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uCoz Community » General Information » First Steps with uCoz » How to properly make a multi-regional & multilingual site ? (Questions & help is needed)
How to properly make a multi-regional & multilingual site ?
Urs
Posts: 303
Reputation: 4

Message # 1 | 3:41 PM
How to properly make a multi-regional (multinational) & multilingual site using sub-directories instead of sub-domains ? As far as i know sub-directories rank better now than sub-domains do.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en

Any hints and tips how to make it properly work on uCoz sites having a global gTLD ?

***

For example let's say i am french and my site is called : example.com
Naturally i will rank well on google.fr with my french site (if i have quality content and good page rank)

But i want to compete with other sites in Germany, that rank well on google.de.
I will use sub-directories to target German people (language) living in Germany. (that use google.de)

So my first page should only direct people to the other languages ?
And have : example.com/index/fr/0-110 , example.com/index/de/0-120

What if i want to talk to french people that stay in Germany and search in french language using Google.de or German people that stay in France and search in German language using google.fr

In other words how to best make the structure of a site on uCoz in order to compete for multiple languages and multiple countries with the same site.

Thank you very much.

Some very big sites in the url mention region/language/place. How to make this with uCoz ?
Do they also include in the HTML code some information or is it enough to do it in the URL ?
Also in webmaster tools i should add each region/language/place as a separate entry ?

It's definitely not easy for a beginner and i need help, but i hope others will also benefit from this topic. ( the information that is shared here regarding how to do it best on uCoz platform )

Thassos Island Portal :
https://thassos.one
Post edited by Urs - Saturday, 2014-06-28, 3:44 PM
GEM
Posts: 32
Reputation: 0

Message # 2 | 9:57 PM
I guess - its kind of hard to make that with Ucoz (actually, not only with Ucoz..)
Maybe, these will suit you better... just let the users choose their native or preffered language and dont care where they reside

1) http://www.translateth.is/

2) http://docs.shopify.com/manual....website

just copy-paste code where you want the language switcher to appear
but be careful, sometimes these gadgets change your page structure as result of translating


WWW.DOGICA.COM / WWW.DOGICA.ORG
Post edited by GEM - Sunday, 2014-06-29, 10:00 PM
Urs
Posts: 303
Reputation: 4

Message # 3 | 11:47 AM
Lets say i know all the languages of the world or i have people that can translate the content so there is no need automatic translations. I want to rank well for each language on all Google searches. I will not use the uCoz sub-domains but a domain like example.com

So you say it is better to only focus on language and not bother with possible regional optimizations (could be useless) ?

Anyone else ?

Thassos Island Portal :
https://thassos.one
Post edited by Urs - Monday, 2014-06-30, 11:48 AM
Sunny
Posts: 9296
Reputation: 456

Message # 4 | 1:54 PM
Quote Urs ()
How to properly make a multi-regional (multinational) & multilingual site using sub-directories instead of sub-domains ? As far as i know sub-directories rank better now than sub-domains do.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en


According to the provided link, there isn't much difference between subdomains and subfolders. Actually, subdomains have more pros than subfolders. And subdomains can be easily created in uCoz.

Quote Urs ()
So you say it is better to only focus on language and not bother with possible regional optimizations (could be useless) ?

Quote Urs ()
What if i want to talk to french people that stay in Germany and search in french language using Google.de or German people that stay in France and search in German language using google.fr


According to your own description you want to focus primarily on language rather than country, so probably regional optimizations could be ignored.

I'm not active on the forum anymore. Please contact other forum staff.
GEM
Posts: 32
Reputation: 0

Message # 5 | 3:41 PM
I think so too.. and I do not think that automated GOOGLE let's say translation widget could do any bad to your site.. it has of course hidden kind of present which is known very well by all us and called Google Analytics, through which Google company could gather important information about users on your site (like users behavior..)

WWW.DOGICA.COM / WWW.DOGICA.ORG
Urs
Posts: 303
Reputation: 4

Message # 6 | 7:06 PM
Thank you for your reply, Sunny.

I am interested in both regional and language aspects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MswMYk05tk ( please take a look )

This is why i say Google prefers sub-folders (more recently) : http://moz.com/communi...._217479

The general tips at this moment are :
1. For country targeting opt for either ccTLDs or SubDirectories, and avoid SubDomains (this can depending on how many countries you are targeting and development resources).

2. For language targeting choose SubDirectories over SubDomains.

3. Each country or language version should be featured through their own site structure to all crawling, indexing and ranking.

4. Don’t use scripts or cookies to show your language versions under the same URL.

Conclusion :
Sub-domains seems to no longer provide an advantage.
Authority doesn’t pass between subdomains like it does directories/folders and search engines may consider them separate, as they would for TLDs. Even if you implemented a similar nomenclature, subdomains don’t provide as strong a regional signal as country specific TLDs.

Also :
Webmaster tools – Geotargeting

Google Webmaster Tools geotargeting allows you to register what regions you want to target your site at. Note this is only if you’re using subfolders and subdomains on a generic top level domain such as a .com (if you’re using country specific domains such as .co.uk then no need to worry).

********
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en

It seems that best way to do it would be to have a site with subfolders like :

example.com/en-uk English language -> Geotargeting it in Webmaster tools to United kingdom
example.com/en-fr English language -> Geotargeting it in Webmaster tools to France
example.com/ru-gr Russian language -> Geotargeting it in Webmaster tools to Greece
example.com/en English language, independent of region -> No Geotargeting

Need feedback. If you think my judgement is wrong regarding sub-domains or anything else please correct me.
Since sub-domains can be easily created in uCoz this is a platform advantage so i am not excluding anything.

Thank you !

All big sites like TripAdvisor, Booking seem to use ccTLDs (Country code top-level domain) or use /region/gr/sparta.uk.html or destination/city/de/berlin.ru.html

Wikipedia on the other hand uses sub-domains for language only. (if i am correct)

Thassos Island Portal :
https://thassos.one
Post edited by Urs - Tuesday, 2014-07-01, 7:16 PM
Sunny
Posts: 9296
Reputation: 456

Message # 7 | 8:47 AM
Quote Urs ()
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MswMYk05tk ( please take a look )


I did. Matt Cutts actually says that you can use whatever is more convenient for you. He doesn't say that subdomains are worse, he explains why they used to be a better choice.

Quote
"Since search engines keep different metrics for domains than they do subdomains, it is recommended that webmasters place link-worthy content like blogs in subfolders rather than subdomains. (i.e. www.example.com/blog/ rather than blog.example.com) The notable exceptions to this are language-specific websites. (i.e., en.example.com for the English version of the website)."


So, it says that while subfolders are better in terms of SEO in general, it does not apply to your case - language-specific subdomains or subfolders.

I'm not trying to advise you against subfolders. It's just that the provided info doesn't really have any proofs they are better. It looks like there isn't any important difference. The question is - how will you add language-specific subfolders to your uCoz website? Of course, it's possible to create folders in File Manager and upload static pages, but as you know static websites is not what uCoz was created for. And with dynamic pages it's not such an easy task, at least at this moment.

I'm not active on the forum anymore. Please contact other forum staff.
Urs
Posts: 303
Reputation: 4

Message # 8 | 7:35 PM
You are right Sunny

It seems some of the best ranking pages look like this (when searching for a particular location) :
example.com/region/gr/sparta.uk.html (region in Greece being Sparta and the page is for UK language) or
example.comdestination/city/de/berlin.ru.html (the city in germany is berlin and the site is for the Russian language)

But these are static pages... so a big no appears.

The other option would be :

Quote
example.com/en-uk English language -> Geotargeting it in Webmaster tools to United kingdom
example.com/en-fr English language -> Geotargeting it in Webmaster tools to France
example.com/ru-gr Russian language -> Geotargeting it in Webmaster tools to Greece
example.com/en English language, independent of region -> No Geotargeting


But would Google take all example.com/ru-gr pages as Russian language for Greek users ?
Because uCoz produces only links like : (underscore)
ru_gr/0-191
ru_gr/0-192
ru_gr/0-193
ru_gr/0-194
etc.

Hard question : What is the best way, with uCoz system, to be able to compete for single words - like names of known places - no matter what language is used or what country the term is searched from, using a gTLD (no ccTLDs).

Thassos Island Portal :
https://thassos.one
Post edited by Urs - Wednesday, 2014-07-02, 7:35 PM
Sunny
Posts: 9296
Reputation: 456

Message # 9 | 10:36 AM
Quote Urs ()
But would Google take all example.com/ru-gr pages as Russian language for Greek users ?
Because uCoz produces only links like : (underscore)
ru_gr/0-191
ru_gr/0-192
ru_gr/0-193
ru_gr/0-194
etc.


I think it better to address this question to Google support.

Quote Urs ()
What is the best way, with uCoz system, to be able to compete for single words - like names of known places - no matter what language is used or what country the term is searched from, using a gTLD (no ccTLDs).


There aren't any major differences in promoting uCoz and non-uCoz websites. Use the general principles to promote your website - internal optimization, unique quality content etc.

I'm not active on the forum anymore. Please contact other forum staff.
GEM
Posts: 32
Reputation: 0

Message # 10 | 6:58 PM
I think that GOOGLE is completely messed up
Their politics and filters and bots codes change so urgently fast that it does not make sence all that TOP-10 and stuff like that


WWW.DOGICA.COM / WWW.DOGICA.ORG
YOYOYO
Posts: 26
Reputation: 0

Message # 11 | 8:15 PM
Urs, i recommend to you to use two different modules (File Catalog an Publisher for example). Make them to look identic but translate them with your own words. I hope you get the idea.
Urs
Posts: 303
Reputation: 4

Message # 12 | 4:16 PM
Sunny, Wikipedia for example uses this structure :

wikipedia.com is the domain. The first page displays the language sites.

The language sites are :

en.Wikipedia.com
pl.Wikipedia.com
bg.Wikipedia.com
nl.Wikipedia.com
fr.Wikipedia.com
es.Wikipedia.com
...
etc.

If Wikipedia wants to write about something like "cheap coffee in Brazil"

For English language is : en.Wikipedia.com/wiki/cheap_coffee_in_Brazil (the /wiki is not mandatory so it could be in my case en.mysite.com/cheap_coffee_in_Brazil )

For French language is : fr.Wikipedia.com/wiki/café_pas_cher_au_Brésil (the /wiki is not mandatory so it could be in my case fr.mysite.com/café_pas_cher_au_Brésil )

The uCoz structure is : http://mysite.com/index/cheap_coffee_in_Brazil/0-160
Does this /0-160 can affect my rankings ? Why is this number in the URL, so that one can have multiple pages with the same name ?

Now i want to show something.
Consider uCoz.com - this domain will rank naturally good for "uCoz" keyword
If i make a new sub-domain on uCoz : cats.ucoz.com it will rank naturally good for "cats" keyword and will always be on first position for the keyword search "cats ucoz" but it will not rank very well for "uCoz" term.

In other words the name of a sub-domain represents a new site - with a new personality and the "cats" name is extremely important for the sub-domain just like "uCoz" name is for the domain.

The only benefit of having a good domain names in the case of multilingual / multinational sites ( that use sub-domains ) is if the word of the domain has high value for your primary target. For example if English is my primary target i would take a domain that is called cats.com and make sub-domains called (species of cats) : abyssinian.cats.com, Siberian.cats.com, Persian.cats.com

That way i will always be on first page for the keywords : "abyssinian cats" "Siberian.cats" "Persian cats". The downside is that i lost the possibility of having a truly international site (multilingual / multinational) by replacing .en .fr. .es etc. sub-domains with language specific sub-domains. (English in this case that describes the species of cats)

If you were me Sunny, in this situation, would you chose a Wikipedia style of website structure ?

en.mysite.com/about_cats
ru.mysite.com/о_кошках

etc.

What are your recommendations ?

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6059209
https://support.google.com/webmast....6059248
https://support.google.com/webmast....6059248
https://support.google.com/webmast....6059248

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en

How will i be able to change the hreflang tags on all pages if only 20 personalized pages are allowed and i am building a huge site ?

One more thing some sites go with : http://www.site.com/en-gb/page_name
Why isn't this possible on uCoz ?

Thank you helping me out.

Thassos Island Portal :
https://thassos.one
Post edited by Urs - Friday, 2014-08-01, 11:35 PM
Sunny
Posts: 9296
Reputation: 456

Message # 13 | 1:42 PM
Urs, you can use both subfolders and subdomains, there isn't much difference in terms of SEO. In my opinion, subdomains are easier to implement in uCoz, so I would choose the Wikipedia style.

Quote Urs ()
The uCoz structure is : http://mysite.com/index/cheap_coffee_in_Brazil/0-160
Does this /0-160 can affect my rankings ? Why is this number in the URL, so that one can have multiple pages with the same name ?


The numbers do not affect rankings. And they exist due to the uCoz's database structure.

Quote Urs ()
How will i be able to change the hreflang tags on all pages if only 20 personalized pages are allowed and i am building a huge site ?


You can use conditional operators, the same way as described here for meta tags: http://forum.ucoz.com/forum/42-18452-108216-16-1403879605

I'm not active on the forum anymore. Please contact other forum staff.
Urs
Posts: 303
Reputation: 4

Message # 14 | 5:28 PM
What happens to a sub-domain when you attach it to a domain ? Is it still available ? Does it redirect automatically to the new domain ? What happens with the page rank ?

What happens if i use : "Transfer an existing domain to uCoz DNS servers" and later for unknown reasons i have to move the domain somewhere else and attach it to another site ? Will the sub-domain be again available in the original form ? How cam you transfer a domain from uCoz DNS servers ? (back to registrar or where can i move it normally) ?

Thassos Island Portal :
https://thassos.one
Sunny
Posts: 9296
Reputation: 456

Message # 15 | 12:26 PM
Quote Urs ()
What happens to a sub-domain when you attach it to a domain ?


You attach a subdomain to a website, not to a domain. When you attach a domain to a uCoz website, you can then create subdomains for this domain in the Control Panel of the website where you attached the domain. Then, for subdomains to be available online, you need to attach each of them somewhere (uCoz website, non-uCoz website).

Quote Urs ()
Does it redirect automatically to the new domain ?


Do you mean redirection from a ucoz system domain to the attached one? Such automatic redirection can be enabled in Common Settings.

Quote Urs ()
What happens with the page rank ?


After you attach a custom domain?

Quote Urs ()
What happens if i use : "Transfer an existing domain to uCoz DNS servers" and later for unknown reasons i have to move the domain somewhere else and attach it to another site ? Will the sub-domain be again available in the original form ?


The subdomains will stop working, you will need to re-create them in the new domain control panel and then re-attach them to the websites.

Quote Urs ()
How cam you transfer a domain from uCoz DNS servers ?


You just change the name servers from the uCoz's DNS into any other DNS you need.

I'm not active on the forum anymore. Please contact other forum staff.
uCoz Community » General Information » First Steps with uCoz » How to properly make a multi-regional & multilingual site ? (Questions & help is needed)
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