[i18n-drafts] URL structure for internationalized websites (#521)

xfq has just created a new issue for https://github.com/w3c/i18n-drafts:

== URL structure for internationalized websites ==
It might be useful to write an article about how to design a URL structure for an internationalized website. We can explain the pros and cons of each approach and let the content authors judge for themselves. There's some relevant stuff in [Monolingual vs. multilingual Web sites](https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-mono-multilingual.en.html), but it didn't mention URLs.

Some of the common URL structures for internationalized websites include:

## Different domains

Example:

* douyin.com and tiktok.com

## ccTLDs (including IDN ccTLDs)

Examples:

* google.co.jp
* apple.com.cn
* amazon.co.jp

Using this approach requires spending money to buy register new domain names, but you can use different servers for different regions.

## Subdomain

Examples: 

* zh.wikipedia.org
* hk.yahoo.com

## Subdirectory

Example: 

* https://www.samsung.com/hk/
* https://www.apple.com/jp/
* https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us
* https://www.adobe.com/hk_en/

## Query string

Example: 

* https://www.office.com/?omkt=zh-CN
* https://developers.google.com/?hl=zh-cn
* https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin?lang=ro-RO

## Change the file name

Example: 

https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-site-conneg.sv.html

## No change to the URL

Examples:

* Facebook (main site, the support pages use query strings)
* LinkedIn (main site, the support pages use query strings)
* https://web.dev/


Please view or discuss this issue at https://github.com/w3c/i18n-drafts/issues/521 using your GitHub account


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Received on Saturday, 26 August 2023 12:06:21 UTC