I have a multi-language site, in the matter of SEO which is better: Using Subdomains or Directories?

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I am creating a site with several languages (Portuguese, Spanish, English).

On the question of SEO what is the most correct way to use?

Subdomains ( pt.meusite.com ) or Directories ( meusite.com/pt ) ?

Since in the eyes of Google use a subdomain, it would be like a new site, a separate site without any link to the main site.

I think using a directory is the best solution, even by Pagerank. But I’m afraid to think I’m doing well and I’m doing very badly.

I saw in an article that is only recommended use subdomains on sites with a lot of content, and that portray different contents, such as Stack Exchange, UOL, G1, Terra, Estadão, IG, R7, etc.

My site will deal with the same content, only what will change are the languages, and some things, because I will sell some products by countries (Brazil, Mexico, Portugal and Spain), so need to change prices, currencies, information, etc...

An example in UOL:

For Economy Only News: http://economia.uol.com.br

for Cars only: http://carros.uol.com.br

seo
  • 1

    Look at the Stack Exchange sites that are a huge network. Do you see stackoverflow.com/pt or pt.stackoverflow.com? Here’s your answer :)

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    Yes @Brunoaugusto you want to compare a network with dozens of different sites, with different content and millions of hits, with only one site with copies in other languages? I don’t think you understand me.

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    I won’t rule out my opinion. Methodology is a concept and concepts should be applied even before considering the degree of popularity of a site or how many other sites the programmer/company has.

  • Taum tá... You They want to drive me crazy :p

  • This question seems to be discounted because it is about SEO. See relevant vote on the target.

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    @Kyllopardiun I took the liberty of changing your last comment a little and include a link.

  • @bfavaretto ok, I find it interesting to have this link and had forgotten to put the same in this comment.

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Take the example of Twitter and Facebook, they do not change the domain.
No matter what language the user chooses, I don’t think it should be passed as a parameter in the URL. In my view, the language is an option as well as any other, where the user chooses the language that will be displayed... (PT, EN, ES...).

Some news sites use the language in the URL, but not as a reference for language translation, but rather as regional content to display content according to region.

Unless your site has differentiated content like in the example above, I don’t recommend the language in the URL.

Imagine you have the language in the URL:
en.example.com | en.example.com

Later, for some reason, you decide to remove the language from the URL... You will have to change the links, the chance of broken links are higher, both external, as internal... In addition to taking the risk of considering link duplicity, and this can and will decrease your PAGERANK.

The crawlers do not identify the language in the URL. Your website may have the URL pt.example.com or portugues.example.com, what identifies the language is the language in which it is written, and the TAG-LANG.

When a user accesses your site, you identify the region by IP and/or by combining the browser language option and the system will load the translation package automatically.

The monetary definition follows another rule, if the user is accessing in PT-BR, you show the value in real, or in the currency you choose if you allow the conversion... But this explanation goes beyond the URL with parameter.

I recommend a clean URL, no parameters, as it is easy to maintain, with simple rules and no risk of duplication of Urls by crawlers.

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    So far I don’t understand your answer, you meant that none of the solutions I mentioned are any good?

  • I did not say that they are not good, I just showed different cases where the use of language is necessary only to differentiate the displayed content and not the translation package

  • But it is because in some cases we need to differentiate the content. Imagine that on the BR site you buy a product in Reais, already in US you buy in dollars, etc... And that you have a Host and sale on BR national domains, and on MX national domains as well.

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    Now I understand what you mean, you got me wrong! I didn’t refer the SEO to the name pt.meudominio.com or meudominio.com/pt. I referred only by the fact of the Pagerank and by the fact of being considered a site without link to the main meudominio.com

  • After all, do you recommend that I use subdomain or directory? Your answer is a bit confusing.

  • I didn’t say that the crawlers identify the language by URL That’s logical. The same way I quoted pt.meusite.com and meusite.com/pt, I could have quoted blog.meusite.com and meusite.com/blog

  • My answer was clear - I recommend a URL without parameters... You said "multi-language site" and it was with this information that I answered. The examples you quoted(car, economy) are words and are VERY different from language abbreviation(PT, EN...), words have weight, so I said that Crawler does not care about the language in the URL - this does not interfere with anything...

  • So it’s okay to use language abbreviation in the URL?

  • Neither problem nor benefits... As far as I know, PAGERANK is individual, the main domain does not leverage the domain or vice versa. The bigger problem than a low PAGEHANK, is being deleted by duplicate links.

  • But what kind of duplicate links? I don’t understand. My site will be fully translated, even the Urls.

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    If you will translate URL then fine. pt.example.com/pagina-a | en.example.com/page-a these two are NOT considered equal as long as they are translated. If the two examples cited were written in a single language, it would be a duplicate link.

  • Very good Papa! You’re the man! Take a look here: http://answall.com/questions/28602/dúvidas-sobre-seo

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    @Alexandre Lopes, is a very broad and interesting subject that yields many lines, the problem is that are considering out of context... I will try to answer something there

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If you use with subdomain you know that you will be treated by google as another site that will have its relevance highlighted from the main domain and will have to work each language in terms of SEO as if it were another site.

Already if you use the language in directories you will be guaranteed the page rank and relevance of the domain for all languages.

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