E-Commerce site in 2 languages - Duplicate content or not?
-
How does Google view this?
Our current site works like:
www.domain.com/EN - English
www.domain.com/ES - SpanishAll products are the same, just different language and different URL for them - is this good or bad?
I thought of either
- Going with .co.uk or .com for "English" and a .es for "Spanish"
OR - Subdomaining it. www.es.domain.com and www.en.domain.com
Any advice appreciated!
- Going with .co.uk or .com for "English" and a .es for "Spanish"
-
If you just want the language covered Mark's hreflang, coupled with a subdomain or subdirectory, is the way to go. I tend to lean subdirectory in that case but I've not heard anyone make a slam dunk case for either.
-
That´s great - but if I want to target more than just the country but anyone who speaks English or Spanish - eg., not just UK or Spain for example?
Would it still be wise to do it?
thanks!
-
That indicates the language of the page - hreflang does better, in telling the search engines these pages are related, are not duplicate content, but are the same product and targeting searchers in different languages. This is how I recommend to clients today to configure their multilingual sites - this works for folder, subdomain, or ccTLD setups
-
We run a .com and a .ca site. I highly recommend the ccTLD domains because, as the video Tom linked said, it sends a strong signal as to which site is for which country. Additionally, you don't need to worry about duplicate content because, as Matt says in this video, Google does pick up the ccTLD and filter by the appropriate region so you don't need to do anything extra.
-
What about using name="Language" content="en"/> ?? or es as the case may be?
-
Guys - both of your answers are very helpful.
Our site is translated by humans native to spanish and english - however, our market reach is not just UK or Spain, but any english speaker or spanish speaker - there are so many different countries that speak both.
Thanks again!
-
With different languages, it's fine to target them to different subfolders on the same domain - this way, you get the strength of the domain helping out each of the subfolders, and link building for one can help the other.
I would recommend in this case implementing the hreflang tag, indicating to the search engines that these pages are translations of one another and are meant to target different languages.
With your site targeting languages and not countries, I wouldn't geotarget the subfolders via Webmaster Tools, and I wouldn't necessarily go down the country specific TLD root, .com, .co.uk, .fr, etc.
I think using the hreflang tag here is your best bet - you can learn more about it here - http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=189077
This should eliminate any duplicate content issues and help your site's performance in both languages.
Good luck,
Mark
-
Hi there,
I run an eCommerce website and we don't actually change the language (even though we do ship to all of Europe aswell as England).
Mainly because of what Matt Cutts teaches us in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyWx31GeQWY
Unless you're committed to changing all of your product listings to the language in which you aim to sell in (manually) then it really isn't worth it.
I mean, by using a .fr domain name you're localising your website to just France, so you will only appear in Google.fr. But Google may pick your website up as "spammy" if the content is just thrown into a translator from English to French.
It's a lot of hard work if you're up to the challenge, but personally I'd stay away from it and if you do choose to do it, make sure you have a translator who can rewrite the pages into native French and not just generated french.
Hope this helps!
Tom
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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.
Related Questions
-
Correct Hreflang & Canonical Tags for Multi-Regional Website English Language Only having URL Parameters
Dear friends, We have a multi-regional website in English language only having the country selector on the top of each page and it adds countrycode parameters on each url. Website is built in Magento 1.8 and having 1 store with multiple store views. There is no default store set in Magento as I discussed with developer. Content is same for all the countries and only currency is changed. In navigation there are urls without url parameters but when we change store from any page it add parameters in the url for same page hence there are total 7 URLs. 6 URLs for each page (with country parameters) and 1 master url (without parameters) and making content duplicity. We have implemented hreflang tags on each page with url parameters but for canonical we have implemented master page url as per navigation without url parameters Example on this page. I think this is correct for master page but we should use URL parameters in canonical tags for each counry url too and there should be only 1 canonical tag on each country page url. Currently all the country urls are having master page canoncial tag as per the example. Please correct me if I am wrong and **in this case what has to be done for master page? **as google is indexing the pages without parameters too. We are also using GEOIP redirection for each store with country IP detection and for rest of the countries which are not listed on the website we are redirecting to USA store. Earlier it was 301 but we changed it to 302. Hreflang tags are showing errors in SEMRush due to redirection but in GWT it's OK for some pages it's showing no return tags only. Should I use **x-default tags for hreflang and country selector only on home page like this or should I remove the redirection? **However some of the website like this using redirection but header check tool doesn't show the redirection for this and for our website it shows 302 redirection. Sorry for the long post but looking for your support, please.
International SEO | | spjain810 -
GSC is not showing URLs in Regional Language Characters in Search Analytics
Hi, We have a regional language sub-domain, which has the URI in the regional language characters (Hindi). While looking at the Search Analytics data in GSC, we get all the URLs in ASCII format. To resolve this issue, we even encoded the characters in UTF-8, by adding the following in the of the page: However, we are still getting illegible URLs in search console. It would be really great if someone could help me out with this issue. Thanks!
International SEO | | Starcom_Search0 -
What's the Best Strategy for Multiregional Targeting for Single Language?
I have a service based client who is based in the US but wants to expand to audiences in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Currently, all the content is in American English with international targeting in Google Search Console set to the US. I know that is going to have to change, but I'm unsure of the best strategy. Right now there are a few basic strategies in my head. Remove International Targeting in GSC and let her rip Remove International Targeting in GSC, install copies of the site on subfolders /au/, /ca/, and /uk/, add hreflang tags, and add canonicals pointing back to original Remove International Targeting in GSC, install copies of the site on subfolders /au/, /ca/, and /uk/, add hreflang tags, and risk duplicate content Have independent writers overcharge for English translations into different dialects and add hreflang tags It's hard to come up with a perfect solution for content differentiation by region in order to implement hreflang tags with a region (en-au, en-ca, en-gb). Remove International Targeting in GSC and let her rip This one is pretty simple. However, I am completely unsure of its effectiveness. Remove International Targeting in GSC, install copies of the site on subfolders /au/, /ca/, and /uk/, add hreflang tags, and add canonicals pointing back to original The point of adding canonicals is to avoid the duplicate content, but then my new subfolders do not get indexed. I'm unsure of what type of exposure these URLs would receive or how they would be valuable. Remove International Targeting in GSC, install copies of the site on subfolders /au/, /ca/, and /uk/, add hreflang tags, and risk duplicate content High risk of a penalty with duplicate content, but my targeting will be the most efficient. Have independent writers overcharge for English translations into different dialects and add hreflang tags This is probably the safest bet, takes the longest, and costs the most money. However, how different will the content actually be if I change truck to lorry, trunk to boot, and optimization to optimisation? Maybe I'm missing something, but this conundrum seems extremely difficult. Weighing the cost, time, and possible result is challenging. Hit me with your best answer and thanks for taking a look at someone else's problem.
International SEO | | ccox12 -
Duplicate content across English-speaking ccTLDs
Morning, If a brand offering pretty the same products/services has 4 English-speaking ccTLDs (.com, .co.uk, .com.au and .co.nz), what are the best practices when thinking about SEO and content? In an ideal world, all content should be totally unique, but when the products/services offered across every ccTLD are the same, this may prove tricky. Am I right in thinking that duplicate content across ccTLDs is tolerated by Google as they know you're targeting specific countries? Cheers!
International SEO | | PeaSoupDigital0 -
2 Domains, 2 Languages, but 1 WP Install?
I've got a case who wants to have one english website at one domain targeting Hawaii/ USA (bodywellnesshawaii.com) and a spanish speaking one (bodywellnesschile.cl) targeting Chile/ South America. What's the best way to go about this? Just clone the current bodywellnesshawaii.com site, translate it and have it live on a separate WP install? OR Is there a way in which we can use just one WP install with multi language and have each language live on separate domains? Not sure whether that's even possible, but it would be easier to add content/ maintain... Either one better for SEO? Thanks in advance.
International SEO | | stephanwb0 -
Subdomains or subfolders for language specific sites?
We're launching an .org.hk site with English and Traditional Chinese variants. As the local population speaks both languages we would prefer not to have separate domains and are deciding between subdomains and subfolders. We're aware of the reasons behind generally preferring folders, but many people, including moz.com, suggest preferring subfolders to subdomains with the notable exception of language-specific sites. Does this mean subdomains should be preferred for language specific sites, or just that they are okay? I can't find any rationale to this other than administrative simplification (e.g. easier to set up different analytics / hosting), which in our case is not an issue. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
International SEO | | SOS_Children0 -
Have I over-optimized (on-site optimization using SEOMoz tool)?
Hey all, Quite new to SEO although I tried to educate myself as much as I could. I just spent (really) a lot of time doing the onsite optimization of a few key pages of a website in 3 languages (in which I'm more or less conversational - with the help of Google Translate). I know content should not be misleading and feel natural. I think the result is natural but I'm not sure... I optimized as much as I could so as to reach an "A" grade as per SEOMoz tool for each page, for 1-4 keywords per page. I feel sometimes I stretched a bit, but not sure what "stretching" is given my lack of experience. So I was wondering if some of you could tell me what they thought and if there was some obvious don'ts in my work. Here are a few key pages I have optimized: The homepage: http://goo.gl/00Fti The search results page: http://goo.gl/b1fxE The property page: http://goo.gl/t2GdY The destinations page: http://goo.gl/0Kc0l Note that the other versions of the page - Italian & Spanish - may be more awkward, so I welcome your opinions for these as well (dropdown on top of the page to change the language). Thanks!!
International SEO | | Philoups0 -
Am I doing this right? Same website, content and similar domains.
I have 5 sites with the same exact content. I have a separate webmastertool for each one and I have targeted them to each country on WebMastertools? Iam I missing something or did I do it right.Thankswww.abc.com (USA)www.abc.com.ar (argentina)www.abc.com.mx (mexico)www.abc.com.co (colombia)
International SEO | | M_80