Best multi-language site strategy?
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When reading about multi-language site structure, general knowledge says that there are 2 right ways of doing it right:
- Assign one domain per region/ language:
...
If a country has more than one language, such as Switzerland, you can create folders for those languages:
www.domain.ch/fr - in french
www.domain.ch/de - in german
- Have a unique domain www.domain.com for the whole site and create folders for language region:
...
If a language is spoken in more than one country, you can create subfolders
www.domain.com/fr-ch - french in switzerland
www.domain.com/de-ch - german in switzerland
At first sight, it seems that option 1 is the right one. However, sites such as www.apple.com are using option 2. I am unable to decide... what would you recommend? Any objective criteria?
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Look at this WhiteBoard Friday : http://www.seomoz.org/blog/international-seo-where-to-host-and-how-to-target-whiteboard-friday
My personal choice is to use one domain per language and I've good result also in country with more than one language like Belgium.
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