Multilingual website URL & SEO

Question

For example, I see most of the Google's properties is using the hl query string, e.g.

http://www.youtube.com/?hl=zh-TW

and compare the above URL with

http://www.youtube.com/zh-TW/..

From the SEO and usability perspective, which one is better?

I advice to read also this discussion: http://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/20729/should-i-make-a-search-engine-only-page-for-my-domain-which-re-directs-visitors/20730 — Aurelio De Rosa, Oct 06 '12 at 11:31
This is a FAQ on this website: How should I structure my urls for both SEO and localization) — Stephen Ostermiller, Feb 28 '13 at 15:46

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 06 '12 at 11:01

0

Here is the official documentation from Google about multilingual sites. The main point is:

Keep the content for each language on separate URLs.

As URL parameters tend to be ignored or scored down by search engines, the second URL should be considered better.

answered Oct 06 '12 at 11:01

j0nes

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 06 '12 at 12:55

0

I my view 2nd one is better because short url are more preferable.

answered Oct 06 '12 at 12:55

Smart Jazz

2 Answers2