URL Structure - Homepage, Country and State Pages

[Monologix]

Hello,

I am creating a website (or websites if best format) that will have state-specific boating license courses for every state in the US, Canada and Australia. I would like the content to be available on the website in English, French and Spanish. I want to be the global leader in providing boat test courses.

For the (1) homepage, (2) country pages, and (3) state pages, what is best SEO format I should use for:
(a) URL structure
(b) "href lang" code
(c) rel canonical code
(d) will meta content with non-English pages need to also be in the non-English language of that page?

Also, what server company do you recommend I host my website with?

I am a non-programmer and learning SEO, so any and all help will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you very much in advance!!!

[Aleyda]

Hi Paul,

In order to give you an answer about the best international Web structure, could you please confirm: Where's your target audience for your site? Do you want to target the audience of some specific countries (those where you will have the courses from)? Or do you want to target audience that speak a specific language abroad? Could you please confirm the country and language target for each one please?

For hreflang tags best practices you can refer to this post I wrote at the Moz blog with examples and a tool to help you generate them.

You can still using "self" referral rel canonical annotations in each one of your pages since these won't be seen as duplicated (they will be whether targeting to different languages or in the same language but to different countries) but you don't need to use cross-language or cross-country, as Google describes in their international FAQ.

It's important to note that each of your international Web versions should feature specific content optimized for each one of them in the relevant language, targeting its specific audience, from Titles, Meta Descriptions, URLs, all should be in the relevant language, with specific terms used by the visitors you want to attract. This is why doing a full initial research to identify if there's enough volume in each country and language to compensate to build independent Web versions is fundamental.

Please, take a look at this International SEO Checklist I published at the Moz blog, that will help you validate each step you need to take for an international SEO process and take a look at the slides of my MozCon presentation about International SEO, where I describe and share resources for each one of them.

Thanks!

[NoisyLittleMonkey]

Hey Paul,

The above code can be placed between and as stated above. If yur website is built in php then you can just copy and paste it above.

Please have a look here http://moz.com/blog/canonical-url-tag-the-most-important-advancement-in-seo-practices-since-sitemaps

[Monologix]

There is some confusion and want to clear it up.

For URL structure, do you recommend [domain].com/[country]/[state]? Is there a better format to use? For example, [domain].com/[2 letter language code]-[2 letter country code]/[state]

For the above State page, what should I put re: "href...." if any?

Where do I insert rel canonical? On every page, including the homepage? ONLY on duplicate pages?

If I have a non-English page, is there an advantage of having the meta data in that language vs. English?

[NoisyLittleMonkey]

For the canonical you want to use Yoast if your on a WordPress site.

If not add this between and (php is required)

" />

[Monologix]

I'm looking for an example. Assume domain name is boattests101.com

[Kurt_Steinbrueck]

I'm not totally sure I understand what you're asking either, but I'll give it a shot:

• Best URL structure: To some extent it's just your preference, but I'd go with something like domain/country/state.html (you may use a different language than html.)
• Href lang code: I'm not familiar enough with this to comment.
• Rel canonical code:  Just use the standard code <link rel="canonical" href="(insert page URL)" />
• META data: The content and the META content should be the same language.  Why would it be any different?
• Hosting company: I work for a Christian hosting company, so if your a Christian, I'd be happy to host your site.  I don't really have a recommendation beyond that.

Kurt Steinbrueck
OurChurch.Com

[NoisyLittleMonkey]

Hey Paul,

I'm not to sure on what your asking at some parts of this question.

Are you looking for a, b and c to be explain or an example?