Multi Language website with subfolders, what to do with root domain?

Question

I am setting a Magento multilanguage website with subfolder as suggested by many SEO and Google guideline.

For example:

example.com/it (Italian default)
example.com/en (English)
example.com/fr (French)
example.com/de (German)
example.com     (what to do with this?)

Magento makes it easy using "Add Store Code to URLs" showing correct language for each subfolder.

I read many threads about language subfolders but none of them is suggesting what to to with the root domain example.com.

My default language is /it, I may be wrong but it seems that Magento keeps default language content both on example.com and example.com/it.

So what is best practice for when a user get to example.com?

Answer 1

You have several possibilities:

Choose one language

Choose one language and redirect. If you have a "main" language then this might be the best option.

Automatically detect the language

Use the Accept-Language header that the browser sends and automatically redirect appropriately. Google does this for international visitors.

Using .htaccess and mod_rewrite you could use code like this to make it happen:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} (de) [NC]
RewriteRule index.html http://example.com/de/ [R,L]

Offer users a choice

Ikea uses this solution:

So does Wikipedia.

Answer 2

If your default language is /it, then make example.com/it as your default home page with italic content. Show appropriate version of content for your users. Regrading example.com English content will be best practice for users