Doubt of multi country/language site

[SeoExpertos]

Hi !

We are building a site that is going to be available in some countrys with the same language (spanish), and we have some doubts about whih is the best way to do it.

Option 1)  Subdomains: Example; españa.mydomain.com , mexico.mydomain.com (the problem here is that there are some problems with linkbuilding with subdomains)

Option 2) Language folders: Example; mydomain.com/es/es  mydomain.com/es/mx (the problem here is that the prestige of the category in the url is going to be in 3rd position, example: mydomain.com/es/es/category and is not recommended for SEO)

Option 3) Country domains Example; mydomain.es<a></a> mydomain.mx (the link building is going to be much more, cause we have to multipliate the links that we need ffor being in a good position with the diferent domains of each country)

I am not sure of which one is the best option, what do you think?

The only thing I am sure is to use te TAG: rel="alternate" hreflang="x" for not having duplicate content, because index and categories are going to be the same, the only thing that is going to change is the products of each country.

Looking forward to your suggestions!

Thanks, Regards

Exequiel

[irvingw]

option 2 is best. you're worried that the content is a few folders deep? Don't be, just provide a clear path to get to those pages.

as far as duplicate content goes, if you are geotargeting each section  you're fine

Option 2) Language folders: Example; mydomain.com/es/es  mydomain.com/es/mx (the problem here is that the prestige of the category in the url is going to be in 3rd position, example: mydomain.com/es/es/category and is not recommended for SEO)

[Paul78]

Hi Exequiel,

I had be running with a .co.uk for years and we decided to introduce a .ie website both English Language, and I went for option 3, correctly geotargeting both websites correctly.

For the first few months the .ie website began to rank extremely well, now there seems to be some issues with the .co.uk website, some of the keywords I was ranking well for top5 for highly competitive keywords have vanished, this is not because of the Google Penguin update it's because Google has messed it up, so I have needed to go with TAG: rel="alternate" hreflang="x" on both websites, however it's still not solved the problem, I think I will need to go for canonical on the .ie website, meaning keywords ranking well in Google.ie will fall away.

Not sure if the above helps.

[ZephSnapp]

Hello Exquiel,

The truth is that each way of doing this has different advantages and disadvantages.  I tend to agree that for you Option 2 is the best, but this blog post by Sebastian Aroca lays out the differences very well:

http://www.hispanicmarketadvisors.com/blog/spanish-seo-domain-per-language-subdomains-or-language-folders

Hopefully this will help you make the best decision for your company.

[gfiorelli1]

If yo want to use the subfolder version, it is perfectly possible and it is a good idea because all the links built for all the countries' subfolder are going to benefit all the other subfolders.

But be sure to do these things:

1. In GWT geotarget every subfolder to its corresponding country doing so: once you’ve added your main site (e.g. domain.com) and verified it in Webmaster Tools, simply register a new site in the same account – but set the new site as domain.com/pe (or whichever your root subfolder is named). You can use that account to geo-target to Peru – the option is in ‘settings’ in the left-hand panel. You can repeat the same process for as many folders as you want to geo-target.
2. About the Information Arquitecture, I don't like what you plan to do, as you are creating an uselless level. Instead do this:
   1. domain.com (your main country market)
   2. domain.com/es-mx/ (Mexico)
   3. domain.com/es-pe/ (Peru)
   4. domain.com/es-ar/ (Argentina)
3. Use the rel alternate hreflang="x". Be aware to use the canonical only if really the content is identical. I suggest you to read this post by DejanSEO about the use or not of the rel canonical in conjuntion with the rel alternate hreflang > dejanseo.com.au/canonical-vs-hreflang/
4. Remember all the classic ToDos of international SEO (currencies, phone numbers, addresses, local flavours of the language... as you know that Spanish in Argentina is not exactly the same to the one spoken in Mexico...)
5. Remember to create sub-link building campaigns for any of the countries you are targeting, in order to give to any of your country subfolders.