Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research
      Moz Pro

      Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research

      Try it free!
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. International SEO
    4. Best domain for spanish language site targeting ALL spanish territories?

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Best domain for spanish language site targeting ALL spanish territories?

    International SEO
    2
    3
    2680
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • KevinDunne
      KevinDunne last edited by

      hi, we're have a strong .com domain and are looking to launch a site for spanish speakers (ie latin america + spain).

      we already have various subdirectories for some foreign language sites (eg. ourdomain.co.uk, us.ourdomain.com, ca.ourdomain.com, ourdomainchina.com, ourdomainindia.com etc)

      we already have a B2B site ourdomain.com-es which will remain the same.

      I'm thinking best practice would be to launch translated copy for the following:

      ourdomain.com/es

      ourdomain.com/cl

      ourdomain.com/mx

      ourdomain.com/pt etc etc

      firstly is this the best option?

      secondly, i'm really interested to hear whether there is a less time/resource intensive route that would give us visibility in ALL spanish speaking territories?

      Also - if we go with just one of the above (eg ourdomain.com/cl) how likely are we to get traction in other spanish speaking territories?

      any help much appreciated!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • KevinDunne
        KevinDunne last edited by

        Thanks so much Gianluca, v comprehensive.

        I've decided to go for ourdomain.com/es/ as a solution for spanish speakers and i'll be sure to use rel=”alternate”hreflang=”x”.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • gfiorelli1
          gfiorelli1 last edited by

          Ok... let's try to answer to all your questions :).

          Subdomain, subdirectories or country level domain names?

          For sure I would avoid the subdomain option. Even though you can geo target a subdomain in GWT, it has not the same strenght of a country level domain name and, from a link building point of view, it doesn't help creating a larger link profile and it doesn't take any advantage from the root domain backlinks as the subfolder option.

          So you have to choose between country level domain names or subcarpet. The choice, more than to SEO factors, depends on the overall business model you have in mind. If the site is - for instance - for a web based service, maybe the subcarpet is the best solution. If the site should reflect a strong presence in the targeted countries, therefore the best choice is a country level domain name.

          Said that, both have advantages and defects:

          1. Country level domain names:
            1. Google tends to prize these kinds of domain in the regional Google;
            2. People is used to look for "national" site with its country level domain name
            3. The worst defect is that you have to build as many link building and inbound marketing campaign as the country that are targeted, because they all start with an empty link profile.
          2. Subcarpets
            1. You can geo target subcarpet in GWT
            2. Any geo targeted subcarpet take advantages of all the domain name link profile. Let's say. If your domain main version obtain a link from BBC, that links is partly benefitting also the other countries based subcarpet
            3. Subcarpets perform not so well as country level domain names in the regional Googles.

          In both option you would remember to implement the use of rel alternate hreflang tag, in order to not having, for instance, the Chile version outranking the Peruan one, or - worst - to have Google considering all those spanish versions as duplicates.

          There is a less time/resource intensive route that would give us visibility in ALL spanish speaking territories?

          Yes... a good example is the one presented by Apple.com. In fact, it offers www.apple.com /la/ (latin america) subcarpet. They solve the "store" issue addressing the users to its distributors online shops or address.

          In the case you have an eCommerce, than you would need to configure all the currencies and prize calculator in order to allow your users to configure the payments using theirs.

          Said that, you would need to commit a very strong and "multi-country" link building and inbound marketing campaign in order to rank in every single regional Google with this solution.

          Also - if we go with just one of the above (eg ourdomain.com/cl) how likely are we to get traction in other spanish speaking territories?

          Theoretically it can happen. But it is mostly an exception, and - sincerely - not very loved by users.

          If I look for a content in spanish and I live in Spain (as I do), I would prefer to click on .es or /es/ subcarpet site rather than a /cl/ one of .cl domain name, because I would not consider these latter option useful for my needs.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • 1 / 1
          • First post
            Last post

          Got a burning SEO question?

          Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


          Start my free trial


          Browse Questions

          Explore more categories

          • Moz Tools

            Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

          • SEO Tactics

            Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

          • Community

            Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

          • Digital Marketing

            Chat about tactics outside of SEO

          • Research & Trends

            Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

          • Support

            Connect on product support and feature requests.

          • See all categories

          Related Questions

          • vhubert

            Changing the language of the website meta title and description?

            Hello, Moz community! I'm planning to change the language of my website title and description from English to rank better for queries on the local language. Do you think this would increase the local language ranking? And in case I need to switch back to English, let's say in 2021, would it be difficult to regain the current rankings? Please let me know if you have any thoughts on this. Thank you!

            International SEO | | vhubert
            2
          • Arropa

            Spanish word as English domain name

            hi anyine  any issues with using Spanish, and other non English words, as domain names when trying to rank in Google uk. We launched a number of websites a while back but finding it hard to get much traction in Google uk. We are getting a reasonable number of impressions but cannot seem to get very high in the rankings. All the names are foreign words for their service. Our homeware website, for example, uses the basque word for furniture as its name. other than potential branding issues of having domains people might struggle to spell, is there any serp issues we would face with these names. thanks

            International SEO | | Arropa
            0
          • peeveezee

            Where is it appropriate to use a .eu domain?

            My client, a UK company, has a .eu domain and want to rank primarily in the UK but also worldwide, is a .eu domain appropriate?

            International SEO | | peeveezee
            0
          • romh

            Country subfolders showing as sitelinks in Google, country targeting for home page no longer working

            Hi There, Just wondering if you can help. Our site has 3 region versions (General .com, /ie/ for Ireland and /gb/ for UK), each submitted to Google Webmaster Tools as seperate sites with hreflang tags in the head section of all pages.  Google was showing the correct results for a few weeks, but I resubmitted the home pages with slight text changes last week and something strange happened, though it may have been coincidental timing. When we search for the brand name in google.ie or google.co.uk, the .com now shows as the main site, where the sitelinks still show the correct country versions.  However, the country subdirectories are now appearing as sitelinks, which is likely causing the problem.  I have demoted these on GWT, but unsure as to whether that will work and it seems to take a while for sitelink demotion to work. Has anyone had anything similar happen?  I thought perhaps it was a markup issue breaking the head section so that Google can no longer see the hreflangs pointing to each other as alternates.  I checked the source code in w3 validator and it doesn't show any errors.  Anyway, any help would be much appreciated - and thanks to anyone who gets back, it's a tricky type of issue to troubleshoot. Thanks, Ro

            International SEO | | romh
            0
          • ecommercebc

            Language Usage for SEO in Hong Kong

            Hi guys, I was wondering if you could help me with an SEO query for language usage in Hong Kong? Specifically, I'm aware that in mainland China it's preferred to use simplified Chinese. However, in Hong Kong, if you want to rank well in Google and Yahoo! HK, should you be use traditional or simplified Chinese in your web content? Any guidance would be much appreciated.

            International SEO | | ecommercebc
            0
          • IMM

            Spanglish? Picking keywords for an English website with a Spanish speaking search demographic

            I'm putting together meta data for an English website whose target search demographic is the Hispanic market. The website has a Spanish translation as well. When I entered the website into the Google Adwords keyword tool to begin doing keyword research, all keywords returned to me were in Spanish. I am unsure if the meta data keywords I'm preparing for the page should be in Spanish despite the fact that I am preparing the meta data for the English version. Moreover, should there be any mixed Spanish English (Spanglish?) keywords as users might be searching under the English search but in Spanish or with queries that are partially in Spanish?

            International SEO | | IMM
            0
          • KaneJamison

            Correct Hreflang & Canonical Implementation for Multilingual Site

            OK, 2 primary questions for a multilingual site. This specific site has 2 language so I'll use that for the examples. 1 - Self-Referencing Hreflang Tag Necessary? The first is regarding the correct implementation of hreflang, and whether or not I should have a self-referencing hreflang tag. In other words, if I am looking at the source code for http://www.example.com/es/ (our Spanish subfolder), I am uncertain whether the source code should contain the second line below: Obviously the Spanish version should reference the English version, but does it need to reference itself? I have seen both versions implemented, with seemingly good results, but I want to know the best practice if it exists. 2 - Canonical of Current Language or Default Language? The second questions is regarding which canonical to use on the secondary language pages. I am aware of the update to the Google Webmaster Guidelines recently that state not to use canonical, but they say not to do it because everyone was messing it up, not because it shouldn't be done. So, in other words, if I am looking at the source code for http://www.example.com/es/ (our Spanish subfolder), which of the two following canonicals is correct? OR For this question, you can assume that (A) the English version of the site is our default and (B) the content is identical. Thanks guys, feel free to ask any qualifiers you think are relevant.

            International SEO | | KaneJamison
            1
          • MarkChambers

            Domain strategy for UK and USA

            Hi Everyone, We have example.org.uk with 20K inbound links. We want to target the US as well as the UK. I would be interested to hear what approaches are best for SEO. For example is it better to keep our current domain and have subdirectories for USA for example. Or would it be better to register example.org and then use subdirectories. Or is it better to use different domains for each country? Any help with this much appreciated. Cheers

            International SEO | | MarkChambers
            0

          Get started with Moz Pro!

          Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

          Start my free trial
          Products
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Local
          • Moz API
          • Moz Data
          • STAT
          • Product Updates
          Moz Solutions
          • SMB Solutions
          • Agency Solutions
          • Enterprise Solutions
          • Digital Marketers
          Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Authority Checker
          • Link Explorer
          • Keyword Explorer
          • Competitive Research
          • Brand Authority Checker
          • Local Citation Checker
          • MozBar Extension
          • MozCast
          Resources
          • Blog
          • SEO Learning Center
          • Help Hub
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO
          • How-to Guides
          • Moz Academy
          • API Docs
          About Moz
          • About
          • Team
          • Careers
          • Contact
          Why Moz
          • Case Studies
          • Testimonials
          Get Involved
          • Become an Affiliate
          • MozCon
          • Webinars
          • Practical Marketer Series
          • MozPod
          Connect with us

          Contact the Help team

          Join our newsletter
          Moz logo
          © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
          • Accessibility
          • Terms of Use
          • Privacy

          Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.