# Locale-adaptive redirects

Category: [International SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/international-seo/) › [Country & language targeting](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/international-seo/country-language-targeting/) · Also known as: automatic language redirect, geo redirect

**Locale-adaptive redirects** send visitors to a particular language or country version based on IP address, location or browser language. Google calls pages that change content this way locale-adaptive. For SEO this is risky.

## Why does Google advise against it?

Google recommends not automatically redirecting users from one language version to another. It can block travelers and multilingual users, and it can keep search engines from crawling all versions. On locating users by IP address, Google says the analysis is difficult and generally not reliable.

Googlebot does not set an Accept-Language header, according to Google. About crawl locations, its documents differ. The multi-regional guide says most crawls come from the US and that Google does not try to vary the location. The locale-adaptive page adds that Googlebot also crawls with IP addresses outside the US. So you cannot rely on Google seeing every variant.

Google recommends separate URLs per language or country, linked with hreflang, plus visible links to the other versions. To guide users, a banner can suggest the matching version without forcing it.

A redirect that deliberately treats users and search engines differently falls under Google's "sneaky redirects" spam policy, which looks at deceptive intent.

## Example

A visitor from Austria opens example.com and lands on example.com/at/. A user who wants the German version at example.com/de/ gets sent back to /at/ and never reaches it.

## Related terms

- [Sneaky redirects](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/sneaky-redirects/index.md)
- [hreflang](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/hreflang/index.md)
- [Multilingual website](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/multilingual-website/index.md)
- [Geo-targeting](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/geo-targeting/index.md)
- [302 redirect](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/302-redirect/index.md)

## Sources

- [Locale-adaptive pages – Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/international/locale-adaptive-pages)
- [Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites – Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/international/managing-multi-regional-sites)
- [Spam policies for Google web search – Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies)

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Last updated: October 8, 2026
URL: https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/locale-adaptive-redirects/