What language to use for URL's for Russian language?
-
Hi,
Our site is in English, Spanish, Danish and Russian - the URL's are individual to the language they are in, but of course, Russian contains some strange characters so I decided not to use them in the URL's
Any advice on how to create the URL's for russian language pages?
thanks
-
Hi,
Technically if your cms and server can handle incoming urls with utf8 characters in them then you should be ok. I have seen some instances where the setup does not like them and produces 404 errors when you try to include these characters in the url, but most times it is fine. Google will display utf8 urls in the search results without problem (check out the wikipedia result here)
There is a further consideration though which is one I face a lot with Greek (similar to russian in some ways) which is how these urls are shared in mails, social media etc. A lot of the times these urls end up getting automatically url encoded and the url shown in the mail or facebook etc is a long, long string of url encoded characters which is impossible to read, gives no indication of what the page is about and generally looks bad (try putting that link above into facebook....nasty). For this reason I usually choose to do 'greeklish' urls which is a latin character representation of the greek characters. There are usually some common practices in regards how the local language is 'recreated' in latin characters, there are for Greek, I would assume there are for Russian also. So with that in mind, if you have a russian speaker who is familiar with that kind of thing I would be inclined to make the urls themselves 'russianlish'.
My two cents!
-
Listen to Matt Cutts awesome answer here LOL!!!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suTDT6-Q8NE
I think your special characters may depend on the search engine. Go to Russia's search engine and find out if your URLs display better there: http://www.yandex.com/
I believe Yandex is more popular there than Google is.
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
-
Why Google is not indexing each country/language subfolder on the ranks?
Hi folks, We use Magento 2 for the multi-country shops (its a multistore). The URL: www.avarcas.com The first days Google indexed the proper url in each country: avarcas.com/uk avarcas.com/de ... Some days later, all the countries are just indexing / (the root). I correctly set the subfolders in Webmaster tools. What's happening? Thanks
International SEO | | administratorwibee0 -
Using a top level domain name and directing it to a subfolder
Hi, we have a large international network. Our main website sits on .com domain and is used by the UK market. We have an international site in a subdirectory .com/dk/ for Denmark for example. We have also purchased the domain name www.ourcompany.dk/. Should we be forwarding the domain name (www.ourcompany.dk/) to point to the subdirectory www.ourcomany.com.dk/ so in the browser it shows up as www.ourcompany.dk or should we be displaying it as www.ourcompany.com/dk/? Are there any pros and cons to this method? Which one is best and are there any benefits in SEO. Ideally we want the .com domain name to have the best domain authority so would this impact it in any way? Any tips would be great.
International SEO | | Easigrass0 -
Where is it appropriate to use a .eu domain?
My client, a UK company, has a .eu domain and want to rank primarily in the UK but also worldwide, is a .eu domain appropriate?
International SEO | | peeveezee0 -
Google Webmaster showing error for [hreflang='x-default']
Hi There! Using [hreflang='x-default'] tag to target language specific countries on our site but Google Webmaster showing errors even implementation made as per Google guideline but one thing is not clear and we are not sure, this is the reason behind it. Error is showing up only on those pages where 'Google Parameters' are used. For example : https://www.sitegeek.com/a2hosting?grank=open 'grank=' is defined as a 'Google Parameters' and on the above page 'hreflang' tags are : Also, on page https://www.sitegeek.com/a2hosting [without Google Parameters] same above 'hreflang' tags are taken. But, There is no error on second page URL where no 'Google Parameters' in URL. Therefore, error showing on first URL where 'Google Parameters' are taken. Is this the issue or not? suggest how to remove? -- Rajiv S9vhl3T
International SEO | | gamesecure0 -
How to Use Additional Country Domains
Greetings Mozlings We have a .co.uk address but mostly sell to South East Asia. Is there a benefit to getting .com.my, .com.sg, .co.id addresses If we do how should we use them - a simple redirect to the .co.uk? A single page site with a link to the .co.uk Some other way We're resource and time lite so we're looking to maximise the benefits with the minimum time investment Cheers Denis
International SEO | | Zippy-Bungle0 -
Can we use similar images on multi regional websites?
I have couple of questions regarding multi regional websites. Right now, We're working on http://www.canvaschamp.com/ and planning to design new website for Australia region. I have read Google's official guidelines regarding duplicate content on following URL. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en Now, I have biggest question regarding images and videos. We're going to use all photo gallery images on Australia website. http://www.canvaschamp.com/canvas-prints We may use similar name, title tag, meta description for all images. So, Will it work for us? I want to save my website from duplicate content penalty. I am looking forward for any additional help which may help me to perform better on different region with similar images.
International SEO | | CommercePundit0 -
302 Redirect based on Language Detection
Hi, Our online application, magento e-commerce, has a script that detects browser language and does a 302 redirection to the language of choice ... www.mydomain.com/en/ or www.mydomain.com/es/ What's the SEO angle on this? Should I be concerned? thanks, Ben
International SEO | | bjs20100 -
Is it possible to geotag language folders on a .co.uk domain
Hi all, I'm going around in circles a little on this one, so I thought that I'd as as I haven't found anyone asking quite the same thing (sorry if someone has). I have a .co.uk site and would like to set up some different language variations. I've been looking at the subfolder route for now (budget is limited). Can I set a geotag in webmaster tools on a .co.uk site or does it need to be a domain that Google considers country neutral? Many thanks for any suggestions!
International SEO | | ceecee0