Hyperflow Locale-Specific Domains
Split your Webflow Localized site into separate domains for improved local SEO.
Webflow localization is very useful, but it can only deliver the site's localed content in a locale-specific path structure.
For example, a site with English as the primary locale, and French and German as alternate locales might be delivered as;
English ( primary )
/
/contact
/contact
French ( alternate )
/fr
/fr/contact
/fr/contactez-nous
German ( alternate )
/de
/de/contact
/de/kontakt
This works and is SEO friendly, but it loses the benefit of a Country-Code Top-Level Domain ( ccTLD ) which has an intrinsic locale
Websites utilizing ccTLDs often experience better rankings in country-specific search results. For example, a .fr domain is more likely to rank higher in searches conducted from France compared to a generic .com domain, assuming other SEO factors are equal.
Ideally this makes more sense for some sites;
English ( primary )
https://www.mysite.com/contact
https://www.mysite.com/contact
French ( alternate )
https://www.mysite.fr/contact
https://www.mysite.fr/contactez-nous
German ( alternate )
https://www.mysite.de/contact
https://www.mysite.de/kontakt
This works and is SEO friendly, but it loses the benefit of a Country-Code Top-Level Domain ( ccTLD ) which has an intrinsic locale
It's important to distinguish between language and location. Webflow is good at supporting language translation but it is not good at supporting locations. If you target a site at both the UK and the US, it's likely that most browsers in both locations will try to access /en even when you have /en-GB pages defined.
This is because auto-routing looks at the browser's language, but does not do GeoIP lookups to identify where the user is currently located.
Video Discussion
Goals
Split a Webflow-localized site into discrete domains, one locale per domain, e.g. mysite.com ( EN ), mysite.fr ( French ), mysite.co.jp ( Japanese )
All page level content
All navigation
Fully support SEO
Split and cross-reference sitemaps
Reflect alt hreflang URL changes
Redirect all original localization paths by 301, to the new sites to preserve SEO
Handle all internal linking, e.g. direct links to
/fr/...should link to the appropriate site.Support the locale switcher
Support intentional content gaps, e.g. untranslated CMS items or static pages
Maintain all centralized publishing, API support, integrations, CMS, etc as normal
Future
Not yet tested.
Support Localization Pro's localized paths
Possible;
Auto-routing. based on browser location & language
Notes
Locale-Specific Domains & Sub-Domains
https://discourse.webflow.com/t/seperate-domains-for-localisations/262898/4
Return requested pages for the specific requested locale /path/...
Modify alt lang href
Suppress irrelevant locale paths ( 404s )
May be possible to redirect them to the alt ccTLD URL
Canonicals
Sitemap.xml
Links
e.g. /de/menu
Locale switcher modify alt page paths to other ccTLD sites
Path fixes
CMS paths are always
Determine current locale, and whether it's an alt locale
Fix paths so that they are e.g. /blog and not /fr/blog on the domain.fr custom domain.
Language Link cross-references
Rel="alternate" Links
Adjust these to the domain per locale
Splitting Sitemaps by Locale
Research these;
It appears that for rel="alternate" links in the sitemap, you can reference a different domain legitimately;
Locale Switcher
Locale Map
FR -> domain.fr
EN -> domain.en
Other
Auto language detection and routing?
No, because domain already is locale-specific and will have locale-specific SEO.
Cookie to handle preferred locale?
SEO Notes
https://www.propellic.com/blog/how-to-choose-between-cctld-and-subfolders-for-international-seo
https://www.web.com/blog/what-is-cctld
https://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/country-specific-domain-name
https://www.namecheap.com/blog/how-country-specific-domains-help-with-local-seo
Technical Notes
Github repo:
/sygnaltech/hf-loc-domains
NOT established as an HF2 micro-service, this worker currently runs independently.
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