translate meta tags?

[diafol]

Hello all.

I'm producing a DIY multilingual site. I'm using a templating engine (rainTPL) and my own static language files (php arrays).

In these files I not only have the page strings but also the meta tag and title contents. I'd just like to know if you think this is a bad idea.

The 'current language' is set via a session variable not a querystring, so urls are identical, no matter what the current language.

So, will SEO be a problem? There could be a load of possible title and meta tag alternatives for the same page, depending on the user's current language.

If you think this is a problem, could anybody suggest an alternative?

[twiss]

Perhaps you should place the user's language in the url?

[diafol]

That's what I'm trying to avoid.

I don't want to change www.diafol.org/index.php to www.diafol.org/en/index.php etc. if I can help it. rewriting would be trivial I know, but it just looks messy. However, if my method means SEO is poor, I don't think I'll have much choice.

[twiss]

Well, it's your choice. As bots will never be logged in, they will only be able to crawl the english version if you don't provide a link to the other language versions. If you do, however, it's cleaner to place that language in the url somewhere - I wouldn't like to have a cookie on my pc for that.

[diafol]

Fair one. I've been browsing SEO of late and it seems that meta tags have next to no importance anymore, but that confusing meta tags can have a negative impact.

Perhaps the most important aspect for me will be that the static page elements become dynamic, so it looks as though I'll have to succumb...