International SEO Domain Structure

[WeAreContinuum]

Hi Guys,

I am wondering if anybody can point me to a recent trusted report or study on international domain name structure and SEO considerations.

I am looking to read up on the SEO considerations and recommendations for the different domain structures in particular using sub-directories i.e. domain.com/uk, domain.com/fr.

Kind regards,
Cian

[Shakur]

Hi there,

When organising your site infrastructure to manage multilingual versions of your site and adapt content for different country targets, there are three main hosting options:

• Root domain ccTLD’s (example.fr, example.co.uk,)
• Subdomains (fr.example.org)
• Subdirectories and subfolders (example.com/EN’, ‘example.com/EN-UK’ or ‘example.com/EN-US)

As each has unique pros and cons, the option you choose will depend largely on the size of your organisation, the locations of your likely target market, and of course your budget.

If you choose the best, most practical option, it will complement your other efforts and add up to a whole that boosts your immediate rankings and sets the foundation for a long-term international SEO strategy

We have an exceptional international seo checklist guide in moz that you can see here moz.com/blog/the-international-seo-checklist and if you want to extend this information about the domains will be very useful to read this one http://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-without-boarders-a-guide-to-international-seo-nick-paterman/60092/

Hope it helps you.

[GPainter]

Just to add Google's guidelines here-

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en

[AlexMcKee]

Good post. However be aware that "UK" is not the ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 country code for the United Kingdom - it's GB so en-GB for English speaking users in the United Kingdom.