International SEO | URL Structure

[CrownPartners]

I'm looking for advice/point of view for setting up international domains. I.e. sub-domains, ccTLD, etc.

At the 10,000 ft. view - the client (international retail company) is trying to decide which type of URL structure to use in their new platform:

• Option 1:  Root Domain ccTLD - www.brand.ca, www.brand.fr, etc.
• Option 2: Subdomains - fr.brand.com, ca.brand.com, au.brand.com
• Option 3: Subfolders - ]www.brand.com/ca/, ]www.brand.com/au/

Consider these scenarios/questions and use to help decide which URL structure makes sense:

1) I'm an Aussie in Australia and I do a Google search on Hank Myer Aron, which is a huge seller in the U.S. and also included at the Australia locale site.

• If we go with subfolders, am I likely to see the U.S. Aron page higher in my search results than the Australia Aron page? Or is the U.S. site not a factor in a search done outside the U.S.?
• If we use subfolders AND geo-detection, does this bump the ranking of the locale page?
• Do sites using ccTLDs always get ranked above those that don't? For example, if an Australian dealer selling Aron has URLs dealer.com.au/..., would their pages rank ahead of hankmyer.com/au/...?
• If we went the ccTLD route, would the Aron page at hankmyer.com.au take precedence over the U.S. page? (Again, assuming U.S. site is relevant in this scenario.)

2) I'm a Frenchman in France searching on Hank Myer Aron.

• If we use subfolders AND an alias URL that's translated to French (brand.com/fr/produits/sieges/sieges-aron), would we expect the page rank to be comparable to using the ccTLD and/or expect greater trust than just using subfolders without translated URLs?

3. Do translated URLs have any mitigating affect on duplicate page content?

4. Which URL strategy is best choice from a SEO standpont?

[CiceroLI]

Hi,

I am also looking into the same issue and agree that a ccTLD is the ideal solution, but I am also aware of potential problems that can bring in a different area. My experience is only with Germany and I can only speak for that country, but it is likely that the same applies elsewhere.

The minute you set up a .de domain, you come under German taxation rules - ie. you become liable to pay tax in Germany on all your income from that country. You also come under all other relevant German laws. In our case we offer language travel to the UK and we would need to set up a protection scheme as required in Germany to protect travellers' money in the case of our going bankrupt. This alone is a very complicated scheme and failure to get it right can lead to nasty consequences!

Large companies with a team of international lawyers behind them can no doubt deal with all that ccTLD involves. Smaller companies just won't have the resources but they need to treat this issue with care.

[TommyTan]

Hi,

I believe the attached video from Rand's whiteboard friday answers all your questions.

4)>>>Which URL strategy is best choice from a SEO standpoint?<<<

for the best result, I find using a CCTLD will have the most benefits in search ranking for people in that country.  If you use a France ccTLD, then it will have a higher ranking than the .com site if the searcher is in France.

3)>>>Do translated URLS have any mitigating affect on duplicate page content?<<<

Google mentioned in their webmaster blog that if the content is in a different language, it will not be considered as duplicate content.  http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=182192

2. Using Geotargeting on the French subfolder will give you more benefits in just using a .com site.  However, compared to ccTLD, ccTLD will have more power and benefit than the subfolder.

international-seo-where-to-host-and-how-to-target-whiteboard-friday