Location-Based redirection and duplication in sub-directories affecting SEO
- by Joshua
I currently own the website www.xyz.com. The website has a sub-directory for each of the 3 target countries: .../en-US/ (United States), .../es-MX/ (Mexico), and .../es-DO/ (Dominican Republic). I have two main questions about this setup:
Currently, the main domain/root (xyz.com) contains a blank index.php file, but I would like for a user to be redirected to one of the sub-directories based on their regional location. What is the best way to accomplish this? I have looked at using browser language-based redirection, but how would I know whether to direct a user to the MX or DO site if the browser language is set to spanish? Is there a way to detect a user's geographic location?
Also, the 3 websites are practically identical except they all have 3 unique color schemes and the US site is in english while the MX and DO sites are in spanish. My problem is that I believe GoogleBot is penalizing/banning my site because the spanish text on the MX and DO pages are nearly identical and are thus marked as duplicates/spam. Is there a way to avoid this?
