International SEO Sub folder Structure

[SmiffysUK]

Hi

Could anyone offer some advice on the best way to structure sub folders on a website that we are launching worldwide.

We are a UK based business and currently run a UK site on www.website.com and we are planning on launching into Europe using a sub folder structure.

We will use /de, /fr, /es for the new countries that are coming on board but the question is should the UK site url be:

www.website.com or www.website.com/uk

As have an established web presence in the UK I'm thinking it should remain as www.wewbsite.com but are there any advantages / disadvantages to changing it to .com/uk

Many Thanks

[robmarsden]

Hi

If the UK website is already well-established on www.website.com then do not risk moving this to a .com/uk sub-folder. There will be no additional benefit from moving it onto the sub-folder, yet you could risk losing some organic search visibility through the redirection process.

There would be no issue for Google understanding your site structure if you go along with your plan:

www.example.com (UK)
www.example.com/fr (France)
www.example.com/de (Germany)
and so on...

We recently hosted a webinar detailing many of the considerations you should take into account when launching internationally - https://www.searchlaboratory.com/2016/10/technical-seo-for-international-markets-webinar-video/. I hope you find that information useful.

Good luck with the launch!

[Marcus_Miller]

I second this. You can geo locate the site root for UK and then geo locate the sub directories for your international audience.

Good luck.

[SmiffysUK]

Thanks Jimmy. That's what I was thinking but just wanted a sanity check.

Will check out the webinar

Jason

[Tabassum]

You can do so, Good luck for your new lauch.

@jimmy cleared at first instance.