One domain, different sub-directories for multiple shops?

[Pepe]

Hello friends,

We are launching separate shops for DE and UK.

Our SEO voodoo expert has informed us that www.ourcompany.com/uk and www.ourcompany.com/de are preferable to www.ourcompany.de and www.ourcompany.co.uk.

Is this possible given that we have a separate shop instance for each country?

Many thanks in advance!

Pepe

[Arthur_Korniyen]

Hi,

According to my experience, the majority of merchants use DE and UK as sub-domains. Then you don't need several domain names. You will have the following URLs:

de.ourcompany.com and uk.ourcompany.com

No matter what URL you use, you shouldn't forget about
hreflang tags.

Here are several articles where you can find how to use the tags:

1. Using hreflang tags (https://help.shopify.com/themes/development/internationalizing/using-hreflang-tags) - Shopify article
2. Use hreflang for language and regional URLs (https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en) - specified by Google.

Best,
Arthur

[Pepe]

Thanks, Arthur! 

Unfortunately, SEO voodoo expert also doesn't like e.g. de.ourcompany.com ...

[ThomasBorowski]

Subdomains are more or less equivalent to 2nd-level domains in terms of SEO. In any case, subfolders aren't possible with Shopify.

[Pepe]

Thanks, Thomas!