Automatic locale redirection
IP-based redirects · Language detection
Redirecting users to a country or language version based on IP address or browser settings, a pattern Google warns can prevent crawling of other versions.
Glossary category
International
Multiple languages, multiple markets, and the targeting mechanics that keep them apart.
11 terms
ccTLD
Country code top-level domain
A top-level domain assigned to a country or territory, such as .de or .fr, which carries an inherent and unchangeable geo-targeting signal.
Geo-targeting
International targeting
Signalling which country a site or section is intended for, through ccTLD choice, hreflang region codes, server location, local links and language.
hreflang
rel=alternate hreflang
An annotation declaring alternate language or regional versions of a page, so search engines serve the appropriate one to each user.
hreflang x-default
x-default
The hreflang value marking the fallback page for users whose language or region does not match any specified alternate.
International SEO
Global SEO
Structuring and optimising a site so the right language and country version is served to the right audience in each market's search results.
Internationalised domain name
IDN · Punycode
A domain name containing non-ASCII characters, encoded for DNS as ASCII Punycode beginning with `xn--`.
Multilingual SEO
Multi-language SEO
Optimising a site that serves several languages, ensuring each version is fully indexable, correctly annotated and not mixed within a single page.
Multilingual sitemaps
Sitemap hreflang
XML sitemaps carrying `xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang` annotations, an alternative to placing hreflang in page head markup.
Subdirectory vs subdomain vs ccTLD
Subfolder vs subdomain
The three URL structures for international sites, example.com/de/, de.example.com and example.de, each with different authority consolidation and operational costs.
Transcreation
Creative localisation
Recreating content for another market so it works culturally and commercially, rather than translating it word for word.