Opinions: Language selection on home page vs single language with link to the other

I would appreciate any opinions on this.

I am building a site for our company which deals in foreign trade consultancy in Turkey. The aim of the site is:

1. to provide visitors (mainly foreign) demands and supplies of our clients,
2. to provide demands and offers of our overseas associates to both Turkish and foreign visitors,
3. to introduce our services to mainly Turkish companies

That said, the target audience is both Turkish (especially SME's who have difficulties in language and access to foreign markets) and other nationals engaged in foreign trade. Obviously the site will be in both languages - although not identical - depending on users choice.

My dilemma is, whether I should make a home page with two columns, one in English and one in Turkish and have the user to make their choice of language on the home page, or to have the home page in one single language (English would be my choice considering SEO) with a link to the other.

Some pros and cons I can think of (I'm not sure of any of them):

- Having introductory text in two languages on home page can distract the first time visitor and also limit the home page navigation to only two links to the main pages of the desired language (of course unless I overcrowd the page with links to content pages of both languages).
- Having two languages on home page could (I'm not sure) rank my page in search engines when searched in Turkish
- With two languages on home page, I have an opportunity to grab user browser and window size details via javascript and whether or not javasript is enabled as the page uses a form and these can be passed to the next page to evaluate them (I'm coding in classic ASP).
- Having an English home page with all links to English content and a link as "Turkish" could pose a negative impact on my Turkish clients.
- Having an English home page with links to the content of the site (which I cannot give with the two column choice) would enable search engine spiders to go deep in site.
- Having a single language page strictly defines your audience. I've been to such sites, Russian or Chinese or whatever on home page and went back without even looking for the link for English.

These are my pros and cons. I'd love to hear your thoughts -- from the useability and IA pros, but especially from novoices

Many thanks in advance.

Celal

I am a novice so here is my opinion:

Have a index page that is highly visual that shows positive and exciting images and sounds that any human can relate too and express as much as of your company as you can without using any specific language. Then simply provide two links that go either one language or another to continue.

I would do something like this: http://www.hyundai.com/

Kind of like what rynoe said, a simple logo or graphic of your company, welcome message in both languages, and TEXT links to the pages in the specific languages.

Search engines will follow both links and index both language versions, so you don't have to worry about that.

Also, you should remember the users selection so they can be directed right to their language when they return to your site. Give them the option to switch to the other language even after they select one or the other, though, too. This way they won't be trapped in one version.

---John Holmes...

Many thanks for your opinions. Seems this is the most logical way.

Would like to hear any opinions against this too.

Thanks,

Celal