Site redesign and dual language. Suggestions?

Question
#1

Hello everyone, I’ve finished restyling my personal website (I still have to work on it a bit) where I talk about my works and show the things I make. I was wondering if it was possible to insert the double language (English) on the pages already created without having to create a double site (Italian/English). I thought of these solutions, in your opinion which are the most functional? Does anyone have the same problem as me?

  1. Google Translate
    I’ve noticed that if I try to translate automatically with Google Translate, for some reason the page design gets corrupted. Sure it’s not very elegant to use Google’s service for translation, but it’s certainly a possibility.
  2. Double paragraph
    I would leave the Italian text at the top and the corresponding English translation at the bottom. Maybe I should do it the other way around since my work is aimed more at an international audience than an Italian one. This however was another idea.
  3. Pop-Up!
    Or insert a pop-up that can be activated by the user (for example by putting a button with a flag) that once clicked translates only that part of the text in the desired language (I imagine that it will take a lot of work…)
  4. Double site
    Maybe the best solution?

Thanks to those who want to advise me.

#2

not really a double site feature, but using the multi language setup on Sparkle allows better experience for the visitors - if you know how, you can even redirect geolocated IPs to their language page automatically, making it seamless. So using the Sparkle built-in feature is my recommendation (creating a English section with /en/ directory and using the feature on the pages to set up its main language)

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#3

From a SEO point of view having pages in a single language is preferable, I think it’s generally advisable unless the site is about language comparisons (which would require setting a language attribute at a paragraph level, something Sparkle is not quite equipped to do).

So I’d go for #4.

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#4

Here’s an example that I’ve recently completed of what Duncan refers to (#4):

In short:

  • Using an Automated translator is certainly faster
  • But making dedicated language version in the long term will yield much better site exposure

It’s a decision that is really made on a per site basis.

Regards,
Chris

1 Like
#5
  • if you know how, you can even redirect geolocated IPs to their language page automatically.

This is a very bad idea, because Google will only index the website seen from Ireland…
All other languages won’t be indexed…

#6

that’s not how it works

google will index the result based on your language, not the origin of the website

so lets say you have andredupke.com on Ireland and you have pt-br.andredupke.com here in Brasil

if i search andre dupke on my google, i’ll have the latter. If you search on Ireland (or any english speaking country), you’ll have the first. Chances are i’ll only see the subdomain instead of the main domain (considering that you made both with their respective languages set-up, even using Sparkle)

Geolocating makes that if i somehow access the main domain by mistake, it will drop me into the subdomain that have my language. Google has nothing to do with it

#7

Nope, the google Location in Europe e.g. is ALWAYS Ireland, it will only index the English website, if an automatic location - language switch is active…

#8

yea, because there will only be one website… what i’ve said is that you create different subdomains (which technically are different websites) with the website translated and set to that translated language. There isn’t automatic translation anywhere on my answer, just automatic redirection to that specific subdomain.