Google’s Surprising Take on Folder Structure and SEO
▼ Summary
– John Mueller advised using either `/blog/` or `/en-us/blog/` for US content, noting no practical SEO difference between them.
– He recommended using one URL structure, but said the choice likely won’t make or break a site.
– The main advantage of `/en-us/blog/` is easier filtering and slicing of metrics by country/language in analytics.
– Mueller’s answer focused on analytics tracking, not on keywords or topical themes for category names.
– The original concern was duplicate content and split page authority from having both `/blog/` and `/en-us/blog/` with identical content.
Google’s John Mueller recently addressed a question about URL structure and category folders for multilingual websites, offering a perspective that surprised many SEO professionals. The discussion centered on a site offering identical content in multiple languages, where the primary market is English-speaking users in the United States.
The current URL hierarchy looks like this:
- example.com/blogA Reddit user posed this question: “Do we need localized folders with duplicate content for our home market on our site? My client has a large site serving many international clients with localized content, but they’re a US-based company where most of their users are. They have 25+ international localizations across all core folders, including a `/en-us/` folder for main pages. The problem is that the content on the main site and in these `/en-us/` folders is identical, splitting page authority and creating potential duplicate content issues with no clear benefit. Am I missing something? Is there any advantage to keeping the `/en-us/` folders?”Mueller’s response was notably detached from typical SEO concerns like keyword placement or topical relevance within folder names. Instead, he focused on analytics and tracking. He explained that the main advantage of using `/en-us/blog/` over `/blog/` for US content on an international site using `/LL-CC/` URL patterns is that it simplifies filtering and segmenting metrics by country or language. He added, “I don’t think you’d see a practical SEO difference between using `/blog/` or `/en-us/blog/` for your US content. `/blog/` looks nice, but `/en-us/blog/` is also not super-weird.”While many SEOs worry about how keyword-rich category folders influence rankings, Mueller sidestepped that entirely. He emphasized that, in this specific scenario, the choice between the two structures would not create a meaningful SEO advantage or disadvantage. His advice boiled down to: pick one and move on, as this decision is unlikely to make or break your site.
