Geo-Selection and Internal Linking
International or global web sites all need to find ways of enabling users to move from one country to another - or to choose a different language. Many different methods have been experimented with. Here's a few samples:
- Web site pages have an international link which goes to a page (sometimes the home page) which lists the organisation's various sites.
- An array of flags across the top of the site can be clicked to move to the relevant country (WebCertain.com uses this particular method - though we're also illustrating our international positioning).
- A drop down menu can be selected by country or language or both.
- An on page link generates either a pop-up or a modular window with a list of options.
- A Google Translate facility is provided to generate the page in a different language.
None of these methods is perfect - let's have a deeper look. What does this geo-selector need to do?
- The user needs to be able to find it easily on the page.
- The user needs to be able to understand it (it needs to be in his/her language).
- It must not interfere with the crawlability of the site.
- Ideally, it shouldn't create a huge long list of links on every single page.
- It must pass good links between the different country sites in the network.
- It should link equivalent page to equivalent page on the other sites in the network (where possible).
So what's the ideal solution?
Accepting that few organisations can actually achieve the ideal - or have the resources to implement it - here's how the idea solution would work:
- The first point is that the site actually needs TWO systems - one to link country home page to country home page - and one to link equivalent pages in different languages.
- For country to country linking, each page of the site has an international motif - and the word international - which links to a country-selector on a separate URL.
- The country selection page should ideally site on a different domain - probably a domain that exists solely for the purpose of providing a selection service to users.
- That separate country selection site should provide a language choice for the site itself for the benefit of users.
- Each page that has an equivalent page in other countries or languages - should have it's own selection tool via a small javascript navigation system.
The purpose of all of the above is more effective use and linking of site to site and page to page.
