Internationalization guides for subfolder structure

[Brando16]

I'm wondering if there are any guides out there that list how subfolders should be structured for Internationalization? The first language/location that I'm targeting is Portuguese in Brazil so should my folder structure be:

www.example.com/br/pt/

or

www.example.com/pt-br/

I did find the guide below but was wondering if there was perhaps anything from Google?

http://www.lingoes.net/en/translator/langcode.htm

[Brando16]

Hi Gianluca,

I also have a translation for Latin American Spanish, what is the best way to target that? Do I need a site for each country? Or should I just call it "es" and use the same site for each country that I need to target?

[Brando16]

Yes, I was actually going through the Moz guide to international seo and hreflang is mentioned.

https://moz.com/blog/guide-to-international-seo

Yes, I'm using Wordpress but I decided to go with Multisite. I didn't really like any of the plugins out there that handle translations. I'll look into the rewrite rule, thanks!

[DmitriiK]

_So using /pt-br/ is fine, what really matter is letting Google know the language/location through search console and other measures what language/location the page are targeting. _

Correct, also, do look into meta tag called "hreflang":

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

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en

I'm not following what you mean in the last sentence: Unless you use some type of CMS, then you can just use RewriteRule or something to only display needed URL.

Most CMS systems have some type of functionality or plugins, which would let you create content in different languages within the same admin, so you wouldn't have to physically create all subfolders etc. So, whenever CMS does that, it would give you URL, but you might use htaccess rewriterule without redirect to make URL look like you want. Just google "rewrite rule without redirect" and you'll see what i'm talking about.

Hope this clarifies a bit

[Brando16]

Hi Gianluca,

Thanks for your response. The main version of our site is actually English, that is the language that currently resides in the root.

-Brandon

[gfiorelli1]

I don't know of any "guide" by Google about how better design an international seo architecture.

However, of the two options you presented, the most common, correct and logic is the second one (domain.com/pt-br/), because the first is substantially burying the Brazilian Portuguese version of your site in the architecture.

Secondly, using the ISO schema "language-country" is also a good way to maintain the consistency in the site, also because those same pairs you will be using when implementing the hreflang annotations (and it is also a way to make understand what iso pairs your developers must use).

Thirdly, internet users recognize very well already what pt-br stands for

Finally, a note. If the brazilian portuguese is the main version of your site, why don't you create it directly in the root of your domain (domain.com directly in brazilian portuguese), when all the other versions will be in their dedicated subdirectories? This is the most common thing to do.

[Brando16]

Sorry, didn't mean to refer to that link as a guide more of a reference.

So using /pt-br/ is fine, what really matter is letting Google know the language/location through search console and other measures what language/location the page are targeting.

I'm not following what you mean in the last sentence: Unless you use some type of CMS, then you can just use RewriteRule or something to only display needed URL.

[DmitriiK]

Hi there.

The link you have provided is not a guide for subfolders structuring, it's simply a list of allowed/known language codes for internalization.

To answer your question - it wouldn't matter. It is more for your own ease of use and user friendliness. For example, since you'd have to have different content, you'd have to keep different versions of the website in different folders for ease of finding stuff. This is where different folders structures would come in handy. Unless you use some type of CMS, then you can just use RewriteRule or something to only display needed URL.

Hope this makes sense