i'm considering to re-organize my website structure and i'm looking for any info about multilanguages sites.
Now the web site it is not organized in ny way but just for user purposes, but since i have noticed some difficulties (from spiders and robots) in reaching some pages i would like to do something about it.
I have many doubts and questions and i have visisted many sources and first coming to my mind is:
1) hosting side: is it going to be useful creating different folders for each language?
2) are the headers for languages useful?
thanks a lot.

I have built several multilingual sites (up to five languages). I can only share my own opinion and limited experience on the subject.
1) without a doubt I find it much easier to handle and update, when keeping each language version not only in a separat folder but also having each version as a separate project.
2) not absolutely sure what you mean by 'headers for languages'

Personally I haven't experienced any problems with spiders and robots. Everything seems working smoothly.

quote:

Originally posted by Klimt:
I have built several multilingual sites (up to five languages). I can only share my own opinion and limited experience on the subject.
1) without a doubt I find it much easier to handle and update, when keeping each language version not only in a separat folder but also having each version as a separate project.
2) not absolutely sure what you mean by 'headers for languages'

Personally I haven't experienced any problems with spiders and robots. Everything seems working smoothly.

*1) Does that mean you have 5 index pages?
*2) <meta http-equiv="content-language" content="IT"> as example

my problem with link structure may have different causes.
The one i can think of are:

1)Bad internal link structure within the pages.
2)A problem in reading greek characters.
3) Or so many mistakes in general on the site that robots refuse to read any further.

Keep in mind that it is over 40 pages in 4 languages.
Thank you Roma

In answer to your questions:
*1) That is correct, 5 languages means 5 index pages. I have just recently rebuilt that site and now it is in only three language versions. I've uploaded the main (English) version to the root directory and created two subfolders (German and Swedish) and uploaded the respective versions into appropriate subfolder. The three versions are 72 pages, each version 24 pages. Keeping it smaller makes the maintenance more manageable. You can see the site here. The current google rank for this site is 3, so I don't complain.
*2) That's exactly the metatag I use in the header.

1) Before I go live with any site I built I check the links (both internal and external) using Xenu Link Checker. You can find a very informative article here as well as the download link (it's free). It's a real time saver.
2) Unfortunately I have no experience with Greek characters, so can't help you on this one.
3)What kind of general mistakes do you have in mind?

1) working with a lot of included object within each language pages and (mostly) a lot of included object within same page type i doubt i could do the same with separated project. (But i'm considering your suggestion).

Another way to publish other languages in sub folders(besides main english) could be adding manually the sub folder in publishing option (page tab) depending on the language.PAIN.

1)Obviously sub folders like media, java, css, image would be created under the greek sub folder, italian sub folder and so on?

2)Is it going to work one project with included objects (within same page type) published in main english folder and other languages sub folders?
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"3)What kind of general mistakes do you have in mind?"

I WISH I KNEW
Thanks a lot Roma it is always good to look at things in different prospective.

I don't know the if you have the same structure/layout for each of your language versions. I do, which means that I use included objects on the pages within each version. That causes no problems whatsoever.

In order to make it easy to publish I've created three different profiles. One for each version pointing to respectively root folder (English version), Deutsch folder (German version) and Svenska (Swedish version).

Regarding subfolders there are several options. Before (with five languages) I had those folders in my root directory and applied links from the other versions that pointed to those folders. For the time being with only three languages I have duplicates of those folders/files in each language version.

Both ways work/ed for me.

I am not sure if I entirely understand your second question but if you have the same objects included in all your language versions within the same project you can try to save your project as e.g. 'YourProject-English', delete the other versions from that project and the included objects should stay in place in the current version. The only thing that will differ (if you want to keep external files like media in one folder only) are the links. In the main version, published to the root directory, it's straight forward. In the other versions they have to be adjusted and point to the root directory (./folder/file.ext).

Maybe if you decide on splitting your project it will be easier to track down the general mistakes .

I agree Francesco, it's always good to look at things from different perspectives.

thank you Roma.
I guess i'm going for rooth folder for other 3 languages but 1 project.

Is the rooth folder suppose to be at same level with httpdocs, or has to go under the httpdocs?

"perspective"

Root directory/folder is where your index.html is.

quote:

Originally posted by Klimt:
Root directory/folder is where your index.html is.

Sorry but i did not get interested in this before.
SS by default publish in a folder called httpdocs ( i never changed it).
I find in it all my pages and other folders for images, java, geometry and so on.
My question is: "Different languages folders on root directory means beeing on the same level of https or under it?
I know i'm going to seem a dunkey for this question .

If the folder you publish your site to is httpdocs then it's your root directory. In that case create the languages folders in that directory. It should look something like this:
/httpdocs
-english
-geometry
-greek
-image
-italian
-java

Obviously at that point Languages folder become sub-folders and the html file i would upload would go 1 level under.

Is it going to be more difficult for S.E. to reach those sub folders?!

Another question based on your experience:
have you noticed a delay on picking up pages in a specific language?

I constantly see that no matter what, greek pages get stuck somehow.
thanks Roma.