Should I detect visitors country and send to that language version?

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Should I detect visitors country and send to that language version?

Hippocrates

6:51 pm on Jun 12, 2008 (gmt 0)

I have a website based in Denmark that has an English version of the site. Those are the only two languages we offer (Danish/English).
Right now I'm detecting the visitors country based on the IP and redirecting if the visitor is from the US, England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand. From everywhere else the visitors just land on our frontpage which is in Danish.

What do you think of this kind of practice? I was thinking there may be something to gain from English speaking visitors who then won't have to search for the flag-button that changes the langauge.
On the other hand, geo-locationing is, as far as I know, not a sure thing, so I may lead other visitors than the English speakers to the English part of the site. I'm weighing these things - what do you think? Thanks.

StoutFiles

3:07 am on Jun 13, 2008 (gmt 0)

The problem with this is you assume that everyone from that country speaks their native language and not English.

You could have the flags and if they click a different flag give them a cookie for that and they won't have to deal with English next time.

Hippocrates

8:00 am on Jun 13, 2008 (gmt 0)

StoutFiles > That's a good choice, I may do that, thanks.

[edited by: tedster at 6:56 pm (utc) on June 14, 2008]