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URLs & domains

ccTLD

A ccTLD (country code top-level domain) is a top-level domain with two letters that is assigned to a country or territory, such as .de for Germany or .fr for France. Most ccTLDs follow the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes. According to reports, two well-known exceptions are .uk, which differs from the ISO code GB, and .eu, which stands for the European Union.

ccTLDs and country targeting

Google describes ccTLDs as tied to a specific country and as a strong signal, to users and search engines alike, that a site is meant for that country. For sites on generic TLDs such as .com, Google asks for other signals. The International Targeting report in Search Console, which once allowed setting a target country, has been deprecated.

Some country-code endings are used worldwide. Google lists endings such as .tv, .me, .co, .io and .ai among those it treats as generic, because users and site owners often see them as less country-specific. A site on .io therefore does not get a country signal from its ending.

Anatomy of a URLThe example URL https://shop.example.de/shoes/sneakers/?color=red&page=2#reviews broken into parts: scheme https, host shop.example.de with subdomain shop, domain example.de and top-level domain de, path /shoes/sneakers/ with a trailing slash, query string with two parameters color=red and page=2, fragment reviews. The fragment is not sent to the server.Trailing slashhttps://shop.example.de/shoes/sneakers/?color=red&page=2#reviewsSchemeHostPathQuery stringFragmentSubdomainDomainParameterParameterTLDcountry code: ccTLDstays in the browser, is notsent to the serverSchematic. Scheme, host, path, query and fragment are components defined in RFC 3986.Subdomain, domain and TLD split the host by DNS level. Without a port, https uses port 443.
A URL broken into its parts. RFC 3986 defines scheme, host, path, query and fragment. Only the browser evaluates the fragment after #, it is not sent to the server. Sources: RFC 3986: Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), Generic Syntax; MDN: What is a URL?; MDN Glossary: TLD.

Trade-offs for international sites

A separate ccTLD per market gives a clear country signal. It also means a separate domain per market to register, host and maintain, and each domain starts with its own links and history. Google lists subdomains and subdirectories on a generic domain as alternatives and advises against URL parameters for country targeting.

Whichever structure is used, language and country versions of a page can be linked with hreflang annotations. Google does not vary the crawler source to look for regional variations of a page, so explicit annotations are needed.

URL structures for country versions compared
StructureExampleTarget country recognisable?Pros according to GoogleCons according to Google
Country-code domain (ccTLD) (this term)example.deyes, a strong signal to users and search enginesclear geotargeting, server location irrelevant, easy separation of sitesexpensive and sometimes limited availability, more infrastructure, strict ccTLD requirements in some cases, one country only
Subdomain on a gTLDde.example.comnot always clear from the URL alone (is "de" the language or the country?)easy to set up, allows different server locations, easy separation of sitesusers might not recognise the targeting from the URL alone
Subdirectory on a gTLDexample.com/de/not always clear from the URL aloneeasy to set up, low maintenance (same host)users might not recognise the targeting from the URL alone, single server location, harder to separate sites
URL parametersexample.com?loc=denot always clear from the URL alone– (not recommended by Google)URL-based segmentation difficult, users might not recognise the targeting from the URL alone

Generic endings such as .com or .org aren't tied to a country. Google also treats .eu, .asia and some country codes such as .io, .ai, .me or .tv as generic. The country targeting setting in Search Console (International Targeting report) no longer exists. Today, a site on a gTLD is targeted through locale-specific URLs and hreflang (in tags, headers or sitemaps). Google also considers server location and other signals such as local addresses, language and currency. Sources: Google Search Central: Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites (last updated 2025-12-10); Search Console Help: International Targeting report (deprecated). Last checked: .

Example

Code
https://www.example.de/   (Germany)
https://www.example.fr/   (France)
https://www.example.at/   (Austria)

Common mistakes

  • Treating every country-code ending as a country signal. Google treats endings such as .tv, .me, .co and .io as generic, because users and site owners often see them as less country-specific.
  • Redirecting automatically by IP address. Google calls IP location analysis difficult and generally not reliable. Automatic redirects can keep users and search engines from seeing all versions.
  • Translating only boilerplate. If the bulk content stays in one language, the same content can appear several times in results with different boilerplate languages, according to Google.
  • Declaring the target place with a meta tag. Google ignores locational meta tags.

More on the searchVIU blog

Sources

  1. Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
  2. The International Targeting report is deprecated – Search Console Helpsupport.google.com
  3. Country code top-level domain – Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
  4. RFC 1591: Domain Name System Structure and Delegation – RFC Editorrfc-editor.org

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