This Ask an SEO question comes from Dan in Melbourne, who writes:
“What is the best site structure for a content/news based site that is both international and country specific?
For example, you want to share some content to the US, UK, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore, but then want to share some separate content to the UK or Australia.
Is it better to use the main domain level site (.com) for global content and then use subdirectories (.com/au/ or .com/gb/) for specific countries?
Do you also have separate homepages for each country? “
Hey Dan, the good thing about this question is that there really are no wrong answers.
While an international-based website can be confusing and expensive to implement, you’re usually free to do it as you feel best.
Occam’s Razor When it comes to SEO, it’s used more than we think.
So yes, to answer your question, I think this is the easiest way, although it depends on the type of content you make.
For example, let’s say you’re uploading an English-language international news story that will be read around the world.
In this case, having a generic top-level domain (gTLD) would be the best way to have a subdirectory for each individual country you wish to target.
However, if you want to Create localized content And appealing to specific audiences in different countries, then there are benefits to using ccTLDs and subdomains, I think it’s worth discussing.
Which URL structure is right for me?
Ultimately, I think there are two options that work best for your website, so it’s up to you to choose the one that works best for your news organization.
gTLDs with country-specific subdirectories
If you use a mix of international and localized content, investing in a top-level domain with different country subdirectories will be the easiest option.
Each country-specific landing page can have its own unique landing page with limited navigation that handles content specific to that country, such as .com/au or .com/uk.
The benefit of this method is that it is very easy to set up and all domain authority will be shared across your entire website. Plus, you can have the same team manage your local and broad-focused content.
Unfortunately, this approach has two drawbacks.
First, your subdirectories won’t have much local feel, which might have a slight impact on the user experience.
However, the bigger concern is that your site architecture can get messy, especially if each subdirectory has its own navigation category.
For example, many news organizations often have top-level navigation bars that deal with specific issues related to that country.
Take this basic website structure for CNN as an example:
Image via CNN, May 2022Note that everything is in the URL structure: https://example.com/us/newsstory, not a separate subdirectory in your country-specific subdirectory, such as https://example.com/us/covid19 /newsstory.
This will help you avoid navigation problems and make your website more manageable.
benefit
- simplest to implement.
- CMS offers Easy multilingual management.
- Lowest upfront cost.
- Easy to navigate.
- Share link assets cross domain.
Use subdomains to localize content
On the other hand, if your main concern is localizing your content, and that’s where you want to dig into, hosting regional pages on a subdomain might be a good option.
Ideally, your parent brand should own a broad gTLD with international-based content.
You can then create subdomains for specific countries that appeal to that demographic.
So your gTLD might be an English-language news site that people from the EU, Australia, and the US can enjoy (if that’s your main audience), whereas if you deal with a specific topic, you might host a separate one for each country The domain is associated with that country.
Unfortunately, this approach has many drawbacks.
- Hosting content on different domains may be It is challenging to organize.
- Subdomains cost more Implement than subfolders.
- Brands can be difficult to maintain If multiple teams work on your site.
- Link equity will not be evenly distributed in your domain.
However, if you have separate teams working on content for specific regions of the world, it may be necessary to host location-specific content on subdomains.
benefit
- Localized user experience.
- More efficient geolocation.
- more organized content By region.
Additional Notes
Language and Geolocation
Now, a lot of what we’ve talked about so far has focused on country-specific geolocation.
But what if these countries had large numbers of multilingual speakers? How can we optimize this?
For example, if you are Writing international news stories Use English but want to create the same article in Spanish and feature it on your homepage?
Whether using subdomains or gTLDs, you can implement hreflang tags to help you create multilingual content for broad and local topics.
Basic hreflang tags are HTML tags such as indicating that the web page is written for a search engine in a specific language.
So, if you wanted to create English content for French people, you could add a tag like this to the head of the HTML:
Have Several ways to implement hreflang tags For multilingual speakers in different countries, but the easiest way is to create a folder with all hreflang tags and submit them in an XML sitemap.
keyword research
Obviously, your website will not cover all countries and languages.
So before you spend dozens of hours setting up new subdomains, implementing hreflang tags, and hiring multilingual content creators, you need to research and determine which countries are worth targeting.
International keyword research is a great strategy to discover which markets have the most engagement with your website. E.g, samlash Provides tools that allow me to filter keyword trends and results by country:
Screenshot of Semrush, May 2022Also, a tool like this gives me a baseline of global volume per keyword.
Likewise, you can do the same keyword research in different languages to determine which countries have the highest engagement in Spanish or German.
Since your website focuses on news and current affairs, your research will be different.
However, Conduct keyword and competition research Use tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, and Google Ads to get a good idea of which countries/languages will be the most profitable investments.
Content and Translation
Finally, if your site is focused on regional content, you will need to invest in local content creators in order to provide your visitors with an authentic news experience.
Hire translators and avoid translation tools as much as possible. Also, try to make your subdomain or subdirectory unique to that country.
Ultimately, this may involve handing over the management of some parts of the domain to separate individuals and teams to manage region-specific content.
final note
Deciding between subdomains or subdirectories depends on your primary business goals.
While considerations like link fairness and backlinks are important, the decision should depend on which method will generate the best traffic and engagement, especially since you are a news/blog based site.
Also, whatever strategy you pursue, you need to combine other factors, such as hreflang tags and hiring local content creators, to make your content reach the widest possible audience.
More resources:
Featured image: suphakit73/Shutterstock
Editor’s Note: Ask about SEO is a weekly SEO advice column written by some of the industry’s top SEO experts, handpicked by Search Engine Magazine. Have questions about SEO? fill out our form. You may see your answer in the next #AskanSEO post!
