Set up unique URLs for specific countries or regions

When you set up international domains, you add a unique web address or URL for each market where you want to offer a localized shopping experience. You can set up unique URLs by using one method or a combination of methods, and you can switch methods at any time.

If you're not sure about which method to use, then review the SEO strategies for different international domains before you begin. If you're setting up markets for the first time, then subfolders are the simplest options because they're easy to set up and offer optimal SEO benefits.

By default, only your store's primary language is activated when you create your markets. If you sell in multiple languages and you set up international domains by using subfolders, subdomains, or top-level domains, then you can activate additional languages for each market. If you don't sell in multiple languages, then only your primary language is available. Learn more about selling in multiple languages.

Set up target markets using your primary domain only

When you set up your markets to use your primary domain only, you don't need to configure any further options in your Shopify admin. Because all markets use the same store URL, you can't customize which languages are available to each market.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Markets.
2. Click the name of the market you want to manage.
3. In the Market settings section, click Languages and domains.
4. Click Manage domains, and then select Use primary market configuration.
5. Click Save.

Add multiple domains to your primary market

If you have multiple domains that you want to use for your primary target market, then you can add additional domains to that market. For example, if your primary market is Canada, and you want to provide both an English and French experience for your customers with separate region-specific domains, then you can add both domains to your Canada market.

Note

When adding multiple domains to the same market, ensure that each domain targets a different language. If you add two domains that target the same language, then search engines might flag this as duplicate content, which can impact your search ranking.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Markets.
2. Click the name of the Primary market.
3. In the Market settings section, click Languages and domains, and then click Manage domains.
4. In the Manage domains dialog, click Use multiple domains > + Add existing domain, and then select the domain that you want to add from the drop-down menu.
5. Choose a default language for the domain from the Default drop-down menu.
6. Click Save.

Set up target markets using domains or subdomains

Before you can use top-level domains or subdomains for your region-specific URLs, you need to add a domain or subdomain for each market that you want to set up. After you add your domains or subdomains, you assign them to their target markets and activate the languages that you want to display.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Markets.
2. Click the name of the market that you want to assign a separate domain.
3. In the Market settings section, click Languages and domains.
4. Click Manage domains, and then select Use a separate domain/subdomain.
5. From the Domain or subdomain list, select the top-level domain or subdomain that you want to assign to this market.
6. Optional: In the Languages section, check the languages that you want to activate for this market.
7. Click Save.

After you set up target markets by using domains or subdomains, you can switch to another method as long as the associated domain or subdomain is connected in your Shopify admin. If you remove the domain or subdomain, then a 404 error page is displayed to customers who try to visit that region-specific URL.

Set up target markets using subfolders

When you set up unique URLs by using subfolders, you add a region-specific suffix that displays at the end of your URL, after the two-letter language suffix for each language that the market supports. If you sell in multiple languages, then you can activate multiple languages for each market.

For example, if the United States is your primary market on your-shop-name.com, you can use subfolders to target a market for Canada on your-shop-name.com/en-ca. If you decide to make French a language option for your Canadian customers as well, then that also gets a unique subfolder on your-shop-name.com/fr-ca.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Markets.
2. Click the name of the market that you want to set up a subfolder for.
3. In the Market settings section, click Languages and domains.
4. Click Manage domains, and then select Use subfolders.
5. In the Domain suffix box, enter a region-specific suffix for your target market. For example, eu for Europe or ca for Canada.
6. Optional: In the Languages section, check the languages that you want to activate for this market.
7. Click Save.

Subfolders are created using your primary domain.

If you later decide to delete a market that uses subfolders, then a 404 error page is displayed to customers who try to visit that region-specific URL. To redirect those customers to your primary domain or another region-specific URL, you can import URL redirects by using a CSV file.

Next steps

After you set up your region-specific URLs, you need to submit a sitemap for every domain and subdomain in Google Search Console.