URL Structure for a multilingual website - lang code in the url itself - Webmaster General forum at WebmasterWorld

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URL Structure for a multilingual website - lang code in the url itself

sepath

11:20 am on Mar 28, 2014 (gmt 0)

Hello All,

We have seen the general/popular URL structures of the multilingual websites.

Is it okay if I add the language code in the URL itself instead of using sub-directory url structure? (Joomla)

Example:
example.com/sample-page-en.html
example.com/sample-page-fr.html
example.com/sample-page-es.html
etc.

Waiting for your suggestions.

Thanks

phranque

4:12 pm on Mar 28, 2014 (gmt 0)

welcome to WebmasterWorld, sepath!

it doesn't matter much for language targeting, but if you intend to geotarget your content you will want your languages in subdirectories or on separate hostnames.

sepath

5:38 am on Mar 31, 2014 (gmt 0)

Thanks phranque!

Usually a multilingual website uses subdirectories or sub-domains for each language.

1. But, will it make any difference in terms of ranking / indexing / impressions in Google if we use the URL structure like I had shared above.

2. And what about the humans? Will they get confused with this URL structure and misunderstood any product/page?

Thanks
Sandeep

phranque

2:22 pm on Mar 31, 2014 (gmt 0)

1. google ignores any specification of language, whether in the url, an HTML attribute, or otherwise.

2. most humans ignore urls and look at anchor text and page content.

sepath

2:27 pm on Mar 31, 2014 (gmt 0)

Many Thanks