Google’s John Mueller shares suggestions for simplifying the structure of the site. Learn why transferring subdirectories is not recommended and the benefits of specifying the root home page as x-default.
- Google’s John Mueller shared insights on the impact of changing the structure of the site on SEO.
- It is not recommended to transfer subdirectories to simplify the structure of the site.
- Mueller also said that setting the root home page to x-default can avoid confusion among search engines.
Before making changes to the structure of your site, you must consider its possible impact on search rankings and user experience.
Google search advocate John Mueller recently shared valuable advice on this issue in a Reddit topic.
Through his advice, you can learn how to simplify the structure of your site without affecting the SEO.
Read on to learn more about Muller’s advice and how it can help you achieve your goal of simplifying your site.
Delete subdirectories-good or bad?
One Reddit user asked about streamlining their site structure by canceling the / fr and / de subdirectories.
Instead, they will direct all European traffic to the / eusubdirectory.
They asked whether it was a good idea or a bad idea and sought information about its impact on SEO and rankings.
Mueller’s suggestion
Mueller recommends not dropping out the subdirectories and moving everything to / eu, which he says is a lot of work and doesn’t do any good.
Instead, he suggests moving “/” (en-us) to the “/ us” folder so that parts can be separated more accurately. So, “/” is all America, “/ fr/*” is all France, and so on.
In addition, he suggests adding hreflang to all pages, not just some pages, those that are most confused by visitors from the wrong country.
“my advice is not to convert / de and / fr to / eu/de or / eu/fr. This doesn’t have any SEO advantages, and moving a site like this is a big job. If so, I might consider moving “/” (en-us) to the “/ us” folder. In this way, you can more clearly separate the parts (“/ us/” is all American, “/ fr/*” is all French, and so on). This will make tracking easier and make it easier for search engines to understand these parts (which makes them harder to understand than moving / fr to / eu/fr).
In addition, hreflang is on a per-page basis, so you will do this on all pages. You mentioned it on a chapter-based basis, and maybe you’ve done a good job, so it’s just a supplement. If you don’t do this on all pages, I’ll consider checking your statistics to see the pages that are most confusing (wrong country visitors), or at least add it there. The opportunity is that this is mainly your home page, so if you just do it there, you may have got a lot of hreflang value. “
The importance of X-Default
Mueller emphasizes the importance of x-default, especially when doing geo-IP redirects.
His advice is to make sure that the root home page is redirected to the appropriate version and that it is designated as the x-default for a set of home pages.
If not, from Google’s point of view, the root home page may look like a separate page rather than anything else.
Setting the root home page to x-default will avoid this problem and allow Google to treat it as the default home page for a specific country.
“and. If you do any of this and automatically redirect the “/” (just the root home page) to the appropriate version, you must make sure that it is designated as the x-default for this set of home pages. If not, in Google’s view, “/” is a separate page, not anything else.
The editor only elaborates on the last part. -this means that if you use / us to represent the United States and do geographic-IP redirection, I generally do not recommend this)
If for American users, “/” (just that page) is redirected to “/ us”, and you have a hreflang across “/ us” and “/ fr” and assign x-default to “/ us”, what may happen is that Google treats “/” as an English page, as well as “/ us” and “/ fr” as separate pages, and then displays both “/” and “/ (one of them)” in the search results. You can avoid this by setting “/” to x-default (even if it is redirected). Then Google will see “/” as the default “/ us” for the United States and “/ fr” for France.
This also means that you can’t use “/ eu” as a x-default (there can only be one # highlander # xdefault), but you can still use it by specifying it as a hreflang for your bunch of common countries (you can specify multiple countries for each URL). So in the end you will have “/” = x-default, “/ us” for the United States, “/ fr” for France, “/ eu” for a bunch of countries, and redirected from “/” to the best version.
All of this is just for the home page, and I won’t do it for any other page of the site, because it’s so complex and difficult to manage, and because the home page is probably the page that gets the most search impression. “
More information about geographic redirection
With regard to geographic redirection, Muller recommends using it only on the main home page of the site, not on any other page.
This helps simplify the process for users to enter domain names to find the closest to their location, and allows them to easily click on different countries to access this version of the site.
There are some alternatives to geographic redirection, such as dynamically changing the language of the home page, but this approach can increase the complexity of the site.
Another option is to use the country selector on the home page, but this can have a negative impact on usability, especially when there are many countries to choose from.
Summary
If you want to simplify the structure of your site, it’s best not to transfer subdirectories.
In this case, a website owner wants to transfer / de and / fr to / eu/de or / eu/fr.
Instead, Mueller says they should consider moving “/ *” (en-us) to the “/ us” folder, adding hreflang to all pages, and specifying the root master page as the x-default of a set of master pages.
Why?
This will help avoid confusion among search engines and make it easier for them to understand different parts of the site.
