Multilingual genealogy web sites and Google

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Denis Beauregard

Multilingual genealogy web sites and Google

Legg inn av Denis Beauregard » 17 des 2005 16:31:59

Hi:

I would like to know if other webmasters have met the same
problem as me.

My web site is bilingual. It has roughly the same material and
the same presentation in French and English. I generate words
around names with a home-made software.

Because it is genealogy, names are the same in both versions. But
the text is different. However, Google is indexing only the French
version and not the English version. Both are cross-linked so a
visitor can jump to the other version, but many of them just don't
catch what "English version" means and continue to visit the French
version.

Genealogical sites are somewhat different when compared to other
web sites as a part of the material is similar. Otherwise, you will
see a completely different text in the other language. Also, if you
display one family per page (and put their name in the <title> tag,
you will see them in the bar at the top of the browser.

Also, a genealogy web site may have a very huge number of pages.

Is there other similar bilingual sites so that I can compare and
eventually improve my site ?

My own site:

(Entry page) French/English
http://francogene.com/genealogie-quebec/998/
http://francogene.com/quebec-genealogy/998/

A typical page
http://francogene.com/genealogie-quebec/008/512.php
http://francogene.com/quebec-genealogy/008/512.php

I already use a tag to identify the language:
<html lang="en">

Also, I contacted Google as I have their advertisements on the site.
They said their tool was detecting the language from the browser
so that you should see a banner in the language of the visitor.
In other words, there is no issue at that level. It is only for the
full indexing of the site that I would like to discuss.

At this time:

http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Af ... -genealogy
finds 359 results compared to
http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Af ... gie-quebec
that finds 42 300 results (summing both versions)


Denis

Hugh Watkins

Re: Multilingual genealogy web sites and Google

Legg inn av Hugh Watkins » 17 des 2005 17:03:45

Denis Beauregard wrote:

Hi:

I would like to know if other webmasters have met the same
problem as me.

My web site is bilingual. It has roughly the same material and
the same presentation in French and English. I generate words
around names with a home-made software.

Because it is genealogy, names are the same in both versions. But
the text is different. However, Google is indexing only the French
version and not the English version. Both are cross-linked so a
visitor can jump to the other version, but many of them just don't
catch what "English version" means and continue to visit the French
version.

Genealogical sites are somewhat different when compared to other
web sites as a part of the material is similar. Otherwise, you will
see a completely different text in the other language. Also, if you
display one family per page (and put their name in the <title> tag,
you will see them in the bar at the top of the browser.

Also, a genealogy web site may have a very huge number of pages.

Is there other similar bilingual sites so that I can compare and
eventually improve my site ?

My own site:

(Entry page) French/English
http://francogene.com/genealogie-quebec/998/
http://francogene.com/quebec-genealogy/998/

A typical page
http://francogene.com/genealogie-quebec/008/512.php
http://francogene.com/quebec-genealogy/008/512.php

I already use a tag to identify the language:
html lang="en"

Also, I contacted Google as I have their advertisements on the site.
They said their tool was detecting the language from the browser
so that you should see a banner in the language of the visitor.
In other words, there is no issue at that level. It is only for the
full indexing of the site that I would like to discuss.

At this time:

http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Af ... -genealogy
finds 359 results compared to
http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Af ... gie-quebec
that finds 42 300 results (summing both versions)


a good point

but have you made a full xml google site map?
https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login

in xml
try that first

then make some static pages on another site linking to your stuff

Hugh W

K0BBE

Re: Multilingual genealogy web sites and Google

Legg inn av K0BBE » 17 des 2005 17:18:29

"Denis Beauregard" smeet in de groep:
I would like to know if other webmasters have met the same
problem as me.


I already use a tag to identify the language:
html lang="en"


That must be a metatag:
one page in two languages:
<meta name="language" content="NL,FR" />
or two different pages:
<meta name="language" content="NL" />
<meta name="language" content="FR" />

--
K0BBE
:: Webblad: [ http://tinyurl.com/csb8n ]
:: E-adres: incorrect

John Nichols

Re: Multilingual genealogy web sites and Google

Legg inn av John Nichols » 17 des 2005 20:15:40

"K0BBE" <incorrect@dres.com> wrote in message
news:43a43a52$0$10082$ba620dc5@text.nova.planet.nl...
"Denis Beauregard" smeet in de groep:

I would like to know if other webmasters have met the same
problem as me.


I already use a tag to identify the language:
html lang="en"


That must be a metatag:
one page in two languages:
meta name="language" content="NL,FR" /
or two different pages:
meta name="language" content="NL" /
meta name="language" content="FR" /

--
K0BBE
:: Webblad: [ http://tinyurl.com/csb8n ]
:: E-adres: incorrect
I think Kobbe has nailed it, Denis. You need a meta tag or two that refers

to both languages.

Denis Beauregard

Re: Multilingual genealogy web sites and Google

Legg inn av Denis Beauregard » 17 des 2005 20:37:48

On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 16:03:45 +0000, Hugh Watkins
<hugh.watkins@gmail.com> wrote in soc.genealogy.computing:


a good point

but have you made a full xml google site map?
https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login

The concept of sitemaps is to tell the spider to visit new pages
first. I am not sure it was made to be sure all pages are
correctly indexed. And in my case, all those pages **are**
indexed (in the wrong subdirectory however).

in xml
try that first

then make some static pages on another site linking to your stuff

I don't understand this one. There are hundreds of pages on other
sites linking to some page on my site, so there are already many
external links.


Denis

Gjest

Re: Multilingual genealogy web sites and Google

Legg inn av Gjest » 27 des 2005 04:53:02

Mine is in Spanish and English on the same page.

SurnamesByTown.com

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