Geo-targeting a sub-folder that's had url's rewritten from a sub-domain
-
I have a client that's setting up a section of his site in a different language, and we're planning to geo-target those pages to that country. I have suggested a sub-folder solution as it's the most cost effective solution, and it will allow domain authority to flow into those pages.
His developer is indicating that they can only set this up as a sub-domain, for technical reasons, but they're suggesting they can rewrite the url's to appear as sub folder pages.
I'm wondering how this will work in terms of geo-targeting in Google Webmaster Tools. Do I geo-target the sub domain or the sub folder i.e. does Google only see urls or does it physically see those pages on the sub-domain?
It seems like it might be a messy solution. Would it be a better idea just to forget about the rewrites and live with the site being a sub domain?
Thanks,
-
Ok. Thanks for the advise, Ryan.
-
My first suggestion is to push further on the "developer" issue. As an SEO, it is important to have the ability to implement recommended changes as required. If the changes are not implemented for whatever reason, results are affected.
We all work very hard to achieve the best results for our clients. Two common reasons a client might offer for not implementing a change are "my software wont support the change" and "my developer wont support the change". This topic will likely arise again on other matters. Additionally, I recommend a direct line of communication between an SEO and developer when possible. Each party can gain a higher understanding and appreciation for the other, miscommunications can be minimized and it simply creates a better working environment.
With the above noted, your decision to move the subdomain into the main site is the commonly accepted best practice. You are consolidating your DA. While Google has made some recent changes with respect to subdomains, it is still the best practice to make the change you have recommended to your client.
If the URLs are properly rewritten at the server level, no one will even know the actual path of the files. Anyone who visits the URL will simply see the page with a 200 response (all ok) header code returned. You can and should test this change after it is implemented.
Robots.txt can be used to block access to the sub-domain if you wish.
-
Thanks Ryan.
I've no direct contact with the developer, so I can't answer those questions. I'm afraid I just have to work with what my client is telling me.
By what you're saying, and if done correctly, the pages would look to google as if they were in a folder on that domain e.g. website.com/language-site, and we would geo-target that folder, and not the sub domain?
Then we'd need to find a way to stop the search engines crawling the sub-domain. Would this be done in the robots.txt file?
Do you think it we'd be just better off using the sub-domain and forgetting about the rewrites. The main reason I'm advising him to go for a folder structure is because of the uncertainty of domain authority flowing to a sub-domain.
-
I firmly believe software and developers should enable site owners the freedom to make changes as they see fit. When a developer or software are not able to readily implement SEO best practices, it's time to look for alternatives.
Is the software being used a particular CMS or e-commerce solution which is in an earlier stage of development? How experienced is the developer?
If the URLs were rewritten (server-side) to provide the target pages with a normal header response code the process should work. My biggest concern is ensuring the sub-domain URLs are not crawled otherwise there would be a duplicate content issue.
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
-
Any practical examples of ranking 1 domain in multiple countries?
Hi, I've done a fair amount of research on international SEO including here on MOZ but was hoping some fellow Mozzers might have some practical examples of how they have got 1 domain to rank in multiple countries, ideally US & UK. Im possibly looking at getting a high authority domain which ranks great on US into the UK engines. I want to keep to the 1 domain to benefit from the high authority and for logistical reasons. Thanks in advance, Andy
International SEO | | AndyMacLean0 -
Other country TLD's for US product
We have a product ( Example: Car ) where all of the TLD's for North America (Example: Car.com, Car.net, etc) have been taken. I've found several for TLD's like .IT, .LA, .AG, etc. If I purchased those and launched sites under those TLD's in the US on servers here in the US and marketed the same as a North American TLD, do you see any issues with this regarding SEO challenges? Thanks All! Hugs, Natalie 🙂
International SEO | | okiedokie0 -
Help with .asia domain extension
hi there i m planning to buy a domain with .asia extension. I want to know ....values of these tlds regarding seo.did i chose wrong tlds?? purely targeting emd traffic. One of my site with .biz for a emd in "biz op" ranked less than 2 weeks ..now i have 200-300 traffic daily. i asked here because of i have no experience with .asia extension. 1.can i target the audience demographically with these .asia for u.s. , u.k .or brazil. 2. these extension can be good for seo ? can i ranked high in serp for low ocmpetition terms any suggestion or idea & tips for me??? thanks in advances.
International SEO | | ranktrack0 -
Multinational URLs
Hi I'm wondering if the following URL structure using subdirectories would be alright to use on a multinational site. I have local products only in the local language and english. I plan to use: /uk/ - UK product in English (geo target in GWT to UK, href lang="en") /fr/ - French product in French (would geo target this in GWT to France, and hreflang="fr-FR") /fr-en/ - French product in English (no geo-targeting, hreflang ="en") /de/ - German product in German (would geo target this in GWT to Germany, and hreflang="de-DE") /de-en/ - German product in English (no geo-targeting, hreflang ="en") /at-de/ - Austrian product in German (would geo target this in GWT to Austria, and hreflang="at-DE") /at-en/ - Austrian product in English (no geo-targeting, hreflang ="en") Does the name of the subfolder matter? I've tried to keep the URL's shorter, so german users in Germany would get just /de/ rather than /de-de/, and have made the english version of the content the more ugly URL as it's used much, much less. The URL structures aren't really consistent here (ie. uk and fr-en are for english content, but are different in URL format) but I'm wondering if this is an issue, or if the above would be fine. Thanks!
International SEO | | pikka0 -
How well does Google's crawlers understand foreign websites?
I speak 5 languages and therefore have the opportunity to do on-page SEO and content writing for 5 different cultures. This question to me has much to do with the way Google translator works. It doesn't, trust me! Which then makes me wonder how the web crawlers, which are designed with English in mind, can fairly and equally attribute the same ranking points to a foreign website. Since Google seems to use sematic search technology I'm wondering if foreign sites have it easier or not. Any ideas?
International SEO | | MassivePrime0 -
Am I doing this right? Same website, content and similar domains.
I have 5 sites with the same exact content. I have a separate webmastertool for each one and I have targeted them to each country on WebMastertools? Iam I missing something or did I do it right.Thankswww.abc.com (USA)www.abc.com.ar (argentina)www.abc.com.mx (mexico)www.abc.com.co (colombia)
International SEO | | M_80 -
Risks of Migrating tld's to sub folders
Hi Guys, I am thinking of migrating our .co.nz and our .co.uk websites into sub folders on our .com website (eg: .com/uk and .com/nz). Do you think this is a risky strategy in regards to our performance in the localised search engines or should the centralisation of all these websites and their link authority into the .com help us move up the rankings? We are thinking of doing this in the next week, we have some really good rankings for the local googles, however we also have plenty of phrases sitting just on page 2 and I was hoping this might help boost them onto page 1? Has anyone else had experience migrating tld sites to sub folders on a .com and if so what was your experience of the impact on search rankings in the local googles and the timeframe that these changes took to have an effect? Did you have any negative results?
International SEO | | ConradC0 -
Chop down a .com to local domains - Is it worth it?
I'm wondering what would be the best approach for further expanding the online presence of the business I work for. Let me start off with the resources at my disposal. We own visafirst.com and run the business for 7 years. All that time we had the domain online. There was a penalty back in 2005, I think (for hidden text). I've been dealing with the domain since 2007. In the last few years we got translations in French, German, Italian, some pages in Japanese, and recently we got it translated in Spanish. The translations don't hold all the products the English version has. We translate only products which we can offer to the targeted audience. So far, I use language folders /en/, /fr/, /de/ etc. I have the settings in Google's Webmaster Tools set to the most appropriate country (the one we want to attract customers from). We own a lot of local domains .co.uk, .ie, .fr .de, .es, .jp, etc. Currently we either use them for small projects, like AdWords (to improve CTR) or have them point to the .com version with canonical. I like nothing more than the idea of having the local domains appear in local search results, without that inflicting damage on the .com version. If I decide to go with the local domains and redirect (probably I will use canonical to avoid the redirect mess) the existing portions of the site to their relevant local domain - visafirst.com/fr/ to point to visafirst.fr etc., I'm afraid that I would take too much away from the domain in terms of content and backlinks. So, I'm faced with the following question - Should I risk it with the local domains where we have physical presence, or should I continue using the flagship domain. Also, would local domains improve the CTR a lot? I will test that with AdWords in the days to come, however it would be nice to know if someone has faced this before. Thank You, Svet Stefanov
International SEO | | Svetoslav1