International Subdomain Headache
-
My client set up a separate domain for their international clients, then set up separate subdomains for each country where they're active (so, for example, the original site is xx.com and the global is xxworldwide.com, with subdomains like mx.xxxworldwide.com).
They auto-translated a large amount of content and put the translations on those international sites. The idea was to draw in native speakers.
Now, I don't think this is a great practice, obviously, and I'm worried that it could hurt their original site (the xxx.com in the example above). My concern is that Google will see through the translated text, since it was handled with Google Translate, and penalize both sites. I don't think the canonical tag applies here, since Google recommends a no-follow for autotranslated text, but I've also never dealt with this type of situation before.
Anyways, if you made it through all of that, congratulations. My question is whether xxx.com is getting any negative effects other than a potential loss of link juice -- and whether there's any legitimate way to present auto-translated text with a few minor changes without incurring a penalty.
-
@Martijn told you the key, is not a good idea, use the flow in
https://www.distilled.net/blog/seo/choose-your-international-strategy-tool/
and the resources of @Patrick
Also take a look to these tools:
http://www.internationalseomap.com/hreflang-tags-generator/
http://www.themediaflow.com/tool_hreflang.php
To not make a mistake with the hreflangs
Hope it helps
-
Hey there John
I would advise you to take a look a the following resources:
Use hreflang for language and regional URLs (Google)
International SEO Guide (Moz)
The International SEO Checklist (Moz)
How to Build Links for International SEO - Webinar (Moz)All of the above can get you headed in the right direction and lay a great foundation. Hope this answers your question! Good luck!
-
Auto-translated can never be a good idea, but what you could do is add just the rel canonical for hreflang on the site. Then it would make sure that you can target these specific languages.
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.
Related Questions
-
International Blog Structure & Hreflang Tags
Hi all, I'm running an international website across 5 regions using a correct hreflang setup. A problem I think I have is that my blog structure is not standardized and also uses hreflang tags for each blog article. This has naturally caused Google to index each of the pages across each region, meaning a massive amount of pages are being crawled. I know hreflang solves and issues with duplication penalties, but I have another question. If I have legacy blog articles that are considered low quality by Google, is that counting against my site once or multiple times for each time the blog is replicated across each region? I'm not sure if hreflang is something that would tell Google this. For example, if I have low quality blog posts: blog/en-us/low-quality-article-1
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MattBassos
blog/en-gb/low-quality-article-1
blog/en-ca/low-quality-article-1 Do you think Google is counting this as 3 low quality articles or just 1 if hreflang is correctly implemented? Any insights would be great because I'm considering to cull the international setup of the blog articles and use just /blog across each region.0 -
Is it OK that the root didn't have any internal links?
Hi guys; In a website with more than 20,000 indexed pages, Is it normally that homepage (root) didn't have any internal links, while other important pages have enough internal links? Consider that in a top menu in header of all pages, I added homepage link, so the home page link repeated on all indexed pages, but google didn't count it and the website technology is angular js thank you for helping me
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | cafegardesh0 -
Breadcrumbs and internal links
Hello, I use to move up my site structure with links in content. I have now installed breadcrumbs, is it is useful to still keep the links in content or isn't there a need to duplicate those links ? and are the breadcrumbs links enough. Thank you,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics1 -
Subdomain vs Subdirectory - does the content make a difference?
So I've read through all of the answers that suggest using a subdirectory is the best way to approach this - you rank more quickly and have all of your content on one site. BUT what if you're looking to move into a totally new market that your current site/content isn't in any way relevant to? Some examples are Supermarkets such as Tesco (who seem to use a mix of methods) http://www.tesco.com/groceries/, http://www.clothingattesco.com/, http://www.tesco.com/bank/ which links out from their main site to http://www.tescobank.com/ etc and Sainsburys http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/ who use subdomains - here they have their grocery offering, their bank offering, clothes, phones etc split into subdomains. If you have a product that is totally new to your Brand and different from all the products on your current site, does this change the answer to subdirectory vs subdomain? Would be great to hear your expert opinions on this. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | giffgaff2 -
Multiple Internal links to same destinations
My company is redoing our homepage and there will be 4 links to our main play pages (5 games). 2 in the menu and 2 within the content. I was thinking I should no follow one of the links on the homepage + 1 in the menu so that we don't have link dilution from having multiple internal links to the same destination within 1 page. Does this make sense? Any downside of this or suggestions of a solution that may be more effective? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | theLotter0 -
How would Google reach internal pages on Zales with Lazy Load?
Hi, I encountered the following page on Zales:
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeytzNet
http://engagementring.theprestigediamondcollection.com/NewEngagementRing/NewEring.aspx As you scroll down more items pop up (the well known Pinterest style).
Would Google bot be able to enter the product pages? I don't assume the bot "scrolls"... Thanks0 -
Best tools for identifying internal duplicate content
Hello again Mozzers! Other than the Moz tool, are there any other tools out there for identifying internal duplicate content? Thanks, Luke
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | McTaggart0 -
Subdomains vs. Subfolders for unique categories & topics
Hello, We are in the process of redesigning and migrating 5 previously separate websites (all different niche topics, including dining, entertainment, retail, real estate, etc.) under one umbrella site for the property in which they exist. From the property homepage, you will now be able to access all of the individual category sites within. As each niche microsite will be focused on a different topic, I am wondering whether it is best for SEO that we use subdomains such as category.mainsite.com or subfolders mainsite.com/category. I have seen it done both ways on large corporate sites (ie: Ikea uses subdomains for different country sites, and Apple uses subfolders), so I am wondering what makes the most sense for this particular umbrella site. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Melissa
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | grapevinemktg0