Country/Language combination in subdirectory URL
-
Hello,
We are a multi country/multi lingual (English, Arabic) website. We are following a subdirectory structure to separate and geotarget the country/language combinations.
Currently our english and arabic urls are the same:
For UAE: example.com/ae (English Site)
For Saudi Arabic: example.com/sa (Saudi Arabia)
We want to separate the English and Arabic language URLs and I wanted to know if there is any preference as to which kind of URL structure we should go with :
example.com/ae-en (Country-Language)
example.com/en-ae (Language-Country)
example.com/ae/en (Country/Language)
Is there any logic to deciding how to structure the language/country combinations or is is entirely a matter of personal preference.
Thanks!
-
Hi Andy,
thanks for your help. Sorry I should I have been more clear with my question- We basically have the following sites set up as subdirectories:
example.com/ae (United Arab Emirates)
example.com/sa (Saudi Arabia)
example.com (International - not country specific)
ae, sa, om, qa, bh are country identifiers
language identifies are "en" for english and "ar" for arabic. (The English and Arabic URL for each country is currently the same)
Using these identifiers above should I make the country website URLs as follows ?:
example.com/ae-en (UAE English)
example.com/ae-ar(UAE Arabic)
example.com/sa-en(Saudi Arabia English)
example.com/sa-ar(Saudi Arabia Arabic)
... etc for the country sites
and example.com for the (International site)
example.com/ar for the (International Arabic Site)
-
Andy is spot on.
-
Hi Bejan,
Your chosen language should be sat at the primary domain.
For example, if your are a Saudi based site that wants Arabic as the primary language, this shouldn't be sat in an identifier. Ideally, you want to have a primary site language as this is how most will do it.
www.example.com (Arabic Language)
www.example.com/en/ (English Version)Or...
www.example.com (English Language)
www.example.com/ae/ (Arabic Version)You need to also remember to set these correctly by using HREFLANG. This is what will tell Google which languages should be associated to which pages. Moz have a couple of very useful pages on this here and here.
I hope this helps a little.
-Andy
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
-
What's the current best practice for URL structure?
We’re really confused about the current best practice of URL structure. For example what would anyone advise to rank for luxury hotel rooms? name.com/luxury-hotel-rooms/
Local Website Optimization | | SolveWebMedia
name.com/hotel/luxury-hotel-rooms/
name.com/hotel/luxury-rooms/
name.com/hotel/luxury/
name.com/luxury-rooms/ Or do we add location? name.com/luxury-hotel-rooms-location/
name.com/hotel/luxury-hotel-rooms-location/ name.com/hotel/luxury-rooms-location/ They also do cottages name.com/cottages/sea-view-holiday-cottages/0 -
Getting the Proper CCTLDs & Subdomains to Rank in the Proper Countries
We seem to be having a really difficult time getting Google to do what we want in regards to getting proper domains indexed in the proper countries. In regards to English language, we tend to see a tremendous amount of crossover between .com, .in, and .co.uk. And yes international targeting is put in place. For example, both our .com and co.uk websites are in english and when someone enters a search query for one of our particular products, the .com website shows up to users in the UK. The countries with the hardest time are as follows and typically find them competing primarily with .com, but others can interlope as well. **All primarily in English: ** Canada UK India Australia Any ideas on how we can get this aligned correctly to where we can get the proper CCTLD to show up in the correct country instead of the .com?
Local Website Optimization | | GregLB0 -
What's the best international URL strategy for my non-profit?
Hi, I have a non-profit organization that advocates for mental health education and treatment. We are considering creating regional chapters of the non-profit in specific countries - France, UK, Russia, etc. What's the best long-term foundation for global organic growth? Should we simply internationalize our content (.org/uk/)? Or create a custom site for each ccTLD (.org.uk, etc.? Since it's an educational site, the content for each country would not be particularly unique, apart from: Language (regional English nuance for UK and AUS, or other languages altogether) Expert videos and potentially supporting articles (i.e., hosting videos and a supporting article for a UK Doctor versus a US Doctor) Offering some regional context when it comes to treatment options, or navigating school, work, etc. Any thoughts would be much appreciated! Thanks! Aaron
Local Website Optimization | | RSR1 -
Do you use HREF lang tags when each page that is localised only exists in that language?
Hi, I have 2 questions I am seeking an answer for. We have a home page in english GB, we then also have products which are specifically served in US. For these pages where the phone number is american, the spelling is american, the address is american, do we need to implement href lang tags? The page isn't a version of another page in english, the page is only in the native language.Secondly, is it recommended to create a second home page and then localise that page for US users?I'd be really greatful if anyone has any pointers as googles forum doesn't explain best practice for this case (as far as I can tell).Many thanks
Local Website Optimization | | Adam_PirateStudios0 -
Best practice for local keyword ranking in URLs
Hi, I have a large artificial grass website with many franchise location landing pages. At the moment i have most of the landing page URLs like this www.domainname.com/uk/city/ My TLD does not contain the keyword "artificial grass" so should I follow the location with the keywords /city-artificial-grass/ or is Google pretty savvy these days and will it know that I am an artificial grass company? I'm after the best recommendations for this if possible. Thanks
Local Website Optimization | | Easigrass0 -
Do I need to change my country og:locale to en_AE
Hi MOZ, I have a site that is aimed at the English speaking market of the United Arab Emirates. The language tag is currently set to lang="en-GB" and the og:locale also set to en_GB. The domain is a .com and aimed at the whole world. Should I be trying to target en-AE and en_AE for these tags instead of GB?
Local Website Optimization | | SeoSheikh0 -
Schema training/resources for local SEO?
I am currently in the process of apply schema for dozens of clients (many are large retailers). Although I am not a developer, I do know the basics of schematic markup & structured data. I do work with a development team and I'm trying to provide them with schema application best practices. Obviously there are many good articles/blog posts out there about schema. However I'm looking for a more substantial training course, webinar or resource website about schema application. Does anybody have any good recommendations?
Local Website Optimization | | RosemaryB0 -
How to approach SEO for a national website that has multiple chapter/location websites all under different URLs
We are currently working with a client who has one national site - let's call it CompanyName.net, and multiple, independent chapter sites listed under different URLs that are structured, for example, as CompanyNamechicago.org, and sometimes specific to neighborhoods, as in CompanyNamechicago.org/lakeview.org. The national umbrella site is .net, while all others are .orgs. These are not subdomains or subfolders, as far as we can tell. You can use a search function on the .net site to find a location near you and click to that specific local website. They are looking for help optimizing and increasing traffic to certain landing pages on the .net site...but similar landing pages also exist on a local level, which appear to be competing with the national site. (Example: there is a landing page on the national .net umbrella site for a "dog safety" campaign they are doing, but also that campaign has led to a landing page created independently on the local CompanyNameChicago.org website, which seems to get higher ranking due to a user looking for this info while located in Chicago.) We are wondering if our hands are tied here since they appear to be competing for traffic with all their localized sites, or if there are best practices to handle a situation like this. Thanks!
Local Website Optimization | | timfrick0