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  4. Is having my homepage on a subfolder harmful?

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Is having my homepage on a subfolder harmful?

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  • NielsDE
    NielsDE last edited by Jun 11, 2019, 5:00 PM

    Hi guys,

    I am the webmaster of the following two websites:

    www.gpblog.com/nl
    www.gpblog.com/en

    The first URL is the Dutch version of GPBlog, the second URL is the UK version of GPblog. Whenever a person visits www.gpblog.com he gets redirected to either the Dutch version or the UK version based on his location.

    My question is: is it harmful to have 1. your homepage on a subfolder and 2. is it harmful to run two different languages on one domain using this technique?

    Thank you in advance!

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
    • effectdigital
      effectdigital last edited by Jun 13, 2019, 7:14 AM Jun 13, 2019, 7:14 AM

      I tend to use the base domain as the site's 'home' language (e.g: if the blog was first conceived in the UK and the authors live in the UK, then I'd use "/" as en-GB). I only create sub-folders for the 'additional' languages (e.g: "/nl", "/de", "/fr" etc)

      Even 301 redirects can dilute SEO authority a little (or a lot, under the wrong circumstances). Since lots of webmasters and editors will just 'lazy-link' to the base domain (or because it makes the link look cleaner / more legit within their content) I'd have your primary language deployment at the base domain, then all the rest in sub-folders

      This is my go-to approach and to be honest it's never failed me yet

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • ClaytonJ
        ClaytonJ last edited by Jun 12, 2019, 6:35 AM Jun 11, 2019, 8:48 PM

        Hi

        It may not impact - but am not a fan of that structure, it could get complicated easy for google and for scaling.

        Would recommend:-

        www.gpblog.com/en-nl/

        www.gpblog.com/nl-nl/

        www.gpblog.com/en-uk/

        Check out https://www.disneylandparis.com/nl-nl/ etc.  hopelessly slow...

        Regards

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • jasongmcmahon
          jasongmcmahon last edited by Jun 12, 2019, 6:35 AM Jun 11, 2019, 7:41 PM

          Personally, I don't see why the folder structure would negatively affect your SEO. I recommend that you use the   tag to cleanly denote what is in English & whats in Dutch.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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