--- title: "Subdomain vs subdirectory for a multilingual website" description: "Subdirectory, subdomain or country domain for each language? What Google's documentation says about each, the costs it leaves out, and when each one fits." url: "https://www.langrelay.com/blog/subdomain-vs-subdirectory-multilingual-seo" --- 1. [Home](https://www.langrelay.com/) 2. [Blog](https://www.langrelay.com/blog) 3. Subdomain vs subdirectory for a multilingual website ArticleMultilingual SEO # Subdomain vs subdirectory for a multilingual website Subdirectory, subdomain or country domain for each language? What Google's documentation says about each, the costs it leaves out, and when each one fits. [Chris Jayden](https://www.langrelay.com/about) Founder Published 6 October 2026 Reading time 6 min read ![Two children on opposite hillsides of a cherry-blossom valley fly kites whose strings cross, the bigger kite patterned in leaf tiles.](https://www.langrelay.com/_emdash/api/media/file/01M4ET8DTX8VNPFX2FQDQ16MGV.webp) On this page 1. Does Google prefer a subdomain or a subdirectory? 2. Language is not country 3. What each structure costs to run 4. When a subdomain is the better choice 5. When a country domain is the better choice 6. Regional versions inside subdirectories 7. Changing structure later 8. What LangRelay serves For a site that offers the same pages in several languages, a subdirectory per language (`example.com/de/`) is the simplest structure to run. Google's documentation lists pros and cons for it, for subdomains (`de.example.com`) and for country domains (`example.de`), and does not say that a subdomain or a subdirectory ranks better. What separates them is the work: hosting, certificates, Search Console reporting and how far each language can drift from the rest. Choose a subdomain or a country domain when you have a reason the subdirectory cannot meet. ## Does Google prefer a subdomain or a subdirectory? Google's page on multi-regional and multilingual sites, last updated on 2025-12-10, compares four URL structures. Its table, condensed: | Structure | Example | Pros | Cons | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Country-specific domain | `example.de` | Clear geotargeting; server location irrelevant; easy separation of sites | Expensive (can have limited availability); requires more infrastructure; strict ccTLD requirements (sometimes); can only target a single country | | Subdomains with gTLD | `de.example.com` | Easy to set up; allows different server locations; easy separation of sites | Users might not recognize geotargeting from the URL alone (is "de" the language or country?) | | Subdirectories with gTLD | `example.com/de/` | Easy to set up; low maintenance (same host) | Users might not recognize geotargeting from the URL alone; single server location; separation of sites harder | | URL parameters | `site.com?loc=de` | Not recommended | URL-based segmentation difficult; users might not recognize geotargeting from the URL alone | The table is written about geotargeting, meaning pages meant for one country, and most of its pros and cons are about operations. It gives neither subdomains nor subdirectories a search advantage over the other. The same page says Google does not use the URL to work out a page's language: "Google uses the visible content of your page to determine its language. We don't use any code-level language information such as lang attributes, or the URL." The one structure Google treats differently is the country domain. Its list of signals for a page's target country starts with ccTLDs, which it says "provide a strong signal to both users and search engines that your site is explicitly intended for a certain country". Some country endings do not count: Google treats `.io`, `.co`, `.me`, `.tv` and others on its list as generic domains. ## Language is not country Much of the debate mixes two questions. A multilingual site offers the same content in several languages. A multi-regional site targets different countries, often with different prices, products or legal terms. Google's documentation draws exactly this line and gives a Canadian business with English and French pages as its example of the first. If you translate your site into German so German speakers can read it, wherever they live, you have a language question, and a country domain is the wrong tool, since Google says it "can only target a single country". A German speaker in Austria or Switzerland is as much your reader as one in Germany. If you sell to Germany specifically, with a German company, German prices and German returns, a country domain starts to make sense. Search Console used to let you set a target country for a generic domain. Google deprecated that report and the setting with it, saying that country targeting through Search Console "was determined to have little value for the ecosystem, and is no longer supported". What remains are the other signals Google lists: ccTLDs, hreflang annotations, server location, and local addresses, currency and links. ## What each structure costs to run For the team that keeps the site running, the three structures differ as follows. This table is our assessment, apart from the Search Console row: | | Subdirectory `/de/` | Subdomain `de.` | Country domain `.de` | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | DNS and certificates | None beyond the main site | A DNS record and a certificate that covers each subdomain | A domain registration, DNS and a certificate for each country | | Hosting | One site | One site with host routing, or separate sites | Usually separate sites, or one site serving several domains | | Search Console | Included in the main property; add a URL-prefix property per language if you want separate reports | Included in a Domain property, which covers every subdomain; otherwise one URL-prefix property each | A separate property for each domain | | Links between languages | Stay on one host | Cross from one host to another | Cross from one domain to another | | Drift between languages | Low: one theme, one deployment | Medium: easy to split across platforms | High: each site tends to grow its own way | The Search Console row comes from Google's help page on property types: a Domain property "aggregates data for all subdomains, protocols, and subpaths", and a URL-prefix property such as `https://example.com/spain/` lets you report on one subdirectory. ## When a subdomain is the better choice A subdomain earns its extra setup when the language versions really are separate sites. Google's two pros that subdirectories do not share are "allows different server locations" and "easy separation of sites". In practice that covers cases like these: - A regional team runs its own CMS or platform for its market, and you cannot or do not want to merge it into the main site. - A language version is hosted by a partner or a translation proxy that needs its own hostname. - A contract or a regulator requires one market's site to be hosted in a specific country. Without one of these, a subdomain adds infrastructure and gives you the same pages. ## When a country domain is the better choice A country domain fits a business that operates in that country as a separate entity, with its own prices, stock, contact details or legal terms, and wants local visitors to recognize it at a glance. Google's documentation is clear that the domain is a strong country signal, and equally clear about the cost: it is expensive, some countries restrict who may register, and each domain targets one country. For a site that wants Spanish speakers in Spain, Mexico and Argentina, a `.es` domain would narrow the audience you meant to widen. ## Regional versions inside subdirectories Subdirectories handle regional variants without extra machinery. A site can serve Brazilian Portuguese as its catch-all `/pt/` page and European Portuguese at `/pt-pt/`, with hreflang values `pt` and `pt-PT`, and add `/en-gb/` beside its American English original. Google's documentation suggests a catch-all page for each language with regional versions, which here is the plain `/pt/` page. The [hreflang guide](https://www.langrelay.com/guides/hreflang) covers the codes and the rest of the set. ## Changing structure later Moving languages from subdomains to subdirectories, or the other way, means every translated URL changes. Each old URL needs a permanent redirect to its new address, every hreflang set has to list the new URLs, and internal links and sitemaps need updating. It is possible, but it is a migration, so it pays to decide before the first translated page is indexed. ## What LangRelay serves LangRelay's WordPress plugin serves every language from a subdirectory of your existing site. The prefix is the lowercase form of the language's tag: `/it/` for Italian, `/pt-br/` for Brazilian Portuguese, `/en-gb/` for UK English. That means no new DNS records, certificates or Search Console properties, and translated pages come from your own WordPress, with your theme and plugins. A translated URL keeps the original's path by default, so `/about/` becomes `/it/about/`. You can set a translated path by hand for each page and language when the page is first translated; automatic slug translation is not available yet. Links to pages that are live in the same language are rewritten to stay in that language, and each page goes out with its own canonical, an hreflang set and `x-default` on the original (see [hreflang and canonical tags](https://www.langrelay.com/blog/hreflang-and-canonical-tags)). LangRelay does not serve languages on subdomains or country domains today. If your plan depends on either, it is not the right tool for that part. Outside WordPress, the script embed translates in the browser on your existing URLs, which gives visitors a translation but no separate URLs for search. The [multilingual SEO](https://www.langrelay.com/multilingual-seo) page has the full picture, and you can [book a demo](https://www.langrelay.com/book-a-demo) to see the subdirectory output on a site like yours. ## Sources The pages this one cites, with the day each was read. 1. 01[Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites (Google Search Central, last updated 2025-12-10)](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/international/managing-multi-regional-sites)developers.google.com, checked 6 October 2026 2. 02[Localized versions of your pages (Google Search Central, last updated 2026-09-21)](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/international/localized-versions)developers.google.com, checked 6 October 2026 3. 03[The International Targeting report is deprecated (Search Console Help)](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/12474899)support.google.com, checked 6 October 2026 4. 04[Add a website or platform property to Search Console (Search Console Help)](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/34592)support.google.com, checked 6 October 2026 [Chris Jayden](https://www.langrelay.com/about) Founder, LangRelay Chris Jayden is the founder of LangRelay. Chris has worked on websites of every size, from large e-commerce stores to small sites with a handful of pages, and started LangRelay after years of translating them the hard way. On this page 1. Does Google prefer a subdomain or a subdirectory? 2. Language is not country 3. What each structure costs to run 4. When a subdomain is the better choice 5. When a country domain is the better choice 6. Regional versions inside subdirectories 7. Changing structure later 8. What LangRelay serves Share - [Share on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.langrelay.com%2Fblog%2Fsubdomain-vs-subdirectory-multilingual-seo) - [Share on X (opens in a new tab)](https://x.com/intent/post?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.langrelay.com%2Fblog%2Fsubdomain-vs-subdirectory-multilingual-seo&text=Subdomain%20vs%20subdirectory%20for%20a%20multilingual%20website) See it on your site A 30-minute walkthrough on one of your pages. [Book a demo](https://www.langrelay.com/book-a-demo) - international SEO - multilingual SEO - subdirectories - URL structure Book a demo ## See LangRelay on your own site Book 30 minutes with the team. We translate one of your pages live and walk through review, publishing and multilingual SEO. [Book a demo](https://www.langrelay.com/book-a-demo)[See pricing](https://www.langrelay.com/pricing)