Multi-language domain strategy crossroad
-
I've come to a crossroads with a multilingual domain strategy.
Most of you know, Canada has two official languages; English & French. I'm trying to decide on two domain structures to handle languages:
1. Create sub-directory folders for both languages:
Take into account that all page names will be in their respective language.
or
2. Create a single sub-directory folder for French only:
I'm leaning towards Option #2 because English is our target and want to give those pages more "weight" rather than pushing them down another level (flatter site structure for primary pages). Yes, I could also have all French pages at the root but I think having them a) in one sub-directory is easier to manage and b) SE (specifically Google) likes the division better for languages. I'm just not sure if there's a point to doing it for English too.
Note: There'll be several hundred pages for each language.
What's best practice (of course) and is there a difference if any....or was this just long winded for nothing?
Thanks for any insights.
-
Thanks Ryan for the promptness and I guessed as much that there was no real difference. Ya, "flatter" may not have been the best word.
Cheers
-
Either method would work fine. The first choice is more scalable if there is any chance your site will grow, but since you are using a .ca domain it appears Canada is your sole focus.
Keep in mind when you refer to a flatter structure for primary pages, Google is only looking at the site's virtual structure. It does not matter at all how you choose to organize your files on disk. A home page of mysite.com is the exact same as mysite.com/en/ with respect to "flatness". What matters is how many clicks it takes to reach the page.
If you have a home page of mysite.com and then you have to click the "en" text to reach mysite.com/en/, then you are 1 level deeper.
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
-
Decrement in Domain Authority
Hi, We are a bit confused. Recently we saw a drop in Domain Authority Our organic search is increased but DA decreased By 1 what cause in decrements of DA?
On-Page Optimization | | torbett
We made all the changes suggested by MOZ for improving Domain Authority. We are confused because our organic search is increased but Domain Authority Goes Down. What should we do to improve domain authority?0 -
.com vs .co.uk domain
I have a client who has a site live at example**.co.uk** and would like to rank for the term "example". But example**.com** is owned by another company who offers a different product and service and has been live since 2003. I know that I can make example**.co.uk** rank for keywords related to their service but I think it's going to be a struggle to get them to rank for the brand term "example" as the .com site already owns Page 1 with their domain name, Facebook page, Wiki page etc etc. The only variation is that example**.com** is a US based company and my client want to ranks in the UK only. What are the chances I can out rank example**.com** for the brand term on www.google.co.uk if example**.com** currently owns Page 1 on google**.co.uk**?
On-Page Optimization | | Marketing_Today0 -
Need SEO Advice for different languages and How to optimize the page
Hello. Currently we have an ecommerce site that sells shoes online in France. The site is in English. Say the keyword is shoes and our page is example.com/shoes it;s perfectly fine to optimize that page for keyword of "shoes". Now, what about french keyword of shoes "chaussures" ? How do i optimize it? Should i create a different page or just edit the same page with keyword of "chaussures" in title tag etc? What is the best way to go about doing this? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | WayneRooney0 -
Duplicate biographies across several domains?
Hey Gang, We've built a niche specific, manually edited legal community that is full of unique content. (While it's ultimately a directory, and that is often viewed as a bad word in these times, ours is a curated source that doesn't allow anyone and everyone to join.) We feel comfortable that it passes the sniff test post-panda/penguin, etc., and its doing rather well to date. The question we have is do we really need to create unique biographies for each of our legal members? Some of our competitors simply use the same bio information that the lawyer has on their own website and copies that to their site. The competitors I'm talking about are LARGE, well-respected, extremely successful folks, like FindLaw. Here's an example: Lawyer's website bio FindLaw website bio Both rank, etc., and the FindLaw code doesn't place any restrictions on their content regarding the bio., and it's an obvious exact match. I get that duplicate content is primarily a concern among one's own URL and the pages across a specific domain, using rel-canonical, etc., but what about two different domains that need to supply factual information that can't be altered? Is it anything we should worry ourselves with? Any tags we should insert in our code with regard to the bios? Thanks!!! Wayne
On-Page Optimization | | Wayne760 -
Can Page Authority of a site be higher than its Domain Authority?
I own a website called Takeyourtips.com. While doing a search no Google, I found that the page authority of the home page (31) is higher than the domain authority (23). I was wondering if it's really possible because my understanding was page authority of a page is determined by its domain authority. Therefore, it the domain authority of a website is 23, none of its page could have a higher page authority. Plus, upon consulting an SEO expert, I was told that neither Domain Authority or Page Authority of a page carries any importance as far as higher ranking of a website is concerned. Is this true? Thanks in advance for the answers. Cheers, Sushant large
On-Page Optimization | | suskanchan0 -
Multi-language on multiple domain
Hi, One of my clients has a big duplicate content issue on his site. He has two domain, on for each language (FR and EN) but each domain propose the two languages! Meaning you can reach every page with two URL. Example: http://www.brand-realestate.com/en/luxury/index.html (home page of the default site in english)
On-Page Optimization | | Pherogab
http://www.immobilier-brand.com/en/luxury/index.html (home page of the default site in french after clicking on the english link) Each of the two site has a default language and a link to the other one. When you click the link the page you are on just refresh and the URL stay the same with an added language parameter (ie:http://www.immobilier-brand.com/luxe/index.html?lang=english), then all the link in the navigation switch to the other language. So my question is, is it better to: Keep the two domain and instead of having the two languages on each send the traffic to the domain which has the targeted language by default (on the right page of course) Have both language on one domain and redirect all the pages from the other domain to this one (each page to the corresponding one) Just add a canonical URL on each alternative version of each domain Let me know if I'm clear. Thanks for the help. GaB0 -
SEO Domain Values
I always thought that there was no difference in value between a .com and .net, also that hyphens have the same value as the keyphrase without the hyphen. But I have heard Rand lately saying hyphens are spammy - whats the go? Is CarParts.com better than Car-Parts.com or Car-Parts.net etc?
On-Page Optimization | | Ventura0 -
Cross-domain canonical
HI, We've got a German e-commerce site on an .at domain and would like to have a copy on a .de domain as we expect higher conversions for German users there. The idea now would be to make use of the cross-domain canonical tag, create a "duplicate" on the .de domain and add a canonical tag on all sites and refer to the original content on the .at domain. That would mean the .de won't rank, but German users could see the .de domain, Austrian users the .at domain in the address bar and everybody could feel "at home" ... that's the theory. What do you guys think? Valid strategy?
On-Page Optimization | | gmellak0