SEO

International URL Structure: How to Choose it?

When it comes to designing an international website, choosing the URL structure is a crucial step that can greatly influence its visibility and effectiveness across different regions of the world.

Contents

What is a URL structure?

A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) structure refers to the standard format used to address documents and resources on the Internet. A URL typically consists of several key elements, including:

Scheme/Protocol: This is the initial part of the URL that specifies the communication protocol used to access the resource. Common examples include http, https, ftp, etc.
Hostname/Domain: This part identifies the specific address where the resource is hosted. It can be a domain name like www.example.com or a direct IP address.
Port (optional): This is a number that follows the hostname, separated by a colon, and specifies the communication port used to access the resource. The default port is used if no port is specified (e.g., 80 for HTTP).
Path: After the domain or IP, the path specifies the exact location of the resource on the server. It is often structured as a folder hierarchy and sometimes ends with the file name of the resource (e.g., /folder/page.html).
Query parameters (optional): Started with a question mark (?), these parameters are a series of key-value pairs separated by & symbols, used to pass additional information to the server.
Fragment (optional): Indicated by a hash mark (#), the fragment allows you to go directly to a specific part of the resource, often used in web pages to navigate to a specific point.

In short, a URL is an address that indicates how to access a resource on the Internet, specifying the communication protocol, the server address, and the path to the resource on the server, as well as additional information as needed.

Why is it important to choose the right URL structure for international use?

Choosing a suitable URL structure for an international site is crucial for several reasons:

Clarity and organization: A good URL structure helps logically organize your site. This is especially important for an international site, as it often has to handle varied content for different countries or languages.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Search engines like Google use the URL to understand the structure of your site and its content. A clear and consistent URL structure can improve your site’s ranking in search results, which is essential for reaching an international audience.
User Experience: Well-structured, easy-to-understand URLs improve the user experience. Visitors can easily navigate your site and understand how it is organized, which is especially important for users who don’t speak your site’s primary language.
Managing localized Content: A good URL structure can help manage localized content efficiently. For example, using subdomains or subdirectories for each language or country (like fr.example.com for French or example.com/fr) can make managing different language versions of your site easier.
Geographic Targeting: A proper URL structure helps search engines understand your target geographic audience, which is crucial for effective international SEO.
Compliance and Legality: In some cases, there may be legal or regulatory requirements regarding how you structure your URLs for different countries or regions, especially regarding data protection and privacy.

Types of URL structures for international sites:

URL structures for international sites can vary based on factors such as geographic target, language, and company branding. Here are some common types of URL structures for international sites:

Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs):

These domains are country-specific. For example, .fr for France, .de for Germany. They are often used by companies that want to specifically target a national market.

Benefits

Geographic Targeting: They allow precise geographic targeting, thus favoring companies that wish to specifically address a national market.
Local Trust: ccTLDs can build trust among local users, as they perceive the domain as more trustworthy and relevant to their region.
Availability: Less saturated than generic domains (.com, .net), ccTLDs often offer more options for choosing a succinct and relevant domain name.
Regional SEO: They can improve organic SEO in geolocalized searches, thus increasing visibility among the local target audience.

Disadvantages

Geographic limitation: They can limit the company’s reach internationally, as they are strongly associated with a single country.
Less universal: Compared to generic domains, ccTLDs are less globally recognized and may not be as intuitive for an international audience.
Specific Regulations: Some countries have specific restrictions or requirements for registration, which can make it difficult for foreign businesses to acquire or use the domain.
Perception: If a business operates globally but uses a ccTLD, it may suggest that it is focused only on the local market, which could deter international customers.

Subdomains:

Subdomains can be used to segment the site into different geographic or linguistic areas. For example, fr.example.com for the French version of the site.

Subdomains are a common practice to structure and organize a website’s content into different sections or versions, especially based on geography or language. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of using subdomains in the context of geographic or language segmentation:

Benefits

Clear Organization: Subdomains help to clearly separate content for different regions or languages, making site navigation and administration more consistent.
Search Engine Optimization: By having a language or region specific subdomain, you can optimize SEO for specific target audiences, potentially improving visibility and ranking in search results.
Personalization: They offer the ability to customize content, design and functionality to meet the specific needs and preferences of different user groups.

Disadvantages

Complex maintenance: Managing multiple subdomains can complicate site maintenance, as each subdomain may require separate updates and administration.
Brand Dilution: Subdomains can sometimes dilute brand identity and consistency, especially if the different subdomains offer very different user experiences.
Split SEO: While subdomains can be beneficial for geographic or language targeting, they can also split SEO value because search engines may treat them as separate entities, thereby dispersing backlinks and authority recognition across multiple subdomains.

Subfolders or directories:

This approach uses subfolders for different language or regional versions of the site, for example, example.com/fr/ for the French version.

Benefits

Clear Organization: Subfolders provide a clear and logical structure, making the site organization easy for users and search engines to understand.
Authority Concentration: All language versions benefit from the authority of the main domain. This can improve SEO because the SEO value is centralized on a single domain.
Simplified Maintenance: Managing a single domain can simplify the maintenance and updating of different site language versions.

Disadvantages

Internal Competition: Different language versions may compete with each other in search results, especially if the content is similar or duplicated.
Structure Complexity: A subfolder structure can become complex and difficult to manage, especially for large sites with many language versions.
Dilution of local Identity: Subfolders do not provide as strong an identity as country-specific top-level domains (e.g., .fr for France), which may be less effective for targeting specific local markets.

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) with geographic or linguistic indicators:

Some companies choose to use a gTLD, such as .com or .org, and include a language or region indicator in the URL, such as example.com/en.

Benefits

International Recognition: gTLDs like .com, .org, or .net are widely recognized and authoritative around the world, which can increase a business’s credibility.
Specific targeting: Adding language or geographic indicators, such as “/fr” for French, allows you to specifically target a language community or geographic region, thus providing personalized content to users.
Improved SEO: Search engines can better understand the site’s target audience through the language or geographic indicator, which can improve SEO in targeted regions or languages.

Disadvantages

Management complexity: Managing multiple language or regional versions of a site can be complex and requires additional resources for maintenance and updating content.
Brand dilution: Having different language or geographic versions can sometimes dilute brand identity and consistency, especially if communication and design are not uniformly managed.
Limitations of gTLD: Some users may prefer country-specific top-level domains (ccTLDs) for reasons of proximity or perceived trustworthiness. Using a generic gTLD may then be less effective in reaching these audiences.

URL parameters:

Less common, but some sites use parameters in the URL to indicate language or region, such as example.com?page=home&lang=en.

Benefits

Simplicity: They are easy to set up and understand. Users can change the language or region by simply changing the parameter in the URL.
Compatibility: They are compatible with all browsers and do not require additional technologies.
User Control: Users can share or save the URL specific to their language preference.
Content Management: Makes it easy to manage different language versions of a page on the same URL.

Disadvantages

Complexity for search engines: This can cause SEO issues, as search engines may index the same page multiple times with only slight variations in content.
Security: Higher risk of URL manipulation, which can lead to security vulnerabilities if not properly managed.
User Experience: If the user navigates to a URL without the proper parameters, they may end up on an unexpected language or regional version.
Maintenance: Requires careful management to ensure all links lead to the correct language versions and redirects are properly implemented.
Lack of Permanence: Users must adjust the URL for their preferred language every time if it is not saved or detected automatically.

URL parameters:

Internationalized domain names allow the use of non-Latin characters, which is especially useful for languages that do not use the Latin alphabet.

Benefits

Cultural and linguistic Accessibility: IDNs allow users to create web addresses in their own language and script, which is especially important for languages that do not use the Latin alphabet. This promotes greater inclusion and accessibility on the Internet.
Promoting Linguistic Diversity: They encourage the use of the Internet in various languages and scripts, which helps preserve languages and cultures.
Improved Branding and Marketing: Businesses can use local language domain names to better target and communicate with their audience, thereby increasing brand recognition.

Disadvantages

Compatibility issues: Some older browsers or systems may not support IDNs, limiting access to websites using these names.
Security Risks: IDNs can create phishing sites by exploiting the visual similarity between characters (homoglyphs), thereby tricking users into visiting malicious sites.
Technical Complexity: Managing and registering IDNs can be more complex, requiring an understanding of different scripts and encoding standards like Punycode.
SEO Issues: Search engines may not index IDNs effectively or users may have difficulty entering domain names, affecting online visibility.

Each method has its pros and cons in terms of SEO (search engine optimization), content management, and user experience. The choice of URL structure depends on the specific goals of the business and its digital marketing strategy.