Kill the flags?

[michelledemaree]

Hi all,

On www.simplesite.com we used to have a separate URL for each language (123website.nl for the Dutch version, 123siteweb.fr for the French, and so on). Soon we will be switching over to a sub-domain solution, as all our language versions will now be called SimpleSite. So instead it will be nl.simplesite.com, fr.simplesite.com and so on.

If you go to www.simplesite.com and scroll to the bottom, you will see flags that lead to each local version. Instead of that we will get a language selector in the top menu. My question now is... can I simply remove those flags from the footer? Or are there things I should keep in mind?

[katemorris]

From what I am picking up, you are only offering translations. Be careful not to associate one language with one country when it comes to the major world languages like French and Spanish that are spoken in a number of countries. Therefore I highly recommend removing those flags and bringing a language menu up to the top.

I am happy to hear you are changing from ccTLDs to another solution. ccTLDs are only meant for content targeted at one country. If you are doing translations, then Spanish would need multiple ccTLDs (example Mexico and Spain) and then the content would be duplicated across those sites unless something else changed about your offering on those country sites.

Anyway, I am babbling. You are headed down the right path. Remove those flags and have a language menu up top.

[erickcalderon]

Hi Michelle,

I think it is interesting that those flags are only in your footer, are really small, have no explanation of their relevance, but that you still get good traffic to your language specific sites from them. That means that your visitors are making a connection with the flag icon. I would think about usability first in this situation. I might recommend that you design a navigation element that incorporates a CSS styled dropdown menu that includes the flag icons as a marker, I would also add something like:

Also available in your country: [LIST OF LANGUAGE/COUNTRY LINKS]

That way you do not lose the visitor that is currently going straight for the flags to get to their own language and you are able to update the navigational design.

I'm sure you are already going to do this but make sure you 301 redirect your old URLS to these new subdomains. Have you thought about not using subdomains and just using subdirectories instead. By using subdirectories you will help raise your main domain's authority. So something like www.simplesite.com/fr and www.simplesite.com/es ...

Lastly to retain any links you currently have to your existing sites, make sure you 301 linked to pages to relevant new pages in your subdomain or subdirectory new sites.

Hope that helps!
Erick

[wanatop]

SEO often intersects with issues of **usability**.

It may be that only an **single option** of changing the language your users are **accustomed** .

I personally prefer the text links that image links, are better for SEO.

Href lang is an important tip.

[michelledemaree]

Hi!

I did not think I was going to have any issues, but figured it couldn't hurt to be sure. It's mostly because we get a lot of traffic to the old site versions through those flags, but we're phasing those old URLs out anyway.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer and share that article!

[VERBInteractive]

Hi Michelle,

If you are replacing the bottom flag navigation with a drop down, I don't think you will have any issues. One thing I would explore is using hreflang tags (see: https://moz.com/learn/seo/hreflang-tag) they will help deal with the various language versions and international targeting.

https://moz.com/learn/seo/hreflang-tag