How To Proceed With Int'l Language Targeting if Subfolders Not An Option?
-
I’m currently working with my team to sort out the best way to build out the international versions of our website. Any advice on how to move forward is greatly appreciated!
Current Setup: Subdirectories to target languages - i.e. domain.com/es/.
We chose this because…
-
We are targeting languages not countries
-
Our product offering does not change from country to country
-
Translated site content is almost identical to the english version
Current Problem: Our site is built on WordPress and our database can’t handle the build out of 4 more international versions of the site. The database is slowing down and our site speed is being affected for multiple reasons (WordPress multilingual plugin being one of them).
**What to do next? **My developers have said that we cannot continue with our current subdirectory structure due to the technical infrastructure issues I’ve mentioned above (as well as others I’m yet to get full details on). Now I’m left with a decision:
-
Change to a subdomain structure
-
Change to a ccTLD structure
-
Is there an option 3?
From what I’ve read it does not make sense to build out language targeted sites on a ccTLD structure because that limits the ability for people outside of the targeted country to find the content organically. I.e. a website at www.domain.es is targeted to searchers in Spain so someone in Columbia is less likely to find that content through the engines. Is this correct? If so, how much can it hurt organic discovery?
What’s the optimal setup to move forward with in this case?
Thanks!
-
-
So sorry Cody!!
Sub-directories allow you to consolidate domain authority and often provide ease of maintenance. With the proper markup, you can create a clear signal to Google for the geotargeting. I understand this isn't an option for you.
With subdomains, you lose some of the shared domain authority that gives sub-directories their advantage, and generally have to maintain separate installs, etc.. You can specify a geo within search console, but it won't be as effective as a ccTLD.
With ccTLDs, you can create a much quicker signal for geotargeting your traffic, but the domain authority for each site is generally wholly independent and will require more substantive effort to build the initial authority of each ccTLD, etc.. ccTLDs tend to earn better CTR from the SERPs in the geo, as they seem more likely to be relevant.
In your case, I would go with the ccTLDs..
-Jake
-
Hi Jake,
As mentioned above, the subdirectory structure is not an option at this point. The options are to go with subdomains or ccTLD's. Thoughts?
-
Hi Cody,
I typically recommend a subdirectory structure unless you foresee that the site/brand will be presented different in each country (e.g. you will have different products or service offerings), or if each site/brand will be managed by different development firms and/or hosted on different platforms. By maintaining these within subfolders, you can often better manage your SEO by forcing consistency within the platform, and more easily contribute authority back to the parent (default) language at the root domain.
I hope this helps.
-Jake
-
Hi Jake,
I realize my options are to go with subdomains or ccTLD's. My question is which one is better in this case (and why)?
Cheers, Cody
-
Hi Cody,
I can understand and sympathize with your frustrations with the wordpress multilingual features. If placing in subfolders is not an option, placing in subdomains or on the cctld are the next best alternatives. Please note that as long as you do proper tagging with the hreflang tags, you shouldn't see any issues, etc.. as these sites/subdomains will all be linked and authority shared between them based on their being alternates.
-Jake
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
-
How should I handle hreflang tags if it's the same language in all targeting countries?
My company is creating an international version of our site at international.example.com. We are located in the US with our main site at www.example.com targeting US & Canada but offering slightly different products elsewhere internationally. Ideally, we would have hreflang tags for different versions in different languages, however, it's going to be an almost duplicate site besides a few different SKUs. All language and content on the site is going to be in English. Again, the only content changing is slightly different SKUs, they are almost identical sites. The subdomain is our only option right now. Should we implement hreflang tags even if both languages are English and only some of the content is different? Or will having just canonicals be fine? How should we handle this? Would it make sense to use hreflang this way and include it on both versions? I believe this would be signaling for US & Canda visitors to visit our main site and all other users go to the international site. Am I thinking this correctly or should we be doing this a different way?
International SEO | | tcope250 -
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 -
For My International Sites only Homepage in other Language rest Pages are in English. Hreflang required here?
Hello All, For my ecommerce site at my homepage there is an Language option of 9 different countries. My main site - abcd.co.uk and other sites are like this se.abcd.co.uk, fr.abcd.co.uk, es.abcd.co.uk etc From my main site if user clicks on fr.abcd.co.uk then France site will open but when he click on any link it will redirect to my UK site. On France site homepage if user hover the cursor then links are visible of UK site only. My query is ;- Do it required here to implement hreflang? As only homepage is in different language? Do it anything wrong in google point of view? Thanks!
International SEO | | wright3350 -
Specific page URL in a multi-language environment
I've read a lot of great posts on this forum about how to go about deciding the best URL structure for each language that your site will support, so thank you to everyone that has provided input on that. I now have a question that I haven't really found answers/opinions on. When providing a page translation, should my content URL reflect that of the country I'm targeting or always remain the same across all sites? Below is an example using the "About Us" page. www.example.com/about-us/
International SEO | | Matchbox
www.example.com/es-mx/about-us/ -- OR -- www.example.com/about-us
www.example.com/es-mx/sobre-nosotros Thank you in advance for your help. Cheers!0 -
Does Google's algorithm work the same in every country?
I can't help but feel this is a silly question! but does Google algorithm work exactly the same throughout all countries? I run a few sites in the UK and a couple in Spain but can't help but feel that my Spanish sites are harder to rank for. The sites that rank the best are business directories in Spain... whereas here in the UK you'd be lucky to find one on page one..
International SEO | | david.smith.segarra0 -
Hotel Multi country targeting + Google Local + TLDs => "MesSEO"
Hi guys, I own a guesthouse which is facing a messy structural problem in its own web presence: Portuguese: www.residencia-aeminium-coimbra.com.pt English: www.residencia-aeminium-coimbra.com Spanish: www.residencia-aeminium-coimbra.com/espanol Looking for success in the long term, a few years ago, we decided to host 3 TLDs: 1 for global international english, 1 for local portuguese and 1 for the main foreign market Spain (we already redirected it to a subfolder in the .com in the meanwhile). We tried to promote each one of these in their targeted markets - mainly the .com got back-links links and authority. With time, google local appeared and changed the face of google accommodation rankings. Google local are now the top results for most searches, even outside the country, and I came to the conclusion that the TLD assets were now a problem. For instance, I can only add 1 domain to google local..what language should this be? It is the same for most social media presence..How should international markets be targeted in a local page? Since TLDs do not seem to be an advantage right now, I am thinking we should be moving to a single domain and use a folder structure so we can use it everywhere. Questions: 1. In terms of structure (TLD or Folder) and multi-lingual targeting what is the current best practice for hotels that show in local results but promote internationally? 2. What language should I point google local results to? And our Facebook page, etc? 3. If I move things around to a folder structure, what domain should I use? the .com is in english and has the most authority and links according to opensiteexplorer the .com.pt is in portuguese, our local language and our main market (but only 35% share) should I create a new domain ".pt"? 4. I don't think that geo-targeting the languages is worth it in this case, what do you think? Kind Regards
International SEO | | retsimister
Ricardo Madeira
Residencia Aeminium Coimbra0 -
Targeting France Best SEO practices
I've got a client with a large e-commerce site with a .com domain and they want to start targeting France. Other than building another site in Frence with a .fr domain, what would be the best course of action? I know that the obvious option would be to build a separate French site with a .fr domain but is there another more cost effective way? I tried doing a search for one of their key-phrases using the Google Global app (Google.fr) and they are ranking in pretty much the same position as for Google.co.uk. Your thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.
International SEO | | FishEyeSEO0 -
The case of the attempted server hacking and it's effect on SEO
Since relaunch earlier this year, we've had patches where our site has failed to load. It's happened every so often, but, until I receive the server logs from the company who hosts the site, I won't know exactly when this issue has occurred. Until now, we've only noticed it when someone in the company has tried, and failed, to access the site. Again, it happened today. After hassling our developers/hosting firm for a conclusive answer as to why, it emerged that their server (perhaps our site in particular because of the nature of our business) had been the target of an attempted hacking. We've now concluded that every time our site has messed around like this, it's because of a possible hack. Would anyone in SEOmoz Land be able to tell me if this is going to have a negative impact for our SEO and site performance? Would search engines be able to tell if a potential hack is, or was, occurring? Would we then be penalised? Please feel free to elaborate on the hacking process in general, too, if you can because this is the first time I've encountered it. Thanks
International SEO | | Martin_S0