English browser installed by default. They may speak enough English to get by, but it isn't their preferred language.
Travelers
Proxy servers
Borrowed computers
Crawlers and bots


I would recommend putting the Japanese site at example.com/jp. You would then never have to redirect between the two. They would each have distinct and clear URLs.

If it looks like a user is on a page where you suspect that they don't understand the language, you should put a prominent notice on the page in what you think is their preferred language. It should invite them to switch to the site in their language. Don't automatically try to take them there. Language detection just isn't good enough for that.

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