Setting Website Language for International Websites

When you're setting up a multi-language website there are many pieces of the jigsaw that need to be put in place in order to get the site picked up as relating to a particular language.

First it's important to make sure that all the text (as far as possible) on the site is actually written in the relevant language. If too many words creep in from another language (usually the designer's mother tongue!) then the search engines will be less convinced by the authenticity of the translation.

Once this is done then it's important to get the header tags right. These are the document identifiers that tell the visitors which language the site is written in. The search engines use these to establish the language of the site.

Each language reference is two characters - EN for English, CZ for Czech, FR for French etc. A full list of these ISO 639-1 language codes can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-1_codes

They are then used in headers like so, replacing the {ISO} element with the relevant ISO language code.

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="{ISO}" lang="{ISO}">

<meta http-equiv="content-language" content="{ISO}" />

These then indicate to the search engines and your visitors' browser which language your site is written in.

Published: 09-04-10 at 09:00 by Jon Sloper

Comments

Add your own comment to this story.

Other Related Stories from Alacrify

Indicating Language Choice with Flags or Text

As part of one of the major projects we're working on currently the issue of how to represent language choices to... Read More - published 17-06-09

International Language Sites

The sixteen different language-specific versions of the new OSE Directory website are now live. In addition to being abl... Read More - published 07-10-09

Multi-Language Websites and Domain Names

We've just added a bunch of new alternative domains to the OSEDirectory website to encourage the search engines t... Read More - published 12-02-10

Multiple Language Website Launched

Today we launched the new OSE Directory website; a global health and safety and environmental suppliers directory run by... Read More - published 02-10-09

Updated Design and Functionality for Multi-Language Website

OSE Directory is an online resource for people looking for health and safety service and product suppliers, and for s... Read More - published 03-02-11

View the whole archive

Alacrify Ltd. 01300 320076. jon@alacrify.co.uk