International expansion needs a URL architecture decision early, and it's one of the few places a subdomain or even a ccTLD is a legitimate default rather than a compromise. The three options are subfolders (example.com/fr/), subdomains (fr.example.com), and country-code domains (example.fr).
Comparing the three
| Metric | Subfolders | Subdomains | ccTLDs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain authority | Consolidates into the root domain | Splits authority per subdomain | No shared authority — starts from zero |
| Geotargeting signals | Via GSC + hreflang | Via GSC + hreflang + DNS | Strongest natural country signal |
| User trust/conversion | Moderate | Moderate | Highest local trust, generally |
| Hosting/SSL overhead | Single server & certificate | Multiple DNS entries/certificates | Full multi-domain hosting & registration per market |
The practical recommendation
For most businesses, subfolders are the right default — building link authority across several ccTLDs from scratch is expensive, and subfolders let a new market borrow the existing domain's authority to rank sooner rather than starting cold. ccTLDs make sense once there's established local infrastructure, a distinct legal entity per market, and a local team capable of building authority independently — at that point the local-trust benefit tends to outweigh the authority-consolidation argument for subfolders.
Hreflang, regardless of which structure you pick
Whichever structure is chosen, self-referential and cross-regional hreflang annotations still need to be correct across every variant:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-gb" href="https://example.com/uk/" /> <link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr-fr" href="https://example.com/fr/" /> <link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/" /> <link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/fr/" />
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Written by
Paul Lovell
International SEO Consultant & Founder of Always Evolving SEO. 15+ years running technical audits, log-file analysis, and root-cause fixes for multimillion-dollar businesses — speaker at SMX London, Search & Content Summit, and SEMrush events.