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 Topic: Google Sitemap when Multiviews activated |
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Alexandru
Joined: 26 May 2015
Posts: 8
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 Posted: Tue 26 May '15 10:35 Post subject: Google Sitemap when Multiviews activated |
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Hello,
I have a web site running on Apache 2.2 with MultiViews activated.
I have a html document for each english an german content. For example: index.en.html and index.de.html.
All the linked content is given without file endings: For example /index instead of /index.en.html or /pict/logo instead of /pict/logo.png.
When I generate a google sitemap with gsitecrawler, the xml sitemap only contains the links without endings, the way they are given in the content.
But this also seems to be a problem for the google search engine: When I google some german keywords, google shows the english titles.
So I am wandering if there is a better way of creating the sitemap. For example should the sitemap include the file endings?
I have found something here (https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2620865?hl=en), but is this the best solution for MultiViews?
Is there a sitemap generator that can handle MultiViews?
Thank you!
Alexandru |
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James Blond
Moderator
Joined: 19 Jan 2006
Posts: 7373
Location: Germany, Next to Hamburg
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| Posted: Tue 26 May '15 17:59 Post subject: |
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| Use canonical tag in your HTML pages. |
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Alexandru
Joined: 26 May 2015
Posts: 8
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| Posted: Tue 26 May '15 19:36 Post subject: |
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| James Blond wrote: | | Use canonical tag in your HTML pages. |
Thanks for the reply.
I had to google "canonical tags" to learn about it. It seems to be a way to specify the original content when 'Duplicate Content' is available. I don't have duplicate content. I have a multilingual site.
My question is about how to create the sitemap for a multilingual site, that is realized through Apache's MultiViews configuration.
It seems that the standard sitemap leads to the wrong titles in the google search results.
Can anybody help with my question? |
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James Blond
Moderator
Joined: 19 Jan 2006
Posts: 7373
Location: Germany, Next to Hamburg
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| Posted: Tue 26 May '15 23:07 Post subject: |
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Always make direct links to your language pages. Think like a search engine - if you crawl and spot the english text, it'll be listed in english. If you crawl the same URL and it's in german all of a sudden, who knows what they'll do.
So... I'd recommend:
1) split your site for the language versions, at the very least subdirectories, perhaps even subdomains, best yet even seperate TLDs matching the country codes your're targeting. You want to get listed in the local pages, not just in the english index.
2) Make direct links to your language pages, don't do anything automatic (at least for the search engines to notice).
3) If you must, make a doorway page with the default language pre-selected. Or if yuo want, add a 302-redirection based on the client language code. Keep in mind that this is often set wrong! perhaps based on the IP location would be a better idea? Even that can get it wrong when you look at a country like Switzerland with German, French, Italian and whoknowswhat as official languages in different regions.
Sometimes the simple things get so complicated |
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Alexandru
Joined: 26 May 2015
Posts: 8
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| Posted: Wed 27 May '15 12:29 Post subject: |
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| James Blond wrote: |
1) split your site for the language versions, at the very least subdirectories, perhaps even subdomains, best yet even seperate TLDs matching the country codes your're targeting. You want to get listed in the local pages, not just in the english index. |
I would like the maintain the site structure as it is. On each page there is a possibility to change the language. This is realized by a small JavScript, that appends/changes the language extension to the actual URL. So even if the user has the wrong language settings in the browser, he can still change the language manually.
| James Blond wrote: | | 2) Make direct links to your language pages, don't do anything automatic (at least for the search engines to notice). |
I have found this blog on how to deal with MultiViews and search engines: http://www.fellerich.lu/articles/multiviews
I don't understand everything but I have to read in detail the examples. It seems to be the right solution for my question. What do you mean about this method? There is also a statement, that one have to use direct links at least in the main page, so that the search engines know where to go to next. Is this what you mean too?
Best regards
Alexandru |
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