Does it matter whether you use /en vs /uk
-
I have a global site targeting many countries including the UK which is the only English language site.
Does it matter whether I use /en or /uk for the UK sub-folder?
If I already have /en in place, but my Google UK listings are struggling, will it benefit me to switch to /uk?
I honestly don't think it matters too much, but given the choice would've gone for the /uk
I'm trying to weigh up whether it is worth the effort of changing it.
-
Ralph,
I would not suggest "switching" to uk but adding uk. A web page written for UK English will look differently then a page written for US English. Words such as "center" vs "centre", references to London vs references to Washington, monetary units, systems of measurement "miles" vs "kilometers", etc.
If you want to improve your UK rankings, offer a UK section of your site, adjust your articles specifically for the UK and obtain links from the UK pointed to this part of your site. If you perform these steps properly you will definitely improve your UK rankings.
I'm trying to weigh up whether it is worth the effort of changing it.
Only you can answer that question. It depends on how many pages are involved, the quality of your content and your site's profitability.
-
Yes thanks. That is not an option unfortunately because that is without a doubt my number 1 preferred route for international seo.
Did you know that you can also direct sub-folders in webmaster tools so that they are targeting specific countries?
-
If you are looking for a better way for localization (instead of /en /uk), i think it would be far better for your to purchase local cctld (.co.uk) instead... you can than mark it under your google webmaster tools, that the .co.uk is a content served for UK audiences... and it would be quite easy and much neater too
my 2 cents
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
-
International SEO question domain.com vs domain.com/us/ , domain.com/uk etc.
Hi Mozzers, I am expanding a website internationally. I own the .com for the domain. I need to accommodate multiple countries and I'm not sure if I should build a folder for /us/ for United States or just have the root domain .com OPTION 1:
International SEO | | jeremycabral
domain.com/page-url -- United States
domain.com/de/page-url -- Denmark
domain.com/jp/page-url -- Japan OPTION 2:
domain.com/us/page-url -- United States
domain.com/de/page-url -- Denmark
domain.com/jp/page-url -- Japan My concern with option 2 is there will be some dilution and we wouldn't get the full benefit of inbound links compared to Option 1 as we would have geo ip redirection in place to redirect users etc. to the relative sub-folder. Which option is better from an SEO perspective? Cheers, Jeremy0 -
Can we use similar images on multi regional websites?
I have couple of questions regarding multi regional websites. Right now, We're working on http://www.canvaschamp.com/ and planning to design new website for Australia region. I have read Google's official guidelines regarding duplicate content on following URL. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en Now, I have biggest question regarding images and videos. We're going to use all photo gallery images on Australia website. http://www.canvaschamp.com/canvas-prints We may use similar name, title tag, meta description for all images. So, Will it work for us? I want to save my website from duplicate content penalty. I am looking forward for any additional help which may help me to perform better on different region with similar images.
International SEO | | CommercePundit0 -
Proper use of HREF-LANG tag and Geotargeting.
I am working with a global company that has different country sites (these are distinguished via country subdomains - country.site.com). Upon looking at the Google Analytics data, I noticed that even though the different country geotargeting settings aren't set up correctly, we are reaching the right target market for each site. My hunch is because even though there is no geotargeting, the language for each country site is making the content relavant (this in combination with the subdomain). I have read through various resources here on MOZ, and noticed that the primary purpose of the href-lang tag is important if you have similar/identical pages that are targeted towards different countries/languages. If the pages are translations however, how important or impactful is it to set the geotargeting and href-lang tags for the other sites altogether?
International SEO | | marshseo0 -
Shall I automatically redirect international visitors from www.domain.com to e.g. www.domain.com/es? What is best SEO practice?
We have chosen the one domain approach with our international site having different language versions in subdirectory of main domain:
International SEO | | lcourse
www.domain.com/es
www.domain.com/it
etc. What is SEO-wise best practice for implementing international index pages. I see following options: entering www.domain.com will display without redirection the index page in language of user (e.g based on IP or browser) in www.domain.com
Example: www.booking.com entering www.domain.com will always show English index page.
Additionally one may display a message in the header if IP from other country with link to other language version.
Example: www.apple.com entering www.domain.com will always redirect automatically to country specific subdirectory based on IP
Example: www.samsung.com Any thoughts/suggestions on what may be best solution from a SEO perspective? For a user I believe options 1) & 3) are preferable.0 -
Ranking UK company in Google.com
Hi all, I have a UK client with a .com domain, hosted on a US server, but the physical business premises is based in the UK. Their product is a really great product and available for export to the US. I want to rank them higher in the US, more specifically Google.com. I've helped them rank very well organically in the UK (google.co.uk) for some great terms, however they rank almost nowhere in google.com (gl=us) for the same terms, for example: In Google.co.uk they rank #3 for the key-phrase.
International SEO | | seowoody
In Google.com they rank #90 for the same key-phrase. I've got them some great US focused links with PR coverage including MSN Cars, nydailynews.com etc. I just wondered if there was any one "golden ticket" for boosting US rankings? I've read that a physical business premises located in the US helps a lot. Can anyone confirm this and if so, would a rented PO box in the US help? The site has great social signals too, growing twitter following and many FB likes/shares etc. Any other tips/advice? Thanks in advance,
Cheers,
Woody 🙂0 -
Is having duplicated content on different domains a problem when using alternate tag, but no canonical?
We will be launching a couple of new language versions. I understand that ccTLD is mostly considered as best option, however I thought that to start with it might be better to launch the new language version first on a subdirectory of our established domain with strong backlink profile as it may rank much better until I can attract some strong links to new ccTLD. I would wait for the pages of new language versions to be indexed on the main domain and then after a month launch the same content paralell on the ccTLD setting up an alternate tag in the main domain pointing to the ccTLD. I would not setup any canonical tag. As I understand google would rank whatever of the 2 versions ranks higher. Should not cause duplicated content issues right?
International SEO | | lcourse
Any thoughts? EDIT:
For clarification. The language we are launching are mostly spoken in several countries. E.g. for Portuguese I would add in main domain an altnernate tag for Brazilian visitors to Brazilian ccTLD, but no alternate tag for Portuguese visitors. For Corean I would add in main domain an alternate tag for visitors in south corea, but not one for visitors in north corea.0 -
Global SEO - How quickly/aggressively should one expand into multiple countries?
SITUATION: Our client is a global company lacking the global presence, so naturally the idea is performing international/global SEO in each country. For benchmarking purposes, our plan is to focus on a select number of keywords (ie 8-15) for each country and begin link building within each respective country. All SEO effort (ie. link building) will be for sub-folders (ie. www.client.com/subfolder/) on the same top level domain. Note, each country may have multiple languages, so each language will be broken out as it's own unique SEO campaign with it's very own strategy and link building efforts. For example: Mexico has 2 languages (English & Spanish) and will be considered 2 separate campaigns. PROBLEM: The client wants to be extremely aggressive and perform SEO on 3 new countries every month. This amounts to 36 new countries/SEO campaigns per year. Assuming each country has 2 languages each, we are looking at 6 SEO campaigns per month, or 72 per year. Our concern is that since all SEO effort will be performed on the same top level domain, we may be growing too fast and the search engines may consider the addition of these new pages and links to be too 'spammy'. We'd love to hear some feedback or personal experience on what might be considered a "safe" or "healthy" expansion into different countries. Thanks!
International SEO | | ByteLaunch0 -
International Hub site: .uk vs domain vs subdomain
Financial company with 2 sites: 1- Mybrand.com for the US market.
International SEO | | FXDD
2- global.mybrand.com is the hub for international with selection for 10 languages: drop-down allows selecting between mybrand.jp, mybrand.fr, etc Now we have the opportunity to redesign the site from zero and I am exploring to get rid of the subdomain for the global site What would be your preference to use as the international hub? a) mybrand.co.uk: I have to use lawyers to get the URL from squatter b) mybrandGlobal.com : URL easy to get, and can be geo targeted using google webmaster tools. Cons: It might not rank as well as .co.uk in the UK, which is our biggest market c) global.mybrand.com-- pros: keep using it because it is aged and has some authority. Google might now see subdomains as part of TLD, thus making it a valid way to separate international from US .. Cons: SEO best practices advice to avoid subdomains because it might not pass full link value across domains. There is not really different content the subdomain, it is just the hub for international Thanks in advance for the help0