Polyglot Googlebot: Google Use Different URLs For Translated Pages

Oct 19, 2015 - 8:49 am 4 — by

Polyglot Googlebot

We know that using Google translate to auto-translate content can be a form of spam. It also causes issues for GoogleBot in understanding what your page is about.

Google's John Mueller said in a Google Webmaster Help thread that the Polyglot Googlebot has issues understanding it. John explained, "it's important that sites use separate URLs for individual languages."

John said it helps "users who are looking for an English page (even if their browser is set to German), are able to access those pages." It also "allows our polyglot Googlebot to read all language pages and index them separately. If your system currently keeps the same URL and swaps in a translation, that would be a bit confusing to users (and Googlebot)."

So what should you do? John said it would be "better to show a banner ("Click here to see the German version" or similar), and then to go to a separate URL for that language (this could be using pushState, if you're using JS). "

Most multi-lingual sites do implement it this way. But I cannot stress enough, this is important.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Google Search Volatility

More Details

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: September 25, 2026

Sep 25, 2026 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google September 2026 Spam Update Is Here, Goodbye Discover Traffic, Multimodal Search Reporting & CrUX Ad Metrics In Page Experience

Sep 25, 2026 - 8:01 am
OpenAI

OpenAI Has Quality Raters, AI Trainers, & They Cheated With AI

Sep 25, 2026 - 7:51 am
Google Ads

Google LSAs Showing Google Business Profile Number, Not Google Ads Number

Sep 25, 2026 - 7:41 am
Bing Search

Bing Testing Editable Labels On Images

Sep 25, 2026 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Disables Editing Target ROAS While Promotion Mode Is Active

Sep 25, 2026 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Google Drops "Ok Google" Voice Action From Chrome Desktop