When considering international growth, one of the first questions international SEO agency and brand teams deal with – and consistently debate over – is nailing down the best URL structure for a multi-country and multilingual site. The international domain structure decision is crucial; it acts as a clear, necessary statement of intent for search engines and your worldwide customer base.
When AccuraCast’s international SEO experts are asked, “what is the best URL structure for international SEO?“, we’re basically helping them decide on the ideal approach for housing market-specific content. Should the business launch completely separate regional websites, or keep everything consolidated under one main, powerful domain? Are sub-domains better or should sub-directories be used? Every choice involves a calculated trade-off concerning domain authority, running costs, and technical complexity. Getting this wrong at the start can saddle the business with technical debt later on.
SEO / GEO and editorial teams have three primary multilingual website architectural choices.
Three foundations of worldwide presence: ccTLDs, subdirectories, and subdomains
You have three domain-level options to signal to Google, ChatGPT, and your users exactly which content is meant for which language or country.
1. Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)
Example: example.de (Germany), example.co.uk (United Kingdom)
ccTLDs provide the most powerful geographic indication possible. A country-code domain immediately signals to search engines and users that the entire website is specifically focused on that particular nation. This instantly builds local trust and frequently drives an improved organic click-through rate, as users naturally favour local domains for local services. SE Ranking, 2025 data confirms ccTLDs secure a substantial number of Google’s highest ranking spots globally, cementing their role as the clearest geographic marker.
Nonetheless, they do carry significant operational limitations. Adopting ccTLDs is comparable to setting up distinct, comprehensive corporate entities in every market.
- Disadvantages of ccTLDs:
- They demand substantial resources and financial outlay. You must purchase, manage, and sustain several individual domains and populate and regularly update their content. Costs include:
- Domain registration, hosting, SSL certificates, local legal fees.
- Technical cost of managing multiple websites or a more complicated multi-site CMS.
- Additional PR for each domain.
- Link building for each domain.
- Potential additional content localisation requirements.
- Printed collateral and merchandise production.
- Need to update local sites more regularly, because simply updating the main domain will no longer suffice.
- Authority becomes fragmented because Google views each ccTLD as an individual asset; the company must establish link equity and domain authority from scratch for every additional country. This task of building trust and authority is especially critical for heavily regulated industries like financial services.
- They demand substantial resources and financial outlay. You must purchase, manage, and sustain several individual domains and populate and regularly update their content. Costs include:
- Best for: Large corporations with substantial budgets and resources, or those operating in countries (like China) where local domain necessity is critical for compliance or market credibility.
- AccuraCast’s recommendation: Thoroughly consider all the resource implications of maintaining multiple ccTLDs, also consider whether the business can sustain the level of investment to maintain and grow each ccTLD over the next 3-5 years. If you can absorb the costs, we recommend using ccTLDs.
Amazon is a prominent example of a major global brand that uses ccTLDs. This sends a powerful trust signal to local customers demonstrating dedication to their market, and gives Amazon a significant SEO boost, helping them often outrank other international competitors.
2. Subdirectories (Subfolders)
Example: example.com/gb/, example.com/de/
The subdirectory option simply involves assigning a language or country folder under your top-level domain. This is commonly viewed as the lowest cost and most scalable option for global growth.
- Benefits of subdirectories:
- All international content remains unified under one single, reliable root domain.
- This framework provides the best integration of SEO authority and link equity. When your primary domain earns important inbound links, that authority is efficiently distributed across all subdirectories.
- New market folders get a considerable advantage, facilitating much quicker ranking in new areas.
- Limitations of subdirectories:
- While excellent for authority, this approach requires careful application of hreflang declarations, canonical tags, and accurate language and character set declarations in the HTML.
- The loss of that immediate local trust indicator a ccTLD provides.
- Optimal for: Start-ups, scale-ups and mid-sized international firms seeking rapid, effective global outreach by utilising the recognised credibility of their primary brand domain.
Because they enable single-domain consolidation, effectively making management and content production a lot more cost-effective, subdirectories account for a substantial share of successful top-ranking global websites.
- AccuraCast’s recommendation: When scaling your business or starting your international growth journey, we recommend using subdirectories for language & country targeting, and only using ccTLDs where you are legally required to be compliant.
Nike and IKEA are examples of large international enterprise brands that opt to use subdirectories rather than ccTLDs. This demonstrates consolidation under a main domain name, and focus on the brand identity linked to the international domain.
3. Subdomains
Example: uk.example.com, fr.example.com
Subdomains initially gained popularity because they offered technical separation from the primary site. They allow regional teams to manage content autonomously and utilise distinct content management systems.
- The SEO reality: While Google claims it can handle content similarly on both subdomains and subdirectories, the prevailing view among SEO experts is that subdomains are mostly regarded as semi-autonomous entities. Consequently, much like ccTLDs, they typically do not automatically receive the complete link equity of the primary domain, and nor do they benefit from the trust and clear localisation signals of ccTLDs. The company needs to build the authority of uk.example.com largely independently of example.com.
- Ideal for: Organisations that require distinctly varied functionalities or unique infrastructure for particular regions (e.g., an exclusive support forum or a separate application ecosystem). For an uncomplicated multi-region or multi-language targeting, subdirectories are generally preferred for consolidating link equity.
- AccuraCast’s recommendation: Avoid using subdomains for geo-localisation or language differentiation.
For further information, read my guide to Local SEO and International SEO technical strategy.
Comparison table
| Option | SEO Strength | Trust | Operational Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| ccTLDs | 💪💪💪 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | 💸💸💸💸💸 |
| Subdirectories | 💪💪💪💪💪 | ⭐⭐⭐ | 💸 |
| Subdomains | 💪 | ⭐⭐ | 💸💸💸 |
Should you change from ccTLD to subdirectories?
If you find the operational complexities of managing multiple domains, creating equal amounts of content for each domain, and doing PR or building links for each domain too expensive, too inefficient, or just impossible for your team to handle, it might be a good idea to consider your options:
- Partner with an agency to increase capacity – this lets you preserve the local trust and dedicated resource signals your customers and search engine value, but it will cost you more.
- Consolidate domains – this requires quite a lot of technical change and content movement, but once it’s done, the overall cost of maintenance will reduce. However, this comes at the cost of signalling commitment to a market.
If you do decide to migrate multiple ccTLDs to a single domain and use subdirectories for each language + location culture, here are a few pointers to keep in mind:
- Implement page-level redirect rules to preserve link equity.
- Search and replace internal links at the database level.
- Where possible, update third-party links to point to the new URL.
- Invest in new link growth campaigns for the new country + language URLs.
- Make your customers aware of the changes.
When should you change from subdirectories to ccTLDs?
If you find international customers in certain countries don’t trust the brand, the local regulations require a ccTLD, search engines in the country prefer websites with the local domain extension, or the vast majority of prominent search results are from local ccTLDs then you should consider using ccTLDs, so long as you have the resources and can commit to maintaining those additional domains.
AccuraCast’s international SEO specialists suggest the following tips for businesses considering a move to ccTLDs:
- You don’t have to move instantly from one domain to new domains for every single country you operate in. Start with the most important ones – the ones where you have a regulatory obligation to maintain a ccTLD – and then you can gradually roll out other national sites.
- Here too, you must implement page-level redirect rules to preserve link equity.
- Search and replace internal links at the database level.
- Hreflang declarations are still important, and should be updated for the new ccTLD URLs.
- Where possible, update third-party links to point to the new URL.
- Invest in digital PR and link building campaigns at the national level for each ccTLD.
- Make your customers aware of the changes.
Core URL structure principles: It’s all about localisation
No matter which architecture you select, the exact URL structure for international SEO within that system must follow technical best practices closely, many of which Google consistently highlights.
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Reflect the audience’s language
This cannot be negotiated. The keywords in the URL should always reflect the language of the page, rather than solely using the main language of your primary domain. According to Google Search Central documentation, if your audience is searching in German, the URL should include German terms.
Effective Localisation Example: Instead of example.com/de/peppermint-tea/, use the localised path: example.com/de/pfefferminz-tee/.
The Rationale: This helps search engines correctly identify the content, but more importantly, it instantly builds trust with the user directly on the search results page.
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Technical hygiene: URL formatting rules to live by
To guarantee optimal crawlability and readability, the subsequent structural elements are essential, regardless of whether you employ a ccTLD or a subfolder:
Use hyphens, not underscores: Google recommends using hyphens (–) to separate words in your URLs. This practice assists both search engines and users in reading and identifying concepts more easily.
Keep it lowercase: URLs are case-sensitive after the domain name. To avoid confusing servers and creating unintended duplicate content (e.g., /Contact vs /contact), use lowercase letters for easy, complete consistency.
Ensure clean and concise structure: Avoid redundant stop words (the, and, of). Use descriptive, concise words that reflect the page’s core content. The URL should serve as a simple, helpful navigational cue for both the user and the search engine crawler.
Restrict unnecessary parameters: Minimise the inclusion of dynamic parameters (like ?session=12345 or ?tracking-code=xyz) by declaring canonical URLs, as these parameters lead to duplicate content issues and waste crawling resources.
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Hreflang declarations
Even the strongest URL structure for international SEO can fail without the proper use of hreflang tags or hreflang declarations in the sitemap or server headers. These essential lines of code clearly indicate to Google, ChatGPT, and other search spiders & LLMs the exact language and country that a given page targets and, importantly, where the corresponding pages for all other regions can be found.
For instance, your UK-focused page needs a tag referencing its US version, its Canadian counterpart, and the other way around. This mapping serves as a crucial technical protection, stopping search engines and generative AI platforms from identifying your required identical content (such as product specifications) as duplicate, thus ensuring that the appropriate page version is presented in the relevant local search results. Conversely, these declarations also help ensure large enterprise clients are only shown the products / services available in their country.
Read our guide on optimising global enterprise sites for multilingual & multi-market search.
Summary: What is the best URL structure for international SEO?
The ultimate choice of global SEO domain strategy requires weighing operational efficiency against the confidence of local users. This decision table gives a simplified view, that should help guide the SEO decision for domain architecture in most situations:
| Situation | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Regulated market | ccTLD |
| >3 languages, but shared governance | Subdirectories |
| Unique brand / product / functionality in a market | Subdomain |
For most companies in the international expanding stages, especially those functioning in various languages or areas within a single continent, AccuraCast recommends the gTLD with subdirectories (example.com/de/), as it proves the most sensible and effective choice. It centralises link equity, streamlines maintenance, and offers the simplest tracking setup, thereby unifying SEO benefits under one single, strong domain.
Conversely, if you’re aiming for a premium market with a large budget, or if local trust is the most crucial aspect (consider particular legal or financial services SEO), the ccTLD (e.g., example.de) may very well warrant the considerable technical and monetary investment. This is due to its unique local trust indication. As the search landscape continues to evolve, streamlining your domain structure is often beneficial for future flexibility.
For an up-to-date strategic understanding of traffic patterns and the evolution of search with the advent of AI, consult our examination on steering through the AI Overviews era.
Simply put, the domain structure is just the container. Genuine success hinges on localisation – utilising authentic native languages, maintaining strict clean URL practices, and implementing hreflang accurately. The structure positions you within the framework; the calibre of your performance determines your achievements in internationally.
Ready to establish the ideal global framework for your brand’s upcoming stage of international expansion? Don’t rely on luck for your global SEO strategy. Forward planning and realistic estimations will help clarify this critical decision.
