Country specific landing pages

[gomyseo]

I have a client who wants to put a re-direct on his landing pages based on the visitors IP address.

The landing page will be a sub domain relevant to the country their IP is located in.

I am a little concerned this will effect the SEO.

Appreciate any advice.

Dylan

[Bevelwise]

The other implication that most international sites have is the way they handle content and different languages.  You don't want to also create duplicate content issues of your site by increasing your content exponentially using either machine or user generated translations.  We of course, always prefer user generated translations.

Another thing to check out is a post on the SEOMoz blog about handling duplicate content.  The area I specifically wanted to point out is the Link rel=alternate section

http://www.example.com/path" />

This can be used to tell search engines that those pieces of content are just translated versions of another piece of content so there is no confusion.

[gomyseo]

Thanks very much Ryan & Ryan... Much appreciated

[rhutchings]

I second this opinion.  folders are the best way to go here.

[RyanKent]

Rather then using a sub-domain use folders on the existing domain.

www.mydomain.com/es not es.mydomain.com

This method allows you to keep all of your domain authority in one place and strengthens your site as a whole. There really isn't much difference between using a subdomain versus using completely different domains.