URL Structure for Multilingual Site With Two Major Locations
-
We're working on a hotel site that has two major locations. Locations currently live in separate domains. The sites target users from around the world and offer content in multiple languages. The client is looking into migrating all content into one domain and creating sub-folders for each location. The sites are strong in organic search, but they want to expand the keyword portfolio to broader keywords regarding activities, which they also market on their sites. The goal is to scale their domain authority as they have a really strong brand. The question is which would be a preferred URL structure in case content is finally migrated into one domain? - (we have doubts about were the lang folder should be placed as each location has different amenities and services).
Here is what we had in mind:
domain.com – this is the homepage
domain.com/location-1 – to target English visitors
domain.com/location-2 – to target English visitors
domain.com/es/location-1 – to target Spanish visitors
domain.com/es/location-2 – to target Spanish visitors
-
You're welcome
-
Thank you Olaf and Gianluca for the validation and additional tips. Much appreciated.
-
The answer given by Olaf is substantially correct.
I would suggest the solution you have in mind too. And, as Olaf wrote, be sure to localize the UI (menú, URLs...) for a correct user experience and Spanish SEO.
-
We prefer the way you suggest, use and also translate the menu names:
domain.com/location-1 – to target English visitors
domain.com/es/establecimiento-1 – to target Spanish visitors
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
-
Using same URL for both "en" and "en-us" hreflang tags
Hi,I have a question. Is it okay if I use the same URL for both "en" and "en-us" hreflang tags? For example, for my en-us page: Is this okay with Google? What are your thoughts on this?
International SEO | | Avid_Demand0 -
.fr Site Not Indexed in Search Console
Hey everyone, I am just now learning international SEO, and so appreciate any and all help! 1. I added supershuttle.fr to Search Console about a week ago and it still has 0 indexed pages. It is showing that pages were indexed in the sitemap, and when I check, there are 75 results in Google. Is this something I should be concerned with? Is there a setting that I'm not aware of in Search Console that I need to change? 2. Also, I read the below regarding the automatically translated pages. Would https://en.supershuttle.fr/ be considered an "automatically translated" page? Use robots.txt to block search engines from crawling automatically translated pages on your site. Automated translations don’t always make sense and could be viewed as spam. More importantly, a poor or artificial-sounding translation can harm your site’s perception
International SEO | | SuperShuttle0 -
Web Site Migration - Time to Google indexing
Soon we will do a website migration .com.br to .com/pt-br. Wi will do this migration when we have with lower traffic. Trying to follow Google Guidelines, applying the 301 redirect, sitemap etc... I would like to know, how long time the Google generally will use to transfering the relevance of .com.br to .com/pt-br/ using redirect 301?
International SEO | | mobic0 -
What is the proper way to setup hreflang tags on my English and Spanish site?
I have a full English website at http://www.example.com and I have a Spanish version of the website at http://spanish.example.com but only about half of the English pages were translated and exist on the Spanish site. Should I just add a sitemap to both sites with hreflang tags that point to the correct version of the page? Is this a proper way to set this up? I was going to repeat this same process for all of the applicable URLs that exist on both versions of the website (English and Spanish). Is it okay to have hreflang="es" or do I need to have a country code attached as well? There are many Spanish speaking countries and I don't know if I need to list them all out. For example hreflang="es-bo" (Bolivia), hreflang="es-cl" (Chile), hreflang="es-co" (Columbia), etc... Sitemap example for English website URL:
International SEO | | peteboyd
<url><loc>http://www.example.com/</loc></url> Sitemap example for Spanish website URL:
<url><loc>http://spanish.example.com/</loc></url> Thanks in advance for your feedback and help!0 -
If I redirect based on IP will Google still crawl my international sites if I implement Hreflang
We are setting up several international sites. Ideally, we wouldn't set up any redirects, but if we have to (for merchandising reasons etc) I'd like to assess what the next best option would be. A secondary option could be that we implement the redirects based on IP. However, Google then wouldn't be able to access the content for all the international sites (we're setting up 6 in total) and would only index the .com site. I'm wondering whether the Hreflang annotations would still allow Google to find the International sites? If not, that's a lot of content we are not fully benefiting from. Another option could be that we treat the Googlebot user agent differently, but this would probably be considered as cloaking by the G-Man. If there are any other options, please let me know.
International SEO | | Ben.JD0 -
Translating URLs worth it?
My company has content in 23 different languages in 30+ countries. We translate page content but we don't translate URLs. I am trying to figure out whether it would be worth the considerable extra overhead to translate the URLs as well. I'd really appreciate hearing the thoughts of the Moz community. Thanks in advance!
International SEO | | Logi0 -
Improving Search Rankings in other Countries for an existing site
Hello SEOmoz, I have a very well respected international client who ranks high in the US and for English language Google search results worldwide. However, the client's foreign language pages for specific countries do not show up on the first page of SERPs in those specific countries. The foreign nation/language pages are served on the same root domain as the main English language site it this fashion: www.client.com/france www.client.com/brazil Here are my questions: What can we do from an SEO standpoint to improve SERPs in Google.fr or other countries What is the best way to prevent duplicate content errors or prevent the wrong page from being indexed abroad. What are some best practices when using Google Webmaster tools in this regard? Thanks
International SEO | | BPIAnalytics0 -
Backlinks to rewrite urls and russian cyrilic characters
Dear Mozers, I've been tried different methods for backlink building and I need some help in order to make it clear in my mind. I have a multilingual website. Also it has russian language which is our basic market. My main keyword is(Недвижимость в Греции) which means Properties in Greece and of course I target my russian first page which has url rewrite (because I have to include my keywords in url) with cyrrilic characters - http://www.halkidikiproperties.com/ru/халкидики-недвижимость-греции/. As I see these backlinks doesn't appear in seomoz tool and there is no improvment in link analysis tab. Do I have to target better my home page than this url rewrited page or maybe do I have to target www.halkidikiproperties.com/ru/ which is the main russian page but before the url rewrite? Also as I see my competitors targeting their homepage without any rewrite but they are not multilingual. Do I have to analyze better this specific rewrited-url by using Link analysis tool? Is it possible to analyze a specific url? Thank a lot , It will be really helpful your assistance. Regards, George
International SEO | | elgreco0