Which would Google prefer In my case? Country Specific TLD or SubFolders?

[FullSteamBusiness]

I'm looking for some expert advice regarding multilingual SEO domain selection. I have a basic question that I'd love some help clarifying. I'd love to know what you do if you were in my position..From the research I've done so far, although there are other options, the two best suites ways of us separating 2 languages within our site is:

1. **Country specific TLD's. (.com & .fr) **

2. SubDomain Folders (.com & .com/fr)

3. Would google prefer the power of the country specific domains & the cleanliness of the separation (Option 1)?

4. Or would it value more the link authority sent to one main domain with languages separated by subdomains (Option 2)?

**Question background details:**I am developing a website in French & English. The main target markets language at present is French.In the future however I'm sure equal if not more website users will use the English language.1) Languages on two separate TLD's (Top level Domains) for each country (.fr & .com).

• We already own both domains
• We use WPML on wordpress so it's easy to update both languages.

2. Languages in sub folder .com (en) .com/fr (fr)

• Through link building, all 'link juice' will be directed to .com (across french & English).
• We want all our customers to land on .com/fr if they are in French speaking country.

[FullSteamBusiness]

Hey Bryce,

Thanks so much for your reply it's much appreciated.

I was starting to think down the same lines regarding domain authority, but thought maybe the two sites linking together so much would argue that it wouldn't have huge impact when you take into account the extra authority in France that a .fr site may hold. That's my dilemma!

But I think you are right that taking everything into account, the subfolder option just takes the edge.

Thanks again for taking the time to answer

All the best

Joe

[brycedmorgan]

Hey Joe,

When I worked for MaritzCX.com we had this same fight and dilemma all of the time. There are definitely pro's and con's to doing either option, but I strongly believe option 2 to be your best course of action.

The main reason to stick with one domain for your entire organization is domain authority. While you can have drastically different sites for each subfolder (if you want), you will be building domain authority to company.com from each and every subdomain folder. It is smart to purchase company.fr and redirect it to company.com/fr for ease of use.

If you build out sites on different domains (i.e. company.com, company.fr, company.br) then each domain will have separate domain authority.

Tracking one domain is much easier with tools such as Moz, Brightedge, Google Search Console, etc.

Hope this helps. If you want more info, let me know, but I think subdomain folders will search your company and search efforts the best.