I have a multi-lingual website, in SEO question which is the best: Use Subdomains or Directories?

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I'm creating a multi-language site (Portuguese, Spanish, English).

In the SEO issue, what is the most correct way to use it?

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

Since in the eyes of Google to use a subdomain, it would be like a new site, a separate site with no connection to the main site.

I think using a directory is the best solution, even by PageRank. But I am afraid to think that I am doing well and I am doing very badly.

I saw in an article that it is only recommended to use subdomains in sites with lots of content, and they depict different content , such as Stack Exchange, UOL, G1 , Earth, State, 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 country (Brazil, Mexico, Portugal and Spain), then need to change prices, currencies, information , etc ...

An example in UOL:

For economy-only news: link

for Cars only: link

    
asked by anonymous 09.08.2014 / 22:48

2 answers

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See the example of Twitter and Facebook, they do not change the subdomain. No matter what language the user chooses, I do not think it should be passed as a parameter in the URL. In my view, the language is an option like 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 the region.

Unless your site has differentiated content like in the example above, I do not recommend the language in the URL.

  

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

Subsequently, 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 greater, both external and internal ... In addition to risking duplicity link, and that yes can and will decrease your PAGERANK.

Crawlers do not identify the language in the URL. Your site may have the URL pt.example.com or portugues.example.com , which identifies the language it is written in, and 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.

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

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

    
10.08.2014 / 05:22
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If you use it with a subdomain, you know it will be handled by Google as another site that will have its relevancy from the main domain and will have to work each language in terms of SEO as if it were another site.

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

    
30.03.2015 / 22:34
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