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~ Clonable ~
New domain, subdomain or subfolder? But unlike subdomains, authority of your website
The structure of your multilingual website can have is partly shared. That means if your current
multiple forms, each with their own pros and cons. Say you website ‘example.com’ already shows up in search
have a website ‘example.com.’ Making a German version of engines, your subfolder localisation of ‘example.
that website can have three forms. com/de’ will show sooner than with the other
options. Though if you value a clear distinction
1. The first would be a whole new domain like between your websites, subfolders might not be
‘example.de’ or even ‘beispiel.de.’ Reasons you the perfect option for you.
could choose for this variant could be that you’d
like another brand name in other countries or Ultimately, every option has its own advantages and
want to appear as a more local-oriented business disadvantages. The best choice for your specific case
in each specific market. Reasons why you might depends on your business goals, branding strategy and
choose another option are mainly SEO-based. If SEO preferences.
you decide to launch a new website, it needs to be
indexed by search engines. And without any links What about SEO?
heading towards your new domain, your authority Because Clonable’s results get placed on a unique URL,
on the subject needs to be built from zero. Every search engines like Google or Bing will treat them equally
unique domain also costs money, although prices to the original website. That means that its content will get
are low when compared to other overhead costs for indexed in the appropriate language and region.
webshops.
For instance, a German customer will use German terms
2. A second option is a subdomain. This would while looking for a product. Your German clone will
bind you to ‘example.com’ and give you freedom show up in their results as if it were a website written
to put anything you want in front of it. Options by a German, while it’s actually automatically translated
would be ‘de.example.com’ or ‘german.example. content.
com.’ A reason to choose for a subdomain is a
clear distinction between different versions of your This is a major advantage over services like Google
website, while maintaining its recognisability. You Translate. Some websites might show many different
are also not bound to the availability of domains flags that translate its complete content on the spot. But
since they are all part of your main domain. You that translation is generated on the spot and is not bound
might want to choose another option if you see to another URL. Visitors will only be able to view the
more value in true unique domains or linked SEO translated content if they’re already on a website of which
authority between your multilingual websites. they cannot read the text.
3. That’s where subfolders come into play. Your Meta data like titles and descriptions shown in search
German website would then be accessible at engine results, are automatically translated as well. Flavour
‘example.com/de.’ Like subdomains, they do not text that your users might read on Google’s results page, is
bind you to the availability of different domains. neatly translated to its target language.
Translation quality
You might wonder about the automatic translation quality,
so did we. Our results have shown that we’re hitting
95-97% accuracy. In bigger chunks of text with enough
context, we’ve noticed that users barely need to intervene.
AI language models have drastically increased their quality
over the last few years, gaining quality and consistency
through context within paragraphs. We do therefore
recommend proofreading loose words like menu items and
product names.
In addition to human proofreading, there is also an option
to let AI proofread the generated texts. It will analyse a
text block and suggest an alternative to it. If you want,
you can even change its tone of voice. Since the Dutch are
globally recognised as being very direct and informal, you
might want to convey your message in a more formal tone
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