Are there any "penalties" from having CSS in your actual code, instead of having it linked to an external CSS file?

The only thing I can think of is that your content vs code will be a different %. The more code and less content %, the more "penalties" occur if you want to call it that. More then anything, just try to have clean and simple code, the less code, the better within each page.

What would be the best way to create a multilingual site and have it indexed in both languages? This is what I have come up with so far but I don't know which one would work the best (or if there is an even better option).

• Script detects language from the headers, and then user will be able to change it through a link that sets the appropriate cookie.
  • This would not work well with search engines.
• Make an intro page where the user is presented a link to either one or the other version.
  • Have different languages on different subdomains (en.site.com/page).
  • Have different languages in different directories (site.com/en/page).

I will be coding this in PHP so I will be using Apache ModRewrites to make the URL look nice and have a language file which loads the appropriate language. I won't actually be copy/pasting the site two times in each directory. :P

By the way, how do search engine spiders treat HTTP Redirects?

Originally Posted by Quizak

The only thing I can think of is that your content vs code will be a different %. The more code and less content %, the more "penalties" occur if you want to call it that. More then anything, just try to have clean and simple code, the less code, the better within each page.

but the other way around also works:

If you are copy-pasting content from other sites, having lot's of code on your page helps to get the % similarity down....

If anyone could answer my previous questions, that would be great. I also have another one though. Which of the following is the most SEO URL?

• site.com/index.php?act=blablabla (I'm guessing this is the worst one)
• site.com/blablabla/
• site.com/blablabla
• site.com/blablabla.html

Hi Lucas,

Originally Posted by Lucas

What would be the best way to create a multilingual site and have it indexed in both languages? This is what I have come up with so far but I don't know which one would work the best (or if there is an even better option).

• Script detects language from the headers, and then user will be able to change it through a link that sets the appropriate cookie.
  • This would not work well with search engines.
• Make an intro page where the user is presented a link to either one or the other version.
  • Have different languages on different subdomains (en.site.com/page).
  • Have different languages in different directories (site.com/en/page).

You should definitely NOT use any solution based on Cookies, Browser language, Sessions and such. This way you only stop the search engines from indexing all but the default language version.
The way to go here is the distinction in the URL. Whether you choose to go with subdomains or "directories" is IMO up to you. However I wouldn't make an intro page. Intro pages are in general a no-no. Instead make one language the default one and show the homepage in this particular language to a new user. Put language switches on every page of the site.

Originally Posted by Lucas

By the way, how do search engine spiders treat HTTP Redirects?

There are more redirects. In short - 301 goes for permanent redirects, 302 for temporary. Be warned, if you write only

PHP Code:

Header('Location: http://example.com'); 


you redirect with the default 302. For 301 the code should go like this:

PHP Code:

Header('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
Header('Location: http://example.com'); 


But then again, this might not be new to you.

Originally Posted by Lucas

Which of the following is the most SEO URL?

• site.com/index.php?act=blablabla (I'm guessing this is the worst one)
• site.com/blablabla/
• site.com/blablabla
• site.com/blablabla.html

The second and the third are good. There are hot discussions on whether to use the last slash or not. I myself prefer slash for categories and directories (for example a category in an e-shop) and no slash for target pages (e.g. a product in an e-shop, an article etc.). The reasons for this are purely psychological, so you may as well choose a different combination.
The first one is not good because of the arguments in the URL, the last one because of the ".html" ending (which makes the page format-dependent and possibly problematic regarding the "Cool URIs don't change" rule).

Originally Posted by lenz

There are more redirects. In short - 301 goes for permanent redirects, 302 for temporary. Be warned, if you write only

PHP Code:

Header('Location: http://example.com'); 


you redirect with the default 302. For 301 the code should go like this:

PHP Code:

Header('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
Header('Location: http://example.com'); 


I've never sent the actual 301 response, just the location header. Will google be able to follow that? For example if I have the main page redirect to /en/home?

If you redirect with the HTTP code 301, all search engines are able to follow the redirection and index the target page normally. 302 is a bit different and you should not use it unless you know what you are doing.
The majority of all redirects is (should be) 301.

Originally Posted by lenz

The second and the third are good. There are hot discussions on whether to use the last slash or not. I myself prefer slash for categories and directories (for example a category in an e-shop) and no slash for target pages (e.g. a product in an e-shop, an article etc.). The reasons for this are purely psychological, so you may as well choose a different combination.
The first one is not good because of the arguments in the URL, the last one because of the ".html" ending (which makes the page format-dependent and possibly problematic regarding the "Cool URIs don't change" rule).

Why, then, do blogs get indexed so quickly? For the most part, every page on a blog is an argument to the basic URL.

Allen Bohart
The Fishing Bobber