Dumb SEO Questions

(Entry was posted by Rutger Meekers on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 08/21/2013).

If a website has 2 languages (FR/EN), which redirect code should be used for this type of redirects?

Language redirection

We`re using auto language detection in our system.

For example, if a website has 2 languages (FR/EN) and visitor comes in on the homepage / with a default browser language of FR, we redirect him to /fr.
My question is, which redirect code should be used for this type of redirects?

- some users will be redirected from / to /fr
- others from / to /en

Thanks
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YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

  • Richard Hearne: 302.  ;Only other issue is to ensure you offer a graceful way for users to revert to any other language and/or to stop the redirect.  ;Worst thing ever is where the redirect keeps kicking in when you actually want to get to / for example.
  • Rutger Meekers: Interesting, the SEO company from one of our customers asked us to do this via a 301.

    Visitors can always switch to the language of their preference, we only use this to present the "correct" language on first visit.
  • Richard Hearne: For SEO it should make zero difference - search engines should never see this redirect since they don't set a preferred lang value in the request.

    But for basic web standards there's no reason to mark a resource as "permanently moved" when it's not.  ;302 isn't perfect in this respect either, but better than 301.

    Next time you speak to the "SEO" company ask them:
    1. Why this matters for SEO?
    2. Why they would mark a resource permanently moved for some clients when it still exists for others?

View original question in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 08/21/2013).

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