Multi Language / target market site

[RodneyRiley]

What is the best way to deal with multiple languages and multiple target markets? Is it better to use directories or sub-domains:

English.domain.com

Portuguese.domain.com

Or

Domain.com

Domain.com/Portuguese

Also should I use language meta tags to help the different language versions rank in different geographic areas e.g.

Are there any examples of where this has been done well?

[Keszi]

Hi Rodney,

The best... Well I would say to use dedicated ccTLD for each of the target zones.

Still, if you want to go for one domain, then I would go for sub-folders (this is how we geo-target).

As fair as I know, using sub-domains is less stronger from SEO point of view, you can transfer more "juice" to sub-folders than to sub-domains.

I hope it helped,

Istvan

[wojkwasi]

Go subfolders over subdomains if they are your options...

Have a look at apple.com - e.g.

• http://www.apple.com/pt/
• http://www.apple.com/jp/
• http://www.apple.com/au/

[RobertFisher]

This seems to be the question of the day. It was answered well by Rand about a year ago in this White Board Friday

As to directories or subdomains, etc. this answers in variables as opposed to do this or do that. You should be able to decide after reading or watching.

As to language meta tags, yes you want to use them and you want to target the country in your WMT as well. Especially with language variants like US vs. UK.

Best

[Keszi]

I would say... Best Answer!

Great job Robert