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.