| Web design for a bilingual website design is slightly | | | | options available. You could provide a link that takes |
| more tricky than a website design in a single | | | | the visitor from the page they are on to the replica |
| language, especially if you want search engines to be | | | | page in the alternative language, or you could just |
| able to find and index the pages. There are a few | | | | take them to the 'index' page equivalent for the |
| general rules available that will help with the | | | | alternative language and let them navigate from |
| configuring of the site in such a way that it can be | | | | there. |
| 'spidered' and understood by the search engines. | | | | The latter is obviously easier and has some benefits |
| There are a number of reasons why you may need | | | | in that it takes the visitor to the main welcome page |
| to design a bilingual website but it is usually when the | | | | for the site so that they get the site message |
| website owner is trying to reach a wider audience | | | | before moving on to the detail. But this may not |
| that consists of more than one language base. For | | | | always suit the visitor who may see it as an |
| example a website being designed in France may be | | | | unnecessary click. |
| trying to reach a French audience but might also be | | | | This is really a judgment call and probably a decision |
| trying to reach an English expat community at the | | | | that needs to made by the customer through |
| same time. | | | | discussion. Either approach works for multilingual sites |
| So there may be a need for a combined English | | | | as well, although the navigation is a little more |
| French site but this could just as easily be English | | | | complex. |
| Spanish, Portuguese/Spanish or any other | | | | There are a couple of preferred ways of approaching |
| combination for that matter; there are many | | | | how the language pages are collected together. |
| countries and places in the world where it makes | | | | Folders can be created for the alternative languages |
| sense to have a website with more than one | | | | or alternatively sub domains can be created for the |
| language. | | | | alternative languages e.g. 'mydomain.com/uk/file.html' |
| So now the question arises of how the site should | | | | or 'uk.mydomain.com' respectively |
| be structured in order to be discovered by the | | | | The creation of bilingual or multilingual sites also |
| search engines in a way that gives the site proper | | | | means that the web designer needs to be even |
| recognition and appropriate ranking so that it gets | | | | more fastidious in his site updates than usual to |
| listed appropriately in search engine results. | | | | ensure that all pages where required get updated |
| There are a few general rules of thumb to adhere to: | | | | appropriately in all languages. |
| - try not to mix languages in side by side or above | | | | With respect to Google there are assumptions that |
| below translations | | | | are made on a sites geographic location based on the |
| - identify individual pages in the language they | | | | domain name that is used (.fr,.de etc.), what server |
| represent i.e. their file names | | | | the site is located on and to an extent the language |
| - use the 'metatag' for language to tell the search | | | | used. |
| engine what language is being presented | | | | To ensure that the site is targeted to the correct |
| - provide links from one language to the other that | | | | geographic location you can use Google's webmaster |
| are easy to follow | | | | tools to define a location. But this feature does need |
| - for sites that are multiple language sites consider an | | | | to be used appropriately and this makes it worth |
| entrance page as the 'index' page that offers all the | | | | searching their help files for information on how and |
| available languages so that the visitor can decide | | | | when to do this. |
| which set of pages they would like to visit i.e. they | | | | So if you are planning a website design in France or |
| select their language of choice | | | | any other country that is going to be bilingual or |
| Expanding on the 'linking from one language to | | | | multilingual make sure that the design is being |
| another' statement a little, there are a couple of | | | | approached in the correct way. |