Auto translated pages vs google content guidelines

[StarBuG]

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ADMINISTRATOR NOTE: this post includes false information about Google statement for automatically translated content. Also the statement do not applies to vBET. Please see here for details: http://www.vbenterprisetranslator.co....html#post7873
Unfortunately I was on vacation when message was created and lot of wrong information was included in this thread - this is why correction is included here.
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Hello

I just wanted to let you know that Matt Cutts said that auto translating webpages falls within their "auto generated content" guidelines which are punished since the Google Panda update.

So just as a warning you might want to reconsider adding all your translated pages into your sitemap.

In fact you might want to consider to block google from listing auto translated languages at all via robots.txt.

Here is the video: YouTube - How should I handle localized content?

Regards

StarBuG

[norku]

Oops... seems pretty clear that Google doesn't like what Vbet does then. Why does Google still index auto-translated pages though? Doesn't make sense.

[StarBuG]

Because when it visits the pages it does not know that they are auto translated.
They are stored in the database and are not served via their api to their crawler.

It is totally fine what vBET does however not in the sense most people try to use it.

It is a translation feature that helps people speaking different languages to understand your content.
However it is not a way to multiply your page content.
If you use it that way Google will see this as low quality "auto generated content" and punish your website for it sooner or later.

[norku]

Thanks.

Kamil,

Can I just confirm please that if I want to keep Vbet running on my forum but do not want Google to see the auto-translated pages that I need only to do the following:

1. Enter 'Disallow: /forum/xx/' into robots.txt where xx denotes the foreign language(s) in use on my forum

2. Reverse the steps in this post for sitemap integration: http://www.vbenterprisetranslator.co...tegration.html

3. Re-generate and re-submit sitemap.

[kamilkurczak]

yes. if you disallow your pages for google bots - you will have your pages not indexed by google.
of course if you reverse all changes from sitemap - the same - page not indexed.

of course already you have the pages indexed by google you you need to reload the new sitemap.
****
Added by Michał Podbielski:
You do not have to block any translated content, see:
http://www.vbenterprisetranslator.co....html#post7873

[norku]

Thank you Kamil. I think it's a real shame that Google doesn't like content generated in this way. I think they should make an exception for forums because Vbet is a fantastic idea and even in the short time I had it fully working I saw an improvement in my stats. All is not lost though of course because the really clever part of Vbet - that foreign language speakers can participate on a forum in their own language - is of course still there.

[tavenger5]

Hrm, is google eventually going to just drop those translated pages? If that happens I wonder if that will affect the ranking of the native language pages?

[MOGmartin]

Hrm, is google eventually going to just drop those translated pages? If that happens I wonder if that will affect the ranking of the native language pages?

Google do appear to have removed VBET pages now: please see the discussion on my blog.

I personally DO NOT THINK that these pages are spammy, they have a legitimate purpose...
Lost in Translation: Google Algo Update 06-04-2010 | SEO Blog from SEOforums.org

[vBET]

Hello

I just wanted to let you know that Matt Cutts said that auto translating webpages falls within their "auto generated content" guidelines which are punished since the Google Panda update.

...

Here is the video: YouTube - How should I handle localized content?

That is NOT true. Please see the video once again. He said that it CAN apply to auto generated content guidelines and then he is telling about wrong impression when page is totally not readable for humans. So really Google robots are not able to consider such pages as auto generated content and this could be done only by human and only if translation is even not week but totally crashed, because having translated pages itself is very good what is described in the movie on context how URL's should look then.

Also I want to calm all our users, that what said Matt Cutts about automatic translations which CAN falls Google's auto generated content guidelines is NOT APPLICABLE to vBET. It is because:
1. Matt clearly says that he is talking about simple translation of whole content, and vBET do not translates whole content - it saves user names and other areas if marked as not for translation for vBET.
2. vBET is not about automatic translation but about supporting multi-lingual communities, where everyone can write in its own language in same thread. So once again it is not just simple translation of whole page, and it is not about automatic translation but about multi-lingual communities.
3. Translations itself are made by Google itself which has very good quality and as Matt clearly said such translations CAN be treated as auto generated content only if those are really not human readable.

So hope our users feel better now To avoid bad feelings and scaring those who are not reading whole topics just headers I will change title of this topic. With full respect to the author - we are doing this only to avoid misunderstanding, because topic assumes something very bad which we believe is not true. Hope it is OK for author

[vBET]

Thanks.

Kamil,

Can I just confirm please that if I want to keep Vbet running on my forum but do not want Google to see the auto-translated pages that I need only to do the following:

1. Enter 'Disallow: /forum/xx/' into robots.txt where xx denotes the foreign language(s) in use on my forum

2. Reverse the steps in this post for sitemap integration: http://www.vbenterprisetranslator.co...tegration.html

3. Re-generate and re-submit sitemap.

You do NOT have to block any of translated content! Please see the movie again - this whole movie is about how to name URL's when you have translated content, so having translated content is perfectly fine for Google!

The note about automatically translated content DO NOT apply to vBET and also StarBuG write false information that it is considered as content duplication what is not true (it CAN be, not "it is", and this CAN do not apply to vBET) - see my previous post.