Does any major website have a language specific sub-directories rather than sub-domains?

Question

Does any major website has a language specific content on subfolder, i.e. www.example.com/es/ for Spanish language rather than i.e. es.example.com?

What are the pros and cons of using (ccTLD) Country Code Top Level Domains, Subdomains, or Subdirectories?

Answer 1

Yes there are some sites that still do use the subdirectory name for different languages. Most have moved away from that method and are using domain names such as example.es instead of es.example.com.

To answer your question.

http://www.apple.com/es

https://www.amazon.es/

http://www.ebay.es/

Pros and cons of multilingual URL approaches Now let’s take a high-level look at the implications of each URL approach for our criteria: local brand relevance, SEO, set-up & maintenance, and cost.

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Impact on local brand relevance

ccTLD: Delivers high impact and builds trust

Subdomain: Delivers medium impact and instills some trust

Subdirectory: Delivers little impact or trust unless brand is well known in the market

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SEO influence

ccTLD: Indicates to users and search engines that the website is targeted to a specific country

• Easily tracked in most web analytics tools
• Each website can be hosted in country to further improve multilingual SEO
• No benefits from other language sites since each stands alone

Subdomain:

• Indicates to users that the website is targeted to a specific country; search engines require Search Console geotargeting
• Easily tracked in most web analytics tools
• Each website can be hosted in country to further improve SEO
• Limited benefits passed to each website from the popularity of the root domain

Subdirectory:

• Indicates little to users about targeting; search engines require Search Console geotargeting
• Challenging to track in most web analytics tools
• All sites hosted on the same server, hindering SEO improvements
• Domain popularity benefits all language sites

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Set-up & maintenance effects

ccTLD:

• Complicated to deploy

• Requires that all domains are available

• May require a different registration process in each country and individual set-up and maintenance of each site

Subdomain:

• Relatively easy to deploy Search Console geotargeting

Subdirectory: •

• Easiest to deploy
• Limited additional setup or maintenance fees
• Requires maintaining a separate directory for each language

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Cost implications

ccTLD: •

• Expensive

• Each domain may require separate registration, set-up, and maintenance costs

• May involve physical presence or other requirements

Subdomain:

• Moderate

• Requires purchase of one top-level domain unless using existing TLD

• Costs increase if each subdomain is hosted in a separate market

Subdirectory:

• Inexpensive

• Requires purchase of one top-level domain

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Some unrelated but related thoughts, I have. Both subdomain names and country domain names work well for SEO purposes opposed to example.com/es and reduces errors since example.com/es is not looked at as a different site. To me es.example.com clearly shows a connection to example.com but I think from a spoken point of view. es.example.com does not sound good compared example.es example.com/es. Subdomain names remind me of free dns names and I just do not like that.