The structural options.
SUBDIRECTORIES
yourdomain.com/fr/ for French, or /ng/ for Nigeria.
One site, one domain, one hosting account.
Simplest to manage. Search authority is shared.
Suits most businesses.
SUBDOMAINS
fr.yourdomain.com
Treated more separately by search engines.
More separation than most businesses need.
SEPARATE DOMAINS
yourdomain.ng and yourdomain.gh
Strongest regional signal.
Most work: separate sites, separate everything.
Suits genuinely separate operations.
WHAT TO CHOOSE
Subdirectories, for almost everyone.
Simplest, shares authority, one site to maintain.
WHEN SEPARATE DOMAINS ARE JUSTIFIED
Genuinely separate businesses in each country A strong local brand requirement Legal or regulatory separation
WHAT NOT TO DO
Choose separate domains because it feels more serious.
You will maintain several sites forever.
