Reads browser settings> Automatic translation of pages> Creates new url

[matthecool]

Hello, I'm mat and I have a translation problem....

Basically I have a quite large website and want to begin to offer it to surfers who speak other languages.

Here is my aim: For my server to read the browser's language settings and then place the surfer on the page which is automatically translated for them and delivers them a different url.

Ok example: A surfer visits my site from Poland and he would land on http://www.mysite.com/dogs.html, however my server reads that his browser settings are Polish and the server automatically translates the page dogs.html and creates http://www.mysite.com/dogs.html&pl
(Notice the &pl is just a quick abbreviation for the Polish language.)
Then I would like the &pl etc urls indexed in the search engines.

A) Is this possible?
B) My best method of attack to complete this aim?

Any help is graciously acknowledged and thanked.

Thanks for your time

[Tomassi]

There are a couple of ways to do this. The most reliable way is to let the user choose and then store it in a cookie/session. This way you can send the user to the polish section of the website. For example www.yoursite.com/pl/index.html is something I would go for.

You also have other options such as GeoIp. It's basically a big database that combines IP address of the user with a country. Could work to.

[Hades]

Here is my aim: For my server to read the browser's language settings and then place the surfer on the page which is automatically translated for them and delivers them a different url.

Using the browser/OS settings to get the language is not very reliable, many users including myself use operating systems and browsers in english language though that is not our native language and I don't live in an english-speaking country.

Tomassi gave a very good suggestion, you can use the IP to detect the country and redirect accordingly. And also show a dropdown/menu in your website to allow your users to change the language in case the ip detection failed or the user is in a foreign country and does not speak that language (ie: a Spanish tourist in France doesn't want to browse websites in french, he/she will prefer to get a spanish version so you should let them choose). I get very annoyed when I'm travelling and some websites put me in a localized version and it does not allow me to change the language.