Translating isn't enough: you have to tell search engines which version is for whom. The four possible architectures, how languages are declared, what to translate beyond the words, and how to check it works.
by Nadia Maar ·
The moment a company decides to sell abroad usually looks the same: the site gets translated into English, a flag goes in the top-right corner, and everyone waits. Months pass and almost nothing arrives from abroad — not because the translation is bad, but because nobody told search engines that version exists and who it's for.
The missing part is cheap and done once: a coherent URL architecture, the language declarations, and translating the parts nobody translates. This piece is the list.
| Architecture | When it makes sense |
|---|---|
| Country domain (example.de) | A strong, structured presence in that market: it costs more and authority has to be earned from scratch |
| Subdomain (de.example.com) | When infrastructure or editorial teams must be separate; to engines it stays an almost distinct site |
| Subfolder (example.com/de/) | The right choice for almost everyone: the domain's authority is one pool and it accumulates |
| Parameter (?lang=de) | Avoid: fragile to index and easy to get wrong |
Whichever road you take, the rule holds: every version needs its own stable address. A page that changes language without changing address is, to a search engine, one page whose content moves — and one of the two languages stays invisible.
Versions are declared with hreflang: every page lists itself and its translations. The code is trivial; the mistakes are almost always about consistency.
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="it" href="https://example.com/prodotti/borsa" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/en/products/bag" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.com/de/produkte/tasche" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/prodotti/borsa" />
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/prodotti/borsa" />Three rules: the declaration is reciprocal (if the English page doesn't name the Italian one, the pair doesn't count), every page names itself too, and each version's canonical points to itself — not to the main language. A canonical pointing at the original language is the most common mistake, and it removes every other language from the index.
Translating visible content is half the job. The other half decides how the page appears in results and how it behaves when someone buys:
This site is bilingual and uses the subfolder structure with reciprocal hreflang: it's the architecture we recommend, and the one it runs on.
The question always arrives backwards: "how many languages should we add?". The useful answer starts somewhere else — which markets you can actually serve — because a language opened and then neglected costs more than a language that isn't there.
Two languages kept well sell more than six translated once and then left to sit — and engines notice before customers do: pages that are never updated slip, and drag down trust in the rest of the folder.
The right order is: URL architecture, declarations, then translation. Reverse it and you translate twice — the second time after moving everything.
In the free SEO analysis we look at where your site stands today for foreign markets, and what it takes for those pages to exist for search engines at all.
For almost everyone, subfolders: the domain's authority stays in one pool and accumulates. A country domain makes sense with a strong, structured presence in that market, and its authority has to be earned from scratch. URL parameters are best avoided.
Every page lists itself and all its translations, the declaration is reciprocal, and each version's canonical points to itself. A canonical pointing at the main language is the most common mistake, and it removes every other language from the index.
No. You also need titles and meta descriptions rewritten on the words people search in that language, image alternative text, checkout microcopy, transactional emails and the destination market's legal pages.
Yes, when the redirect is automatic and forced: a crawler arriving from a foreign address will never see the original-language version. Offer the language, don't impose it.