Multilingual Website

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powpew

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Thinking of setting up a multilingual website, but not very sure how to proceed with the URLs. There are basically two options I am considering and don't know for which one to go:

1. Let's say the default language of the website is English (example.com) and we try to add Chinese to it by using a sub-domain (cn.example.com)

2. Same story but this time we add only an extension to the main domain (example.com/cn/)

Which one would you go with and why?
Thank you
 
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personally i use just categories in the targeted language, but i often heard experts that the best way is to work it out with subdomains. i cant imagine that this is better, as you have to build the subdomains as particulat domains.
 
dang...
...i did once do a research on kind of the same question - and i got a usefull answer. but i do not seem to have the thread anywhere in the bookmarks.

so - even if cannot really back up what i am going to say...
...i am gonna say you should go with option nr. 2
 
So, 1 neutral vote and 1 for the option 2. Will give option 2 a try then.

Thank you both for the answers!
 
it more simple to use example.com/cn/ . Also remeber to add the correct meta language and descriptions for each section.
 
Most of the websites I see with more than one language use www.example.com/cn/ www.example.com/en/ etc, and the websites I see with more than one language are always from using search engines...so I suppose in my experience the sites that rank well with multilanguages use that URL structure.
 
I suggest subdomain, easier to positions.
en.exampledomain.com
de.exampledomain.com etc.
 
First choice will show to SE a subdomain.site as a different entity, as in second one as a part of a main site.
 
If you are only offering a translation of an english website then example.com/webpage.lang=cn would be fine.

Make sure you dont go changing languages around or you will be left with lots of dead links to clean up.
 
Another vote for option 2 here. Admittedly I just have the evidence of my own eyes to go with here, but when I see multilingual sites in Google results that's the way they seem to be set out, almost without exception. So, yeah ... not very scientific maybe, but that's what I've picked up. I understand that it's because what is earliest in the URL gets read first, and uniformity in the address means more strength as a URL.
 
I have built websites with two languages.

I installed Wordpress in two directories: www.mydomain.com/ root directory for English
... and for the second language in another directory: www.mydomain.com/cn

Be sure to change the meta language for the second language.

All has worked well and the big G has indexed everything on both languages.
 
powpew said:
Thinking of setting up a multilingual website, but not very sure how to proceed with the URLs. There are basically two options I am considering and don't know for which one to go:

1. Let's say the default language of the website is English (example.com) and we try to add Chinese to it by using a sub-domain (cn.example.com)

2. Same story but this time we add only an extension to the main domain (example.com/cn/)

Which one would you go with and why?
Thank you
Click to expand...
Surely second option is better.
 
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