Advanced • 🌍 Global

International Domain Strategy

Expanding your business globally requires more than just translating content. Your domain structure plays a crucial role in international SEO and user trust.

📖 14 min read

ccTLDs vs. Subdirectories vs. Subdomains

When targeting multiple countries, you have three main architectural choices:

1. Country Code TLDs (ccTLDs)

Example: example.de (Germany), example.fr (France).

• Pros: Strongest local SEO signal, highest user trust locally.
• Cons: Expensive to manage, requires separate authority building, distinct legal requirements.

2. Subdirectories (gTLD)

Example: example.com/de/, example.com/fr/.

• Pros: Consolidates domain authority, cheapest, easiest to manage.
• Cons: Weaker local signal than ccTLDs, harder to geo-target in Search Console (historically).

3. Subdomains

Example: de.example.com, fr.example.com.

• Pros: Allows different server locations easily.
• Cons: Authority is often split between subdomains.

Registration Requirements

Many ccTLDs have strict "local presence" requirements. For example:

• .no (Norway): Requires local business number.
• .ca (Canada): Requires Canadian Connection.
• .qa (Qatar): Trademark or local presence.

Some registrars offer "trustee services" to overcome this, but direct ownership is always safer.

IDNs (Internationalized Domain Names)

IDNs allow domains in local scripts (Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic). Examples: example.中国. While great for branding, they can face technical compatibility issues with email and some legacy browsers.

Hreflang Tags

Crucial for any international setup. These HTML tags tell Google which version of a page to show users based on their language and region, preventing duplicate content issues.