Sub-domains or sub-directories for country-specific versions of the site?

[ramarketing]

What approach do you think would be better from an SEO perspective when creating country-targeted versions for an eCommerce site (all in the same language with slight regional changes) - sub-domains or sub-directories? Is any of the approaches more cost effective, web development-wise?

I know this topic's been under much debate and I would really like to hear your opinion.

Many thanks!

[ramarketing]

Thank you for your comment! Actually, the issue of duplicate content amongst the subirectories should be sorted out through implementing the rel="alternate" hreflang.

But of course, the more diverse content the better!

[ramarketing]

Thank you for your feedback everyone! ccTLDs aren't an option at the moment, hence why I'm considering either subdirectories or subdomains! It looks as though the geenral opinion is that subdomains are better, thank you very much!

[MoosaHemani]

Although any of the idea will work but I would highly suggest you to go with ccTLD as this will help you gain the trust of the local audience.

In case you have to choose sub domains and sub directories, in that case I would go with subdirectories but keep in mind that content for different countries should not be identical or else there will be an issue of duplicate content.

Hope this helps!

[Saijo.George]

Not trying to throw a spanner in the works, but have you considered top level country specific domains ?  .co.uk, .au, etc

In theory you can use subdirectories and  assign geo targeting  for that folder in Google Webmaster Tools. ( keep in mind this will only work for Google, you have to look at how the other search engines will handle this Bing, Yandex if you target Russia, Baidu for China, etc )

[Chris.Menke]

There may be slightly more reason to lean towards using subdirectories but each case is different.  Have you looked these over yet:

• International SEO: Where to Host and How to Target - Whiteboard Friday - Moz
• content posted under different TLDs a problem? - YouTube