Spin a Global Web

For this same reason, it is also critical that your site uses the correct meta tags. Meta tags appear at the top of the HTML code view, and identify the language of your Web site. Search engines simply check the tag and display the site for the appropriate language.

Unfortunately, meta tag usage on the Internet is spotty at best, and even when sites use the tag, the syntax often is incorrect or the language designation is wrong. As a result, search engines look at the tag, but do not consider it the only factor when determining a site’s language. They also look at the language encoding. If both the language encoding and the language meta tags are correct, it’s safe to assume that the site will display correctly in that language.