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 enabled 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 enable 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. In the Other markets section, find the market that you want to set up, and then click Manage.
3. In the Market settings section, click Domains and languages.
4. In the Market domains and subfolders section, select Primary domain only.
5. 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 enable the languages that you want to display.

Steps:

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

Subfolders are created using your primary domain and can only be created on generic top-level domains (gTLD) like .com and .net. If your primary domain is a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) like .ca, .co.uk, or .com.au then you can't use subfolders to target other markets. This is because Google and other search engines only recognize ccTLDs as targeting the country to which they are associated with. Any domain that Google and other search engines consider to be a generic top level domain can be used to create subfolders.

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.