SEO: Multiple languages

Question

Okay, I know this question have been asked plenty of times already, but I haven't found any actual answer.

Considering SEO, what is the best way to construct the URL for multiple languages? One top-level domain for each language would feel unnecessary, so I'm thinking about different subdomains or sub-folders. And in that case, which would be better - en.mydomain.com or english.mydomain.com? And if eg. the english version is more viewed than the swedish version, how do I tell the search engines that they actually are the same page?

Answer 1

Pretty everything is answered in this Google Webmasters article: Multi-regional and multilingual sites.

Here's a summary of relevance:

URL structures

Consider using a URL structure that makes it easy to geotarget parts of your site to different regions. The following table outlines your options:

ccTLDs (country-code top-level domain names)

• Example: example.de
• Pros:
  • Clear geotargeting
  • Server location irrelevant
  • Easy separation of sites
• Cons:
  • Expensive (and may have limited availability)
  • Requires more infrastructure
  • Strict ccTLD requirements (sometimes)

Subdomains with gTLDS (generic top-level domain name)

• Example: de.example.com
• Pros:
  • Easy to set up
  • Can use Webmaster Tools geotargeting
  • Allows different server locations
  • Easy separation of sites
• Cons:
  • Users might not recognize geotargeting from the URL alone (is "de" the language or country?)

Subdirectories with gTLDs

• Example: example.com/de/
• Pros:
  • Easy to set up
  • Can use Webmaster Tools geotargeting
  • Low maintenance (same host)
• Cons:
  • Users might not recognize geotargeting from the URL alone
  • Single server location
  • Separation of sites harder

URL parameters

• Example: site.com?loc=de
• Pros:
  • Not recommended.
• Cons:
  • URL-based segmentation difficult
  • Users might not recognize geotargeting from the URL alone
  • Geotargeting in Webmaster Tools is not possible

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Duplicate content and international sites

Websites that provide content for different regions and in different languages sometimes create content that is the same or similar but available on different URLs. This is generally not a problem as long as the content is for different users in different countries. While we strongly recommend that you provide unique content for each different group of users, we understand that this may not always be possible. There is generally no need to "hide" the duplicates by disallowing crawling in a robots.txt file or by using a "noindex" robots meta tag. However, if you're providing the same content to the same users on different URLs (for instance, if both example.de/ and example.com/de/ show German language content for users in Germany), you should pick a preferred version and redirect (or use the rel=canonical link element) appropriately.