CcTLD + Subdirectory for languages
-
Hey,
a client has as .de domain with subdirectories for different languages, so domain.de/de, domain.de/en, domain.de/fr etc.
hreflang Tags are implemented, so each subdirectory of each language references to the other languages, so for domain.de/en it is:
My question is about the combination of ccTLD + language subdirectory. Do you think this is problematic for Google and should be replaced with .com + language subdirectory?
We have lots a high quality domains (from countries with corresponding languages) linking to .de/de and .de/en, some links on .de/fr & .de/es and 0 links pointing to .de/cn.
Thanks in advance!
Julian -
Thanks Gaston for your answer on this!
I will definitely not make a fast move here and will start with testing for sure.
Are there are more people who can contribute to this or have experience with this topic?
Thanks!
-
Hi Julian,
I have no experience in ranking websites with ccTLD on multiple different languages.
In my opinion, it might be harder for that website to rank on other countries, because of the ccTLD.As I don't have that much experience on this topic, I cant estimate the impact. But, if you can do it with not that much effort, I'd go with the .com domain and the corresponding subfolders.
Before migrating everything to a different domain, I'd suggest you trying with the new languages/countries to see if there is any faster/better rankings.
If you have the corresponding ccTLD for each country, I'd go with creating websites on its corresponding ccTLD. At least on every market that the company has business. If that's not possible, then I'd go with the .com/lang/Does it make sense?
I cant stress it enough, before doing any really big change/migration, test the hell out of it!Hope it helps.
Best luck.
Gaston
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
302 from landingspage to language page
Hi Everyone, A client of us has a Belgian website in 2 different languages, in French and in Dutch.
Technical SEO | | WeAreDigital_BE
We make use of hreflang tags, so each user gets to see the website in their preferred language. The landingspage on the website however, let's say www.example.be, has a 302 redirect to the French version of the website (www.example.be/fr/). And Dutch users get to see the Dutch version (www.example.be/nl/) of the website when they browse to www.example.be . Now, I want to get rid of the 302 redirect. Should I replace it to a 301 redirect, without sending every user automatically to one of the 2 versions? Should I just remove the redirect? Or should I just leave it this way? I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Jens0 -
International SEO And Duplicate Content Within The Same Language
Hello, Currently, we have a .com English website serving an international clientele. As is the case we do not currently target any countries in Google Search Console. However, the UK is an important market for us and we are seeing very low traffic (almost entirely US). We would like to increase visibility in the UK, but currently for English speakers only. My question is this - would geo-targeting a subfolder have a positive impact on visibility/rankings or would it create a duplicate content issue if both pieces of content are in English? My plan was: 1. Create a geo-targeted subfolder (website.com/uk/) that copies our website (we currently cannot create new unique content) 2. Go into GSC and geo-target the folder to the UK 3. Add the following to the /uk/ page to try to negate duplicate issues. Additionally, I can add a rel=canonical tag if suggested, I just worry as an already international site this will create competition between pages However, as we are currently only targeting a location and not the language at this very specific point, would adding a ccTLD be advised instead? The threat of duplicate content worries me less here as this is a topic Matt Cutts has addressed and said is not an issue. I prefer the subfolder method as to ccTLD's, because it allows for more scalability, as in the future I would like to target other countries and languages. Ultimately right now, the goal is to increase UK traffic. Outside of UK backlinks, would any of the above URL geo-targeting help drive traffic? Thanks
Technical SEO | | Tom3_150 -
Hreflang for multple countries but single language
I'm working on a site that has implemented hreflang. The site is all in English but has slight differences and breaks down to separate domains, so example.co.uk example.eu example.com the hreflang implementation targets specific countries per domain. This was tested using http://flang.dejanseo.com.au but Webmaster Tools has thrown up errors. For example, **URLs for your site and alternative URLs in 'en_GB' that do not have return tags. **But every page refers back.Any ideas what's going wrong?
Technical SEO | | MickEdwards0 -
Should I Use Two Domains for Multi Language Sites?
I have an immigration attorney that wants a website in English and another in Spanish. We're going to have some of the website content from the English site translated via a translator to make it true, conversation spanish (automatic translators are good, but not perfect, and we want perfect). So my question is do you think we should use two different domains (englishsite.com, spanishsite.com), a subdomain (spanishsite.englishsite.com) or maybe just a separate section of the regular site (englishsite.com/spanishcontent)? My thought would be either a subdomain or a separate section so that we're not splitting PR.
Technical SEO | | atstickel120 -
Language Selection Splash Page- Impact on SEO
Hi, Our site has a page for new visitors to select their language to view our website So if you type our brand adress (http://www.bdc.ca) you should be redirected to this "splash" page (http://www.bdc.ca/pages/splashpage.aspx). What is the SEO impact of doing this and is there a better way for users to choose their languages, SEO-wise (and UX wise) ? You'll also see that after the visitor select its language, he's redirected to the actual home page using a two 302 redirects ( one to bdc.ca/en/ and then another one to the actual home page). I am aware of this and I know this is really bad. Please share what you think would be the best way to manage this language selection in respect to SEO, but with respect to UX too. Thanks ! Jean-François Monfette
Technical SEO | | jfmonfette0 -
Best practices for switching site languages around
Hi folks. The site in question is at http://bit.ly/UDV186 It is split into English and Spanish versions, each at root/en and root/es respectively. The home page is in Spanish. We're trying to rank the site for English keywords so we want to switch the homepage to English and put the Spanish version as secondary. What are the best practices for this? Can we just literally swap the two versions around onto the existing URLs, i.e. take the English text and put it onto the home page? Provided all links point to the correct page, would that be fine? Are there any other best practice considerations to take? Thanks in advance.
Technical SEO | | MattBarker0 -
Multi Language websites!
Hello, What is the best way for a website to have more languages? For example www.site.com is in english BUT the content will be translated in other 4 languages .es .it .fr .de . Should i buy 4 diferent domains www.site1.es www.site2.it etc... or create folders like site.com/es/ site.com/it etc OR create subdomains es.site.com Few months ago i was 100% sure..to go and buy diferent domains then to create diferent content on that languages..but now..i am not so sure. Thank you very much for your help!
Technical SEO | | willyg0 -
Microsite on subdomain vs. subdirectory
Based on this post from 2009, it's recommended in most situations to set up a microsite as a subdirectory as opposed to a subdomain. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites. The primary argument seems to be that the search engines view the subdomain as a separate entity from the domain and therefore, the subdomain doesn't benefit from any of the trust rank, quality scores, etc. Rand made a comment that seemed like the subdomain could SOMETIMES inherit some of these factors, but didn't expound on those instances. What determines whether the search engine will view your subdomain hosted microsite as part of the main domain vs. a completely separate site? I read it has to do with the interlinking between the two.
Technical SEO | | ryanwats0