international URL structure
Also called: international url structures, domain structure for international seo
International URL structure is how a site organizes its locale-specific pages, using one of the patterns Google supports: country-code domains (example.de), subdomains (de.example.com), or subdirectories (example.com/de/). The pattern you pick sets your geotargeting signal and where link equity pools.
Three structures Google supports
Google names three practical patterns for locale-specific pages, plus one it advises against. Country-code domains (example.de) send the clearest geotargeting signal and separate sites cleanly, but they are expensive, need more infrastructure, target only one country, and build authority from scratch. Subdirectories (example.com/de/) are cheap, low-maintenance, and keep link equity pooled on one domain, though the geo signal is weaker. Subdomains (de.example.com) sit between the two: easy to set up and easy to separate, but authority does not fully flow from the root. URL parameters (site.com?loc=de) are “not recommended” because segmentation gets messy.
Whichever you pick, Google’s rule holds: give every language or region version its own crawlable URL and connect them with hreflang annotations. Do not swap content by cookie or JavaScript on a single URL, since crawlers cannot index variants they never see.
One currency note: the manual country-targeting setting in Search Console was removed in September 2022. You can no longer tell Google a folder’s target country from the dashboard. Geographic relevance is now inferred from the ccTLD, hreflang, server location, and on-page content, so your URL and markup choices carry the whole signal.
How it affects your traffic
For an online store selling into several countries or currencies, this choice decides whether a German shopper's search (and, increasingly, AI answer engines) surfaces your EUR German page or a wrong-currency default. A weak or duplicated structure splits authority across near-identical locale pages and can rank the wrong version, quietly leaking conversions. Most stores that want one authority pool are best served by subdirectories plus hreflang, which is the setup we plan and implement in E-commerce SEO engagements.
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