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i18n

Search Engine Optimization​

  • Use the lang attribute on the <html> tag.
  • Include the locale in the URL (e.g en_US, zh_CN, etc).
  • Webpages should use sth like <link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="http://de.example.com/page.html" /> to tell search engines that there is another page at the specified href with the same content but for another language/ locale.

Locale vs Language​

  • Locale control how numbers, dates, and times display for your region: which may be a country, a portion of country or may not even honor country boundaries.
  • Language can be different between locales e.g. en_US & en_GB.

Predict locale but don't restrict​

Servers can determine the locale/ language of visitors via a combination of HTTP Accept-Language header and IP. However, predictions are not foolproof (especially if visitors are using VPNs) and visitors should still be allowed to change their country/language easily without hassle.