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localizationseo

Google organic results localization

I am managing a big website which is localized for 9 languages.

But when you google it the first result is always a main page xxx.com/ with english description - no matter what Google (e.g. google.de, google.es) site is used.

I intend to change this situation to present dedicated localized link - e.g. if google.de was used - the first result should be linked to xxx.com/de/ with German description.

Apple accomplished it:

Apple in google.de amd google.es

So, how to do this?

My only idea is to disable in robots.txt the main page xxx.com/ which is always first in results no matter which google.XX was used. Then only xxx.com/lang-tag would be used and maybe Google will show appropriate lang-tag to current language. But I am afraid it is not a good way.

Any help appreciated, thanks in advance!

Solution

  • You create a separate sitemap for each language/subfolder. You can then specify the subfolder as a site in Google Webmaster tools.

    If you look at Apple, you see this:

    http://www.apple.com/sitemap/

    http://www.apple.com/fr/sitemap/

    .. and so on. You can then set the geotargeting within GWT once you have verified the site. If you need help with anything let me know.