As a site owner you want search engines to point people to the most “fitting” language. For instance, if you’re Dutch, you’d rather see the Dutch version than the English version, if the Dutch version is available. But sometimes you might want to switch. For instance, if you’re aboard, you’d want to be able to switch from the English version to the Dutch version. So what’s the best way to get people to the correct language or country subdomain? Hear what I have to say about this in this Ask Yoast!
In this Ask Yoast, we’ll answer a question from Ed Jones out of London, UK. He asked:
“We’ve merged ccTLD sites to a single gTLD site. So, for instance .org, .de etc. into one domain where they have /de, /en etc. What’s the best way to get people to the correct subdomain: a location selection pop-up, a redirect based on IP, or a location selection homepage?”
Check out the video or read the answer below!
Getting users to the right subdomain
Check out the video or read the answer below!
To be honest, probably a combination of all three at some point, because you want to do it on IP: you want to just move people to the right site. But you also want to give them the option to switch to another site. Because I’m Dutch, I’ll probably want to buy from your Dutch site, but I’m in the UK a lot. So, when I’m in the UK and I go to your site, you’d redirect me to your UK site, but I’d still want to buy from your Dutch site, so I need to be able to switch.
So, you have to think about “Okay, what are the different ways of going about that?” I’d go with a default on IP and allow people to switch with something like a flag in your header. So you can switch to another country, if you need to switch. I hope that works.
Good luck!
Ask Yoast
In the series Ask Yoast we answer SEO questions from followers. Need help with SEO? Let us help you out! Send your question to ask@yoast.com.