Sub domain setup - best options for SEO and how to configure?

English Shopify Technical Q&A
1

I want to setup sub domains to my store. What is the best options for SEO and the pros/cons for each variant:

Option 1:

au.domain.com (Australia)

uk.domain.com (UK)

domain.com (US)

Option 2:

domain.com.au (Australia)

domain.co.uk (UK)

domain.com (US)

I am using GoDaddy and when I tried adding subdomains into shopify via the option 1 it didnt add them to my list.

So back to square one trying to understand which is better for single store that only wants to ship to these markets.

Also with shopify markets they do domain.com/en-au doesnt it? I don’t really want to do this method

2

Hi,

If you have lots of money you can go for option 1. Also, use local server as per region. Another option is to use domain.com/us

3

Why lots of money for option 1?

i just need to know how to implement best for SEO so that traffic gets directed correctly and im not managing multiple stores

1 Like
4

You can do this with Shopify Markets.

https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/international/international-domains/setting-up-unique-urls/set-up-urls

You choose between:

  1. au.domain.com
  2. domain.com.au
  3. domain.com/en-au

My preference is to go for local domains (option 2) because I find that for many categories with local intent, having a local domain can give a slight ranking boost long-term. It’s also a strong trust signal for users. A local domain gives way more buyer confidence: they assume that you ship to them, that the prices are in the right currency, that you support their location etc.

Although, splitting up the domain equity means you may need a bit more effort on the link acquisition side for SEO. It can also take a long time (like months) for Google to correctly recognise each domain and rank it in the right country, even with the right domain & hreflang setup in place.

If you’re going for setup 1 that’s fine too. It’s definitely possible to setup this way. You could contact Shopify tech support to look at your account and help you connect the sub-domains if you’re struggling with the steps and Godaddy. Usually it’s just a couple of DNS records and done.

5

Thank you for your insights. Yeah I did talk to shopify support but unfortunately they werent able to help with strategy preference.

Separately I learned though by using shopify markets whereby using domain.com/en-au and domain.com/en-gb this can help keep SEO and still tailor google to high local traffic.

Is this correct? Is then shopify markets in this format better?

also for now the content will be same between markets but in future I might add to US market only but I am defining this as product level only and set to US. So if someone in AU views the main products domain they wont see that item, but if youre in US youd go to same domain and see that product

6

Hello @svalkyrie23

You’re right, for SEO purposes, using subdomains (Option 1) generally isn’t the best option for a single store targeting specific regions like Australia (AU) and the United Kingdom (UK). Here’s a breakdown of the pros and cons of each approach:

Subdomains (Option 1):

Cons:

  • Lower SEO weight: Search engines might treat subdomains as separate websites, potentially diluting the SEO power of your main domain (domain.com).
  • Backlink challenge: Building backlinks to each subdomain can be more difficult compared to concentrating them on a single domain.
  • Management complexity: Managing content and SEO for multiple subdomains can be more time-consuming.

Pros:

  • Localized content: You can have more control over the content and user experience for each region on a subdomain.
  • Branding flexibility: Subdomains offer some flexibility for regional branding variations (if applicable).

Subdirectories (Option 2 and Shopify Markets):

Pros:

  • Stronger SEO: Search engine authority from your main domain (domain.com) benefits the regional subdirectories (domain.com/en-au [invalid URL removed]).
  • Easier Backlink building: Backlinks to your main domain strengthen the ranking of all subdirectories.
  • Simpler Management: Managing content and SEO for all regions from a single platform is easier.

Cons:

  • Less control over regional experience: Customization for each region might be slightly limited compared to subdomains.

For better SEO optimization, you can use FREE Shopify App

7

Hi,
I have built websites before, and my clients all use this kind of domain name
domain.com.au (Australia)
domain.co.uk (UK)
domain.com (US)

And most of the domain names I see are this kind of domain name
domain.com.au (Australia)
domain.co.uk (UK)
domain.com (US)

For SEO, no matter what your domain name is, it will be indexed in Google search results, so don’t worry about it.

For websites in multilingual countries, it is generally to better serve customers in a single country.

But this depends on your own conditions and costs.

If your team is all from a single country, you use a multilingual app on your one website (which means just a single domain name), or you use 2 separate domain names to distinguish different national languages, it is actually the same, because only people in the local country can make the content of the website 100% accurate. And now AI functions are very powerful, so in this case you can choose a single domain name and then use a multilingual translation app, which I think is enough.