• majorAlexa

        See all notifications

        Skip to content
        Moz logo Menu open Menu close
        • Products
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Pro Home
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Home
          • STAT
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Home
          • Compare SEO Products
          • Moz Data
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis
          • Keyword Explorer
          • Link Explorer
          • Competitive Research
          • MozBar
          • More Free SEO Tools
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO
          • SEO Learning Center
          • Moz Academy
          • MozCon
          • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers
          • Agency Solutions
          • Enterprise Solutions
          • Small Business Solutions
          • The Moz Story
          • New Releases
        • Log in
        • Log out
        • Products
          • Moz Pro

            Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

          • Moz Local

            Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

          • STAT

            SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

          • Moz API

            Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

          • Compare SEO Products

            See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

          • Moz Data

            Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

          Let your business shine with Listings AI
          Moz Local

          Let your business shine with Listings AI

          Learn more
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis

            Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

          • Keyword Explorer

            Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

          • Link Explorer

            Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

          • Competitive Research

            Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

          • MozBar

            See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

          • More Free SEO Tools

            Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
          Moz Pro

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

          Learn more
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO

            The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

          • SEO Learning Center

            Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

          • On-Demand Webinars

            Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

          • How-To Guides

            Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

          • Moz Academy

            Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

          • MozCon

            Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
          Moz API

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

          Find your plan
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers

            Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

          • Small Business Solutions

            Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

          • Agency Solutions

            Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

          • Enterprise Solutions

            Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

          • The Moz Story

            Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

          • New Releases

            Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

          Surface actionable competitive intel
          New Feature

          Surface actionable competitive intel

          Learn More
        • Log in
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Dashboard
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Dashboard
          • Moz Academy
        • Avatar
          • Moz Home
          • Notifications
          • Account & Billing
          • Manage Users
          • Community Profile
          • My Q&A
          • My Videos
          • Log Out

        The Moz Q&A Forum

        • Forum
        • Questions
        • My Q&A
        • Users
        • Ask the Community

        Welcome to the Q&A Forum

        Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

        1. Home
        2. SEO Tactics
        3. International SEO
        4. Multi Regional Website Best Practices

        Moz Q&A is closed.

        After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

        Multi Regional Website Best Practices

        International SEO
        3
        6
        3660
        Loading More Posts
        • Watching

          Notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread.

        • Not Watching

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread if category is not ignored.

        • Ignoring

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Do not show question in unread.

        • Oldest to Newest
        • Newest to Oldest
        • Most Votes
        Reply
        • Reply as question
        Locked
        This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
        • nathanfranklin
          nathanfranklin last edited by

          Hi there,

          I have a website that is targeting 3 countries AU/US & NZ. I have set up hreflang tags for each page on each of the site however I am having difficulties getting it work right.

          I read this article which was a great insight into the hreflang tags. https://a-moz.groupbuyseo.org/blog/hreflang-behaviour-insights and as a result I have implemented hreflang tags in the following manner:

          When users access the root domain http://[website] it will redirect the user to their locale with a 302 redirect.

          I have a few questions:
          1. When building my external link profiles, I'm not sure if I should be building link profiles for http://[website]/ or for the geo graphical pages (http://[website]/aus/ etc..). Note that the http://[website]/ is never used, it just issues a 302 to the actual geographical location.

          2. It seems that the hreflang tags are not working correctly. Perhaps its the result of the 302 on the root page, but in google.com.au (using the link http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&gl=au&pws=0&q=[branded search]) I would expect that I should see the search results for /aus/ given the fact that the hreflang tags are setup as en-au. Instead I am seeing the root domain page. Is that correct or should it be showing all the pages with /aus/. ALSO If I do a search in google thailand (http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&gl=th&pws=0&q=[branded search]) it returns the /aus/ version where it should be showing the /us/ using the x-default hreflang tag.

          In google webmaster tools I have setup 4 site profiles:
          http://[website]/
          http://[website]/us/
          http://[website]/aus/ (Targeted to Australia)
          http://[website]/nz/ (Targeted to New Zealand)

          Any help would be appreciated.

          Thanks

          Nathan

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • gfiorelli1
            gfiorelli1 @PatrickDelehanty last edited by

            Google explicitly advice to use 302 in case of redirection because of IP/User Agent detection, which is what it always says in others similar cases (i.e.: redirecting from desktop to mobile version of the site).

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • nathanfranklin
              nathanfranklin @PatrickDelehanty last edited by

              Hi Patrick,

              If I created a landing page on the root domain, would that have positive or negative implications for SEO. I'm also thinking through usability whether it's more useable to redirect a user automatically with the option to change their region after they have landed on their 'local' site.

              Do you know how my search results would look adding the landing page into the mix? I mean in terms of URL and content, how will it display in the search engines?

              At the moment, sometimes I see the root domain in the search results and other times I see the country specific pages. An example of this is if you go to https://www.google.com.au/?gws_rd=ssl#q=destiny+rescue+where+we+work, you will see a mixture of results. There are some root domain representations, some /aus/ and even some /us/ and /nz/ (of which the last 2 technically shouldn't be present).

              Thanks

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • PatrickDelehanty
                PatrickDelehanty @nathanfranklin last edited by

                Hi again

                1. There is nothing you are going to lose by changing the 302 redirect to a 301. If anything, I would change the www.domain.com version of your site (leaving that country targeted to the world, no specific region) to give the user an option of what region they are from and what site they would like to visit based on their location. I would then follow the directions in my first paragraph.

                2. See my suggestion in one. You shouldn't redirect your www.domain.com to a regional variant. Again, if anything, make the homepage an option page based on the users location so that they can choose which experience they would like to have.

                Does this all make sense? Let me know!

                nathanfranklin gfiorelli1 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • nathanfranklin
                  nathanfranklin last edited by

                  Hi Patrick,

                  Thanks for your response.

                  I read the Moz page on redirections and it's interesting MOZ states that 0% link juice is passed with a 302. With that in mind I have the following additional questions:

                  1. At the moment I do a 302 from the root of domain to the geo graphical site. (The root domain page is never rendered, only redirected). From what I understand google bots only ever spider a site from the US. If I change the redirect to a 301 the link juice from the root page would then be transferred mostly to /us/ then would it? What sort of ranking power would /aus/ and /nz/ lose as a result of changing the redirect from a 302 to a 301.

                  2. Would that mean that the http://[website]/ root page would disappear from the search engines and only /us/, /aus/, & /nz/ would be displayed? At the moment the root page link (http://[website]/) is being displayed on most searches when I google.

                  Thanks.

                  PatrickDelehanty 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • PatrickDelehanty
                    PatrickDelehanty last edited by

                    Hi there

                    Yes - hreflang and language tags are a great place to start. I would also create a Google and Bing Webmaster Tools for each regional variation and country target them accordingly - here's the Bing resource to do that.

                    You can also use citation builders like Whitespark to build listings for the regional URL variations and their contact information.

                    When it comes to your 302 issues, I would make sure that your redirects are implemented properly - there are resources there on how to do so.

                    I would also suggest trying to mold your on-site SEO and content to capture traffic in regional areas for a better user experience.

                    Here are a couple of more resources for you:
                    International SEO (Moz)
                    The International SEO Checklist (Moz)

                    Hope this all helps! Good luck!

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • 1 / 1
                    • First post
                      Last post

                    Browse Questions

                    Explore more categories

                    • Moz Tools

                      Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                    • SEO Tactics

                      Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                    • Community

                      Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                    • Digital Marketing

                      Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                    • Research & Trends

                      Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                    • Support

                      Connect on product support and feature requests.

                    • See all categories

                    Related Questions

                    • fdl4712_aol.com

                      Is it worth maintaining multiple international websites

                      international technical

                      Hi I work for a British company which has two well established websites - a .co.Uk for the UK, and a .com for the US and rest of the world (in language directories). The Uk site is hosted in the Uk, the .com in US. The websites do reasonable well in Google on both sides of the Atlantic. The company is a small but quite well known brand. The company is now thinking of redirecting the .co.Uk to the .com as it would be cheaper to maintain. What would you advise? Thanks.

                      International SEO | | fdl4712_aol.com
                      2
                    • vhubert

                      Changing the language of the website meta title and description?

                      Hello, Moz community! I'm planning to change the language of my website title and description from English to rank better for queries on the local language. Do you think this would increase the local language ranking? And in case I need to switch back to English, let's say in 2021, would it be difficult to regain the current rankings? Please let me know if you have any thoughts on this. Thank you!

                      International SEO | | vhubert
                      2
                    • JCN-SBWD

                      How do you optimise a website for European traffic?

                      I have a design portfolio website here https://www.nicholsoncreative.com/ which uses a .com but is currently configured through the Search Console to appear in results for Google.co.uk. I am going to be restructuring the website and optimisation and I want to bring in more traffic/enquiries/business from around Europe. As there's no Google.eu, and as Google also serves results based on the searchers geographic location it would seem difficult to structure and optimise content so that results can be found across all of Europe. I assume simply switching to a .eu domain extension for my own website wouldn't solve the problem? I also assume that creating content in different languages would be a logical (if time consuming) option? Are there any other tried and trusted techniques that can be used to target traffic throughout Europe? I'd appreciate any advice.

                      International SEO | | JCN-SBWD
                      0
                    • Atalig2

                      How to Localise per Region (Europe, America, APAC, EMEI) and not per country as best SEO practise?

                      Hi SEO expertises! I am currently working with a client that initially have an English website targeting UK users but want to expand their market into four new regions (Europe, America, APAC and EMEI) keeping English as a main language. I would like to request your help here as I told the client ISO location and hreflang it will be just possible per language and they must need to localise each English region with local keywords, however I would like to double check if it will be any way (Sitemap, Hreflang) we can tell Google we are targeting per region and not per country? Thanks a lot!

                      International SEO | | Atalig2
                      0
                    • pikka

                      Best URL structure for Multinational/Multilingual websites

                      Hi I am wondering what the best URL format to use is when a website targets several countries, in several languages. (without owning the local domains, only a .com, and ideally to use sub-folders rather than sub-domains.) As an example, to target a hotel in Sweden (Google.se) are there any MUST-HAVE indicators in the URL to target the relevant countries? Such as hotelsite.com**/se/**hotel-name. Would this represent the language? Or is it the location of the product? To clarify a bit, I would like to target around 10 countries, with the product pages each having 2 languages (the local language + english). I'm considering using the following format: hotelsite.com/en/hotel-name (for english) and hotelsite.com/se/hotel-name (for swedish content of that same product) and then using rel=”alternate” hreflang=”se-SV” markup to target the /se/ page for Sweden (Google.se) and rel=”alternate” hreflang=”en” for UK? And to also geotarget those in Webmaster tools using those /se/ folders etc. Would this be sufficient? Or does there need to be an indicator of both the location, AND the language in the URLs? I mean would the URL's need to be hotelsite.com/se/hotel-name/se-SV (for swedish) or can it just be hotelsite.com/se/hotel-name? Any thoughts on best practice would be greatly appreciated.

                      International SEO | | pikka
                      0
                    • AymanH

                      Multi Regional website - Folder strategy

                      Hello Seomoz people ! I've been struggling for some time now with an international website project. It's gonna be an:international website with joomla. To sum up: We have an international company The company has 13 subsidiaries worldwide (same products, different names) The company doesn't have enough resources to get 13 independent websites Some subsidiaries work in one country / one language, some others on a region (several countries, several languages) Thanks to your community we decided to: Get a main website company.com Get subsidiaries folders (middle east, oceania and south america will be easier to link to their subsidiary) .com/asia .com/middle-east .com/oceania .com/south-america .com/uk .com/usa .com/fr .com/es .com/de .com/ma .com/dz .com/it We also need to: Get some websites in different languages .com/asia-cn .com/asia-en etc. Now how do we do to manage: Regional websites (the first 4th on the upper list) Google allows to affect a website to a country not region Will they compete with the .com ? How do we set up them for google ? How do we avoid duplicate content and keep local ranking .com/asia-en/services1.html will have the exact same content that_.com/services1.html_ If we use canonical from _.com/asia-en/services1.htm_l to _.com/services1.html , d_oes that mean /asia will not rank in asia ? Hope you can help us to figure us the best solution for this good project ! Thanks a lot. Florian

                      International SEO | | AymanH
                      1
                    • Stevejobs2011

                      Website Target in Europe

                      Hi, I am planning a site to target in Europe and I expect to translate my site into ten different languages namely English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, Greek, Portuguese, Dutch and Swedish. I am doing some study of this case in targeting different countries for SEO, most of the advise are the following: a.  Build 10 different websites and target different geographical location in Google Webmaster b.  Get 10 different country specific domains for 10 different websites I would like to hear any suggestion if there is anything better than this ? I had all the materials and translation ready but building 10 different websites or getting 10 different domains are very time consuming and costly. I would be appreciated if any one had any advise for me to make the website more management friendly. Thank you. Tom

                      International SEO | | Stevejobs2011
                      0
                    • APICDA

                      Website Translation

                      Hi All, I know its not an SEO question, but....................... Can anyone suggest a few good website translation "widgets" I  would like to give those who are not fluent in English and option to choose another language in which to view the page text. Thank You!!!

                      International SEO | | APICDA
                      0

                    Get started with Moz Pro!

                    Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                    Start my free trial
                    Products
                    • Moz Pro
                    • Moz Local
                    • Moz API
                    • Moz Data
                    • STAT
                    • Product Updates
                    Moz Solutions
                    • SMB Solutions
                    • Agency Solutions
                    • Enterprise Solutions
                    • Digital Marketers
                    Free SEO Tools
                    • Domain Authority Checker
                    • Link Explorer
                    • Keyword Explorer
                    • Competitive Research
                    • Brand Authority Checker
                    • Local Citation Checker
                    • MozBar Extension
                    • MozCast
                    Resources
                    • Blog
                    • SEO Learning Center
                    • Help Hub
                    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                    • How-to Guides
                    • Moz Academy
                    • API Docs
                    About Moz
                    • About
                    • Team
                    • Careers
                    • Contact
                    Why Moz
                    • Case Studies
                    • Testimonials
                    Get Involved
                    • Become an Affiliate
                    • MozCon
                    • Webinars
                    • Practical Marketer Series
                    • MozPod
                    Connect with us

                    Contact the Help team

                    Join our newsletter
                    Moz logo
                    © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                    • Accessibility
                    • Terms of Use
                    • Privacy

                    Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.