Multi-language website starting with one language and redirect, and removing the redirect when the second language is ready?

Question

I'm working on a new website, which supports two languages (French, and English). The English one will be the default language.

As I'll launch it next week, only the French version will be done. So I would like to redirect all users from example.com to example.com/fr, and when the English version is ready, I'll delete this redirection because the English version won't have an en subfolder.

So what is the impact of this trick on SEO?

Answer 1

Replacing a page that is currently redirecting with content, should not effect SEO in the long term.

In the near term, which type of redirect you are using could make a difference. It is easier to remove a 302 temporary redirect than a 301 permanent redirect.

301s are cached by browsers and any users that get them will have to clear their cache before being able to refetch the real content at that URL.

Google also takes longer to re-crawl and re-index after removing a 301 redirect. It might take two weeks longer if you are using 301 redirects.

I would redirect with a 302 redirect until the new language is ready.