{"id":25626,"date":"2026-09-05T02:46:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T23:46:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/google-bilgi-bankasi\/managing-multi-regional-and-multilingual-sites\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T02:46:47","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T23:46:47","slug":"managing-multi-regional-and-multilingual-sites","status":"publish","type":"ar_kb","link":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/google-bilgi-bankasi\/managing-multi-regional-and-multilingual-sites\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If your site offers different content to users in different languages, countries, or regions,<br \/>\n  you can optimize Google Search results for your site.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"whats-the-difference-between-multilingual-and-multi-regional\" tabindex=\"-1\">\n  What&#8217;s the difference between multilingual and multi-regional?<br \/>\n<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A <i>multilingual<\/i> website is any website that offers content in more than<br \/>\n    one language. For example, a Canadian business with English and French versions of its site.<br \/>\n    Google Search tries to find pages that match the language of the searcher.<\/li>\n<li>A <i>multi-regional<\/i> website is one that explicitly targets users in different<br \/>\n    countries. For example, a product manufacturer that ships to both Canada and the United States.<br \/>\n    Google Search tries to find the right locale page for the searcher.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some sites are both multi-regional and multilingual: for example, a site might have different<br \/>\n  versions for the USA and for Canada, and both French and English versions of the Canadian content.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"multilingual\" tabindex=\"-1\">Managing multilingual versions of your site<\/h2>\n<div class=\"video-wrapper\">\n<\/div>\n<p>If you have identical content in multiple languages on your site, here are some tips for<br \/>\n  helping users (and Google Search) find the right page:<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"use-different-urls-for-different-language-versions\" tabindex=\"-1\">Use different URLs for different language versions<\/h3>\n<p>Google recommends using different URLs for each language version of a page rather than using<br \/>\n  cookies or browser settings to adjust the content language on the page.<\/p>\n<p>If you use different URLs for different languages, use<br \/>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/google-bilgi-bankasi\/localized-versions\/\"><code>hreflang<\/code> annotations<\/a><br \/>\n    to help Google Search results link to the correct language version of a page.<\/p>\n<p>If you prefer to dynamically change content or reroute the user based on language settings,<br \/>\n  <b>be aware that Google might not find and crawl all your variations<\/b>. This is<br \/>\n  because the Googlebot crawler usually originates from the USA. In addition, the crawler sends<br \/>\n  HTTP requests without setting <code>Accept-Language<\/code> in the request header.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"tell-google-about-your-different-language-versions\" tabindex=\"-1\">Tell Google about your different language versions<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/google-bilgi-bankasi\/localized-versions\/\">Google supports several different<br \/>\n  methods for labeling language or region variants of a page<\/a>, including <code>hreflang<\/code> annotations<br \/>\n  and sitemaps. Mark your pages appropriately.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"make-sure-the-page-language-is-obvious\" tabindex=\"-1\">Make sure the page language is obvious<\/h3>\n<p>Google uses the visible content of your page to determine its language. We don&#8217;t use any<br \/>\n  code-level language information such as <code>lang<\/code> attributes, or the URL. You can help<br \/>\n  Google determine the language correctly by using a single language for content and navigation<br \/>\n  on each page, and by avoiding side-by-side translations.<\/p>\n<p>Translating only the boilerplate text of your pages while keeping the bulk of your content in<br \/>\n  a single language (as often happens on pages featuring user-generated content) can create a<br \/>\n  bad user experience if the same content appears multiple times in search results with various<br \/>\n  boilerplate languages.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"let-the-user-switch-the-page-language\" tabindex=\"-1\">Let the user switch the page language<\/h3>\n<p>If you have multiple versions of a page:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Avoid automatically redirecting<\/b> users from one language version of a site to a<br \/>\n    different language version of a site. For example, don&#8217;t redirect based on what you think the<br \/>\n    user&#8217;s language may be. These redirections could prevent users (and search<br \/>\n    engines) from viewing all the versions of your site.<\/li>\n<li><b>Consider adding hyperlinks to other language versions of a page<\/b>. That way<br \/>\n    users can click to choose a different language version of the page.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 id=\"use-language-specific-urls\" tabindex=\"-1\">Use language-specific URLs<\/h3>\n<p>It&#8217;s fine to use localized words in the URL, or to use an<br \/>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Internationalized_domain_name\" class=\"external-link\">Internationalized Domain Name (IDN)<\/a>.<br \/>\n  However, be sure to use UTF-8 encoding in the URL (in fact, we recommend<br \/>\n  using UTF-8 wherever possible) and remember to escape the URLs properly when linking to them.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"geotargeting\" tabindex=\"-1\">Targeting site content to a specific country (geotargeting)<\/h2>\n<p>You can target your website or parts of it to users in a single specific country that speaks<br \/>\n  a specific language. This can improve your page rankings in the target country, but at the<br \/>\n  expense of results in other locales or languages.<\/p>\n<p><b>To geotarget your site<\/b> on Google:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Page or site level:<\/b> Use <a href=\"#locale-specific-urls\">locale-specific<br \/>\n    URLs for your site or page<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><b>Page level:<\/b><br \/>\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/google-bilgi-bankasi\/localized-versions\/\">Use <code>hreflang<\/code> or sitemaps<\/a><br \/>\n    to tell Google which pages apply to which locations or languages.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Remember that geotargeting isn&#8217;t an exact science, so it&#8217;s important to consider users who<br \/>\n  land on the &#8220;wrong&#8221; version of your site. One way to do this could be to show links on all<br \/>\n  pages for users to select their region and\/or language of choice.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"caution\"><b>Don&#8217;t use IP analysis to adapt your content.<\/b> IP<br \/>\n  location analysis is difficult and generally not reliable. Furthermore, Google may not be<br \/>\n  able to crawl variations of your site properly. Most, but not all, Google crawls originate<br \/>\n  from the US, and we don&#8217;t attempt to vary the location to detect site variations. Use one of<br \/>\n  the explicit methods shown here (<code>hreflang<\/code>, alternate URLs, and explicit links).<\/aside>\n<h3 id=\"locale-specific-urls\" tabindex=\"-1\">Using locale-specific URLs<\/h3>\n<p>Consider using a URL structure that makes it easy to geotarget your site, or parts of it, to<br \/>\n  different regions. The following table describes your options:<\/p>\n<table class=\"details responsive\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th colspan=\"2\">\n        URL structure options\n      <\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Country-specific domain<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\n          <code>example.de<\/code>\n        <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<table class=\"nested responsive\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"50%\">\n<p><span class=\"compare-yes\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span><b>Pros:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Clear geotargeting<\/li>\n<li>Server location irrelevant<\/li>\n<li>Easy separation of sites<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p><span class=\"compare-no\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span><b>Cons:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Expensive (can have limited availability)<\/li>\n<li>Requires more infrastructure<\/li>\n<li>Strict ccTLD requirements (sometimes)<\/li>\n<li>Can only target a single country<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Subdomains with gTLD<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\n          <code>de.example.com<\/code>\n        <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<table class=\"nested responsive\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"50%\">\n<p><span class=\"compare-yes\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span><b>Pros:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Easy to set up<\/li>\n<li>Allows different server locations<\/li>\n<li>Easy separation of sites<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p><span class=\"compare-no\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span><b>Cons:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Users might not recognize geotargeting from the URL alone (is &#8220;de&#8221; the<br \/>\n                    language or country?)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Subdirectories with gTLD<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\n          <code>example.com\/de\/<\/code>\n        <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<table class=\"nested responsive\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"50%\">\n<p><span class=\"compare-yes\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span><b>Pros:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Easy to set up<\/li>\n<li>Low maintenance (same host)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p><span class=\"compare-no\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span><b>Cons:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Users might not recognize geotargeting from the URL alone<\/li>\n<li>Single server location<\/li>\n<li>Separation of sites harder<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>URL parameters<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\n          <code>site.com?loc=de<\/code>\n        <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<table class=\"nested responsive\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"50%\">\n                Not recommended.\n              <\/td>\n<td>\n<p><span class=\"compare-no\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span><b>Cons:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>URL-based segmentation difficult<\/li>\n<li>Users might not recognize geotargeting from the URL alone<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h3 id=\"how-does-google-determine-a-target-locale\" tabindex=\"-1\">How does Google determine a target locale?<\/h3>\n<p>Google relies on a number of signals to determine the best target audience for a page:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n    <b>Country-code top-level domain names<\/b> (ccTLDs). These are tied to a specific country<br \/>\n    (for example .de for Germany, .cn for China), and therefore provide a strong signal to both<br \/>\n    users and search engines that your site is explicitly intended for a certain country. Some<br \/>\n    countries have restrictions on who can use ccTLDs, so be sure to do your research first. We<br \/>\n    also treat some vanity ccTLDs (such as .tv and .me) as gTLDs, as we&#8217;ve found that users and<br \/>\n    website owners frequently see these as being more generic than country-targeted. See<br \/>\n    <a href=\"#generic-domains\">Google&#8217;s list of gTLDs<\/a>.\n  <\/li>\n<li>\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/google-bilgi-bankasi\/localized-versions\/\"><b><code>hreflang<\/code> statements<\/b><\/a>,<br \/>\n    whether in tags, headers, or sitemaps.\n  <\/li>\n<li>\n    <b>Server location (through the IP address of the server).<\/b> The server location<br \/>\n    is often physically near your users and can be a signal about your site&#8217;s intended audience.<br \/>\n    Some websites use distributed content delivery networks (CDNs) or are hosted in a country<br \/>\n    with better webserver infrastructure, so it is not a definitive signal.\n  <\/li>\n<li>\n    <b>Other signals.<\/b> Other signals to identify the intended audience of your site can<br \/>\n    include local addresses and phone numbers on the pages, the use of local language<br \/>\n    and currency, links from other local sites, or signals from your<br \/>\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/business\/\" class=\"external-link\">Business Profile<\/a><br \/>\n    (where available).\n  <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What Google <i>doesn&#8217;t<\/i> do:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Google crawls the web from different locations around the world. We do <b>not<\/b><br \/>\n    attempt to vary the crawler source used for a single site in order to find any possible<br \/>\n    variations in a page. Therefore, make sure you explicitly tell Google about any locale or<br \/>\n    language variation that your site exposes, using one of the methods shown here (such as <code>hreflang<\/code><br \/>\n    entries, ccTLDs, or explicit links).<\/li>\n<li>Google <b>ignores<\/b> locational <code>meta<\/code> tags (like <code>geo.position<\/code> oder<br \/>\n    <code>distribution<\/code>) or geotargeting HTML attributes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"dup-content\" tabindex=\"-1\">Handling duplicate pages with multilingual\/multi-regional sites<\/h2>\n<p>If you provide similar or duplicate content on different URLs in the same language as part of<br \/>\n  a multi-regional site (for instance, if both <code>example.de\/<\/code> and <code>example.com\/de\/<\/code><br \/>\n  show similar German language content), pick a preferred version and use the<br \/>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/google-bilgi-bankasi\/specify-canonical\/\"><code>rel=\"canonical\"<\/code> element<\/a><br \/>\n  and <a href=\"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/google-bilgi-bankasi\/localized-versions\/\"><code>hreflang<\/code><\/a><br \/>\n  tags to make sure that the correct language or regional URL is served to searchers.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"generic-domains\" tabindex=\"-1\">Generic top-level domains<\/h3>\n<p>\n  Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are domains that aren&#8217;t associated with specific locations.<br \/>\n  If your site has a generic top-level domain such as .com, .org, or any of the following domains,<br \/>\n  and wants to target users in a particular geographic location, explicitly<br \/>\n  set a country target using one of the methods described previously.<\/p>\n<p>Google treats the following top level domains as gTLDs:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n    <b>Generic Top Level Domains<\/b>: Unless ICANN lists a top-level domain as a<br \/>\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iana.org\/domains\/root\/db\" class=\"external-link\">country code top-level domain<\/a><br \/>\n    (ccTLD), Google will treat any TLD that resolves through the IANA DNS root zone<br \/>\n    as a gTLD. <b>Examples:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>.com<\/li>\n<li>.org<\/li>\n<li>.edu<\/li>\n<li>.gov<\/li>\n<li>and many more&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n    <b>Generic regional top-level domains<\/b>: Although these domains are associated with a<br \/>\n    geographical region, they are generally treated as generic top-level domains (much like<br \/>\n    .com or .org):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>.eu<\/li>\n<li>.asia<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n    <b>Generic Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs)<\/b>: Google treats some ccTLDs (such as<br \/>\n    .tv and .me) as gTLDs, as we&#8217;ve found that users and website owners frequently see these<br \/>\n    more generic than country-targeted. Here is a list of those ccTLDs (this list may change).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>.ad<\/li>\n<li>.ai<\/li>\n<li>.as<\/li>\n<li>.bz<\/li>\n<li>.cc<\/li>\n<li>.cd<\/li>\n<li>.co<\/li>\n<li>.dj<\/li>\n<li>.fm<\/li>\n<li>.io<\/li>\n<li>.la<\/li>\n<li>.me<\/li>\n<li>.ms<\/li>\n<li>.nu<\/li>\n<li>.sc<\/li>\n<li>.sr<\/li>\n<li>.su<\/li>\n<li>.tv<\/li>\n<li>.tk<\/li>\n<li>.ws<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Multi-regional and multilingual sites can be optimized for Search. Learn more about managing SEO for sites with multiple languages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"menu_order":149,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"ar_kb_kategori":[704],"ar_kb_etiket":[],"class_list":["post-25626","ar_kb","type-ar_kb","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ar_kb_kategori-international-and-multilingual"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ar_kb\/25626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ar_kb"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ar_kb"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ar_kb\/25626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ar_kb_kategori","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ar_kb_kategori?post=25626"},{"taxonomy":"ar_kb_etiket","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ar_kb_etiket?post=25626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}