Multi-Store SEO

[moon-boots]

I am currently developing a website which will have a multi-store function, i.e. one for US & ROW customers and one for UK & EU customers. The domain names will be along the lines of:

Original domain: www.website.com

UK & EU domain: eu.website.com

US & ROW domain: us.website.com

When a customer visits the website they will be redirected to one or the other depending on their location. Can anyone see any problems which this may cause in respect to SEO? I know there may be a duplicate content issue here also, how should I best deal with this?

[moon-boots]

No suggestions on this one?

[KristinaKledzik]

Hey there,

Sorry for the silence!

Okay, a few things here:

1. Yeah, you're going to run into duplicate content issues, since you're using English on all sites.

• You only need www.website.com for the US. Don't create us.website.com.
• For the UK and EU domain, localize with different currency, standard shipping, and legal information. (What's your plan, since the UK and EU use different currencies, to have them on the same site section?)
• If you have any content that's universal, like a blog post, keep that part of the site on the www.website.com section and don't duplicate it on the UK / EU site (unless you translate it).

3. If at all possible, don't use subdomains for different countries. Subdomains split your domain value (which weakens your site) and also makes it clear that you're not a truly localized site, since you're using a .com instead of the right ccTLD for the country (not bad for SEO, but not great for click through rates). Better options are:

• Get the ccTLD for each country you're operating in. This is much more expensive, but better for localizing long term.
• Put each site section on a subdirectory, like www.website.com/uk/

5. Link between the different country versions of your site, so you can be sure Googlebot will find it.

Moz has got a good article on this I recommend:https://moz.com/learn/seo/international-seo

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions,

Kristina