SFCC International SEO: Multi-Store Implementation

What is SFCC’s Multi-Store Architecture?

Let’s get one thing clear — Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC) doesn’t run your global website like a single page with language toggles slapped on top. It works through a “multi-store” setup, and understanding this structure is step one to getting your international SEO right.

In SFCC, each store or site represents a different market — like one for the US, one for France, one for the UK. These are treated as distinct entities. You manage them separately in Business Manager, each with its own product catalog, content, language, and currency.

Now, you don’t need to start from scratch for every country. SFCC lets you share a master catalog, then localize what’s needed. Still, you’ll have to decide how much independence each store gets — full freedom or partial inheritance from a parent setup?

Here’s how SFCC organizes it all:

• Sites: These are your storefronts — think brand.com/fr or brand.co.uk
• Locales: Used for language-region pairs like en-US, fr-FR
• Catalogs and Content: Can be shared or customized per store
• Instances: Environments like staging or production

So before you dive into international SEO, ask yourself which countries need full localization, and where can you reuse structure? This helps you build a smart, scalable setup from day one.

Key Considerations Before Implementation

Before you jump into launching multiple stores in SFCC, take a pause. International SEO isn't something you patch on later—it needs to be baked into your setup right from the beginning. So let’s talk about how to make smart decisions early on.

Start with a simple question: What’s your goal in going global?

Or,

Are you trying to rank in country-specific search engines like Google France or Google UK? Are you just trying to offer a smoother shopping experience to your international users?

This clarity will define how your setup should look—because how your storefront is structured technically is what shapes your SEO foundation.

Business Requirements First, Always

Every market you enter comes with its own rules. Not just in terms of language, but how people shop, what they expect, and how your store needs to behave.

Ask a few questions to yourself:

• Do you need to show prices in local currency?
• Will taxes and shipping vary by region?
• Are there country-specific product restrictions or laws?

If you're launching in the EU, for example, you must think about GDPR compliance. If you're setting up in the Middle East, local payment gateways might come into play. These aren’t SEO decisions, but they directly impact the store setup—and SEO depends on how well your store is structured.

Now, Let’s Talk SEO Strategy

When you're working with multiple stores, your SEO approach can't be an afterthought. You need to decide whether you're building a unified global identity or you're treating each region like its own brand playground.

If your stores are just clones of each other with the same content, you're walking straight into duplicate content issues. Google won't know which version to rank, and you'll hurt all your versions in the process.

Instead, every locale needs its own clear identity—at least in terms of language, URL, and structure. Think of each version as a signal to Google: “Hey, this page is just for UK users!” or “This one is tailored for Canada!” That level of clarity helps search engines understand and serve your pages better in local searches.

Now here’s the key—you don’t need to reinvent the wheel for every store. What you do need is precision in how you separate content, handle URLs, and signal language/region.

Now, bring it all together. 

So when you start planning your multi-store setup in SFCC, zoom out first. Look at the markets, what each one needs, and then build your stores accordingly—with SEO considerations threaded into every step.

This way, you don’t just launch a bunch of stores. You launch a system that search engines can crawl, understand, and rank—exactly how you want them to.

SEO Best Practices for Multi-Store Implementation

So you’ve got your multi-store plan in place. You’ve looked at your business goals, considered the markets, and set up the right structure in SFCC. 

But here’s the thing—if your SEO isn’t baked in from this point forward, you're leaving a lot of international traffic (and revenue) on the table.

This section is your SEO blueprint. Let’s walk through the most important areas you need to get right—and how you can do that specifically in a multi-store Salesforce Commerce Cloud setup.

1. Choose the Right URL Structure

Let’s be honest—URLs aren’t the most exciting thing to think about. But when it comes to international SEO, they’re one of the most powerful tools in your toolbox. Why? Because your URL tells Google exactly who a page is for.

Now, before you start configuring your SFCC storefronts, you need to decide:

How are you going to structure your international URLs?

There are three main options, and each one sends a slightly different message to both users and search engines:

• ccTLDs (like brand.fr)
• Subdomains (like fr.brand.com)
• Subdirectories (like brand.com/fr/)

Option 1: Country-Specific Domains (ccTLDs)

Example: brand.fr for France or brand.co.uk for the UK

This one’s the most “localized” in Google’s eyes. A ccTLD clearly says, “This site is for people in this country.”

It’s great for geo-targeting, but expensive to manage. You’ll need separate hosting, extra certificates, and most likely separate SEO tracking setups too.

Option 2: Subdomains

Example: fr.brand.com or uk.brand.com

Subdomains give you flexibility without the extra cost of buying multiple domains. They're easier to set up in SFCC and still let you separate content by region.

But here's the catch: 

Google treats subdomains almost like separate sites. 

So unless you handle internal linking and authority properly, your SEO power can get split.

Option 3: Subdirectories

Example: brand.com/fr/ or brand.com/uk/

This is usually the most efficient route—especially if you're working with SFCC’s multi-site structure.

You’re still keeping things under one domain, which means your SEO efforts all point to the same root.

The bonus is: Easier to maintain, faster to deploy, and you can track everything under one Search Console property.

Here’s a quick side-by-side comparison to help you visualize how ccTLDs, subdomains, and subdirectories stack up in terms of SEO impact, ease of maintenance, cost, and best-fit use cases.

So… What Should You Choose?

If you’re aiming for maximum SEO separation and have resources to back it up, ccTLDs can be powerful.

But if you want efficiency and easier management, subdirectories are usually your best friend—especially within SFCC’s Business Manager.

Just remember: once you choose a structure, stick with it. Don’t switch it around later because it will confuse both Google and your returning users.

And no matter what you choose, pair it with clear hreflang tags (don’t worry, we’ll get to that next).

2. Get Your Hreflang Tags Right

Let’s clear one thing up: just launching different versions of your website for different countries or languages isn't enough. 

You also need to tell search engines which version is meant for which audience. That’s where hreflang tags come in.

Think of hreflang as a label you stick on each page saying,

"Hey Google, this page is for English speakers in the UK,"
"This one? It’s for French speakers in Canada."

Without these labels, search engines can get confused. They might show your UK site to someone in Australia or worse, index both pages as duplicates—hurting your rankings in both countries.

Now, the good news is SFCC gives you the flexibility to implement hreflang, but you have to wire it in smartly. You can't rely on default settings or hope SFCC handles it for you. It won't.

You’ll need to dynamically inject hreflang tags into your page templates. If you’re using SFRA (which most modern SFCC builds do), this typically means adding them in your layout ISML files or via middleware logic that outputs the tags based on locale and site.

Each tag should clearly state:

• the language (en, fr, de, etc.)
• and the region (GB, CA, DE, etc.) Like: hreflang="en-GB" or hreflang="fr-CA"

And don’t forget the x-default version. This one acts as a fallback if none of the regional versions match the user’s language or location.

A few rules to keep in mind:

• Always make hreflang bi-directional. If Page A references Page B, then Page B should reference Page A.
• Use full URLs in your tags—relative URLs won’t work.
• Double check your language codes; don’t guess. Use ISO standards (like en-US, not just en).

And whatever you do, don’t skip testing. Run your pages through tools like Google Search Console’s International Targeting report or third-party hreflang testers to make sure everything’s aligned.

Hreflang might sound like a small piece of the puzzle, but it’s a major player when it comes to visibility in different markets. Get it right, and you give each version of your store the best chance to shine in its own region. Get it wrong, and your international SEO can start working against itself.

3. Geo-Targeting the Right Way

Alright, so you’ve got different versions of your site and you've added hreflang tags. That’s a great start. But now you want to make sure Google knows exactly which version of your site to show to users in each country.

That’s where geo-targeting comes in. Think of it like giving Google a little nudge—"Hey, show this site to folks in the UK, and that one to people in India." Simple idea, but there are a few things you need to get right.

The easiest way to set this up is through Google Search Console (GSC).

For each version of your website (whether it’s a different domain like brand.fr, or a subfolder like brand.com/fr/), you need to:

1. Add it as a separate property in GSC.
2. Head to Settings > International Targeting.
3. Choose the country you're targeting for that version.

That’s it. You’ve now officially declared your intent to Google.

But here’s the thing—you can only do this for ccTLDs or subfolders/subdomains, not for a single-page app that serves all regions on one URL. That kind of setup doesn’t allow granular control, and it weakens your targeting.

Let’s also talk about a trap many brands fall into: auto-redirection based on IP.

Sounds useful, right? Detect a user’s IP and redirect them to their local version automatically. But here’s the problem—it’s bad for SEO and annoying for users.

But why? Because search engines crawl your site from data centers that aren’t necessarily in your target countries. If you auto-redirect based on IP, bots might never see your other regional pages. Which means… those pages won’t get indexed. Ouch.

Instead, you can:

• Offer a store selector pop-up with manual country choice
• Save their selection in cookies
• And make sure all versions are accessible via links (like in your footer)

This approach keeps users in control and lets search engines freely explore all your store versions. Win-win.

One more thing—don’t stress too much about where your site is hosted. While local hosting used to be a bigger deal for SEO, modern CDNs (like Cloudflare or Akamai) make it possible to serve fast pages anywhere in the world. Focus on fast loading times and smart setup; the hosting location itself isn’t a dealbreaker anymore.

In short, geo-targeting is about helping search engines show the right version of your store to the right people. Do it well, and your SEO performance becomes sharper and more focused in every market. Do it wrong, and your traffic starts overlapping and competing with itself.

4. Handle Canonical Tags Properly

Let’s imagine this: you’ve got multiple store versions—UK, US, India—and they all sell the same t-shirt. The product name, price, and maybe even the images are nearly identical. Now think like Google. 

How would it know which one to prioritize in search results? It wouldn’t. That’s where canonical tags step in.

Canonical tags are your way of telling Google,

“Hey, these pages may look similar, but this one right here is the main version I want you to focus on.”

If you skip this part, Google might treat all your regional product pages as duplicates. And when it sees duplicates, it starts de-indexing pages or diluting your rankings. That’s not what you want after all the work you've put into localization.

Now, here’s the catch with multi-store SFCC setups: It’s very easy to accidentally repeat content across stores—especially if you're reusing templates and content blocks.

So your job is to tell Google which version is the canonical one, for every single page.

Here’s a quick visual to help you understand how canonical tags work in action—notice how the UK and India versions of the same product both point to the US version, which is marked as the canonical page for search engines.

The most common scenario where canonical tags become essential is on Product Detail Pages (PDPs). These often have the same content across markets with minor tweaks like currency or size units. But to a search engine, they look the same.

So inside your SFCC templates (usually the head of your ISML pages), you’d place a canonical tag that points either to:

• The regional version of the page (if it's unique enough), or
• A master version that you want indexed globally.

It depends on your content strategy. If the content is truly localized—different descriptions, localized shipping, and offers—then let each page be its own canonical.

But if they’re just language clones? Point them all to one.

And remember, don’t use self-referencing canonical tags carelessly. Every page should only point to the version you really want ranked. Be deliberate and be clear.

The other area you’ll need to watch is category pages (PLPs). Filters, sorts, pagination—they can create dozens of URL versions of the same category. Canonical tags should always point back to the main, clean version of the category page. Otherwise, you end up with unnecessary index bloat and confusion.

So here’s the deal: when you use canonical tags the right way, you’re helping Google understand what matters. You’re streamlining your index footprint. And you’re preventing multiple store versions from stepping on each other’s toes in search rankings.

5. Localized Content Isn’t Optional

Let’s face it that nobody likes reading a website that feels like it was just translated by a robot. If you're serious about building trust in new markets, you’ve got to speak their language—not just literally, but culturally too. That’s where localization comes into play.

Localization isn’t just about changing “color” to “colour.” It’s about making sure every word, phrase, image, and price feels native to the user you’re targeting. The more comfortable they feel, the more likely they are to stay, browse, and buy.

Now, SFCC gives you tools to handle this at scale, especially if you're using Storefront Reference Architecture (SFRA). With SFRA, you can easily set up locale-specific versions of product descriptions, content assets, pricing displays, and even promotional banners.

But here’s the thing: don’t rely solely on machine translation. Tools like Google Translate might be okay in a pinch, but they can’t understand tone, nuance, or context. If your product copy says “slick and stylish,” a machine might turn it into something like “oily and fashionable” in another language. Not a great look.

So, what is the better approach here? Use professional human translators—preferably ones familiar with your industry. It takes more time, but the payoff in brand credibility is worth it.

Let’s talk currency and pricing for a second. You might think displaying all prices in USD is easier. Maybe it is—for you. But to a customer in Japan or Germany? Seeing prices in their local currency immediately builds trust. It shows that you thought about their experience, and that matters.

Same goes for units and formats:

• Use kilograms instead of pounds in Europe.
• Format dates like DD/MM/YYYY instead of MM/DD/YYYY.
• Align delivery times with local holidays and business customs.

Even these small tweaks make your store feel native—and that familiarity leads to better engagement and stronger SEO signals like time on page, lower bounce rates, and better conversion rates.

One pro tip: if you’re using shared content blocks (like headers, footers, or CTAs), make sure they’re also translated and styled per locale. It’s easy to miss them when your focus is on product pages—but these are the first and last things your customer sees.

And finally, don’t just translate— localize your messaging. What works as a product tagline in the U.S. might sound weird in Italy or flat in Japan. Adjust your tone, examples, and even product names if needed.

In the end, great localization is invisible. The user shouldn’t feel like they’re visiting a translated version of a site. They should feel like the site was built just for them. That’s when your international SEO starts to truly connect.

Technical Implementation in SFCC

Alright, you’ve locked in your strategy. Now let’s talk about the real machinery—how you actually implement all this inside SFCC so your international SEO plan doesn’t just look good on paper but works smoothly in action.

This is where things get technical—but don't worry, we’ll walk through each piece step by step.

1. Folder and Directory Structure: Keep It Organized, Keep It Smart

Let’s now get into the practical stuff—your folder and directory structure inside SFCC.

You might not think of folders and URLs as “SEO tools,” but they absolutely are. The way you structure your content and organize it in Business Manager directly shapes how your site is indexed and understood by search engines.

Here’s the deal: each region or language you support needs its own space. Not just in content, but in the way it's placed inside your storefront’s file system. SFCC allows you to assign folders per locale, which you can then map to URLs like /en-us/ or /fr-fr/. That clean structure? It's exactly what Google loves.

Let’s say you’re launching in the UK, Germany, and the US. Ideally, you’ll have your site set up like this:

• brand.com/en-us/
• brand.com/en-gb/
• brand.com/de-de

Each of these should pull from a separate content folder within the Business Manager, where the templates, product content, and assets are filtered based on locale. That way, when a user visits the German version, they don’t just see translated text—they experience a site truly built for their region.

Here’s a quick visual to help you see how a clean folder setup in SFCC mirrors your locale structure and feeds directly into SEO performance:

Now, here’s where it gets technical but important—SFCC supports these folders at the Business Manager level, but you need to make sure they reflect in your URLs. This is where URL rules and rewrite logic come into play.

Let’s break this down.

Your URLs should directly reflect the folder structure you're using. If you’ve structured your content in folders named fr-fr, en-us, or es-mx, but your URLs don’t mirror that? Then Google may not pick up the regional variations clearly. And that’s a wasted opportunity.

On the flip side, when folder structure and URL paths are in sync, you’re sending the right signals to both users and search engines. It’s like putting a clean label on every version of your store.

Lastly, avoid nesting folders unnecessarily deep. You want URLs to be short, scannable, and human-readable. Something like brand.com/fr-fr/women/dresses/ works great. But brand.com/content/eu/france/women/dresses/? That’s going to confuse everyone—especially search engines.

So if you’re building out your multi-store setup now, take the time to organize those folders and URL patterns with care. Think long-term. Every folder decision you make today sets the stage for how well your site performs globally tomorrow.

2. Template and Controller Logic: The Brains Behind the Look

Once your folders and URLs are neatly mapped, the next thing you need to tackle is how your storefront actually serves content. That’s where templates and controllers come in.

In SFCC, templates handle the visual layout of your pages, while controllers manage the logic that runs behind them. Think of templates as what your users see, and controllers as the rules that decide what content to show, based on the user’s location or language.

Now, in a multi-store setup, one-size-fits-all just doesn’t work. You want your German customers to see German banners, German product descriptions, and even region-specific messages or promotions. You don’t want to hard-code this into each page separately—that would be a nightmare to scale.

Instead, use dynamic controller logic to detect the locale and serve the correct version of content through the same base templates. SFRA (Storefront Reference Architecture) makes this flexible—you can use context objects like request.locale to guide your logic and load content accordingly.

Here’s a simple visual showing how SFCC uses request.locale to drive localized storefront rendering—from controller logic to content delivery and final output:

This gives you clean, modular code and a consistent structure while delivering personalized experiences. And from an SEO perspective? It keeps your content properly segmented per region, which reduces duplication and boosts search relevance.

So, keep your templates global, but make your controllers smart. That’s how you scale localization without breaking SEO or performance.

3. Sitemap Management: Guide the Bots, Don’t Confuse Them

Alright, now that your content is structured and your templates are serving the right data, let’s talk about something most people forget until it’s too late—sitemaps.

Think of your sitemap like a GPS for search engines. It tells Google (and others) exactly what pages you have, how they're organized, and which versions are meant for which regions or languages.

In a multi-store setup, this becomes even more important. You can’t just rely on a single sitemap and expect everything to be crawled correctly. You need one sitemap per locale, each pointing to the URLs relevant to that specific region.

So, if you have three stores—US, UK, and Germany—you should have:

• sitemap-en-us.xml
• sitemap-en-gb.xml
• sitemap-de-de.xml

Now, here’s where SFCC makes your life easier: you can schedule sitemap generation as a job. And using dynamic logic in your controller layer, you can ensure that each sitemap is locale-aware. That means it only includes URLs for that specific store, with correct hreflang tags baked in.

Once your sitemaps are live, don’t forget to submit each one to Google Search Console under its respective domain or subfolder. This tiny step makes a massive difference. It speeds up indexing and helps Google understand how your site is split by region, which ultimately improves your international rankings.

4. Robots.txt Per Locale: Allow the Right Crawlers In

Let’s now get into something super tactical, but often overlooked: your robots.txt file.

This little file sits quietly at the root of your site, telling search engine bots what they can and can’t crawl. And in a multi-store SFCC setup, you’ll want to treat it with extra care—because one wrong line here can stop your entire store from getting indexed in the right country.

Here’s the thing: each locale (or domain/subdirectory, depending on how you’ve structured it) should have its own customized robots.txt file. 

But why so? Well because what you want Google to crawl in the US version might not be the same as in your UAE or German store.

For instance, your staging URLs or test environments—like test.brand.com or /dev/—should be blocked completely. You definitely don’t want that content showing up in search results. Same goes for duplicate store versions that you’ve created temporarily or haven’t fully localized yet.

In SFCC, you can configure robots.txt dynamically or set it statically per storefront. Whichever way you go, just make sure each store has:

• A unique robots file
• Locale-specific allowances and disallows
• No accidental blocks of real pages you want indexed

It’s a simple step, but when done right, it keeps bots focused on the right parts of your site—and avoids a major SEO headache down the road.

Performance & Site Speed

Alright, let’s get into something that often gets pushed to the bottom of the SEO checklist—site speed. But here’s the truth: if your international stores load slowly, it doesn’t matter how great your content is. 

Search engines will rank you lower, and users will bounce before they even see your fancy homepage banner.

So how do you make sure your SFCC multi-store setup stays fast no matter where in the world it’s accessed from?

Let’s break it down.

First, Think Global – Literally…

If you’re targeting users in different countries, you can’t rely on one central server to do all the work. A customer visiting your UK store from London shouldn’t be waiting for data to load from a server in the U.S.

What you need is a Content Delivery Network (CDN). Most SFCC setups use a CDN like Akamai or Cloudflare by default. These CDNs store cached versions of your pages in multiple locations around the world. That way, when someone in France visits your .fr store, they get content served from a nearby server—not from halfway across the planet.

And yes, this one fix alone can dramatically reduce load times.

Next Up: Media & Assets

Let’s talk about the heavy stuff—images, videos, fonts, and those stylish homepage sliders. These are often the biggest speed killers.

In SFCC, you can optimize these by:

• Compressing images without losing quality (think WebP format)
• Enabling lazy loading, so images below the fold don’t load until needed
• Serving assets in modern formats (no one likes .bmp anymore)

Also, make sure each store serves assets that match its locale. If your Japan store still pulls fonts from a US-based resource or uses images with English text baked in, you’re not just hurting SEO—you’re also giving users a weird experience.

JavaScript, CSS, and 3rd Party Scripts

Now, this is where things get a little more technical—but still important.

Every store you launch likely has a bunch of shared JS and CSS files. That’s fine… until it’s not.

You need to minify these files and defer non-critical scripts so they don’t block page rendering. SFCC gives you enough flexibility to optimize script execution per store, so don’t miss out.

And if you’re using third-party services (chatbots, trackers, heatmaps, etc.), load them asynchronously. Otherwise, one lagging plugin can slow down all your stores.

Mobile First = Speed First

Most of your users will be coming from mobile—especially in countries like India or Brazil where mobile is the primary way people shop online.

So ask yourself:

• Are your stores mobile-optimized?
• Do they load in under 3 seconds on a 4G connection?
• Because Google definitely checks that.

SFCC’s Storefront Reference Architecture (SFRA) is mobile-first by design. But you still need to test and tweak it per store, because different languages can break layouts or cause larger DOM sizes, which slows things down.

So basically, if you’re running multiple stores in SFCC and want solid international SEO, you must take performance seriously.

Faster websites rank better.
They convert more.
And they give your global visitors the kind of experience that keeps them coming back.

So don’t let speed be an afterthought—it should be part of your foundation.

Analytics and Tracking

When you're running multiple stores across different countries, knowing what’s happening on each site isn’t optional—it’s essential. Analytics helps you understand not just how much traffic you’re getting, but who’s visiting, from where, and what they’re doing. If you don’t track this by region or store, you’re basically flying blind.

Now, the tricky part is making sure your tools are set up the right way. Whether you’re using GA4 or Adobe Analytics, you need to configure views (or reports) specific to each locale. This way, your US data doesn’t get mixed up with Canada, and your SEO performance can be isolated by store.

“What gets measured gets managed. But in international SEO, what gets segmented gets scaled.”

Tag managers—like GTM—also need to be scoped properly. It’s not just about firing the right tags; it’s about showing the right currency, language, and behavior-based tracking per store. If you’re running promotions in India and can’t track clicks only from Indian users, you’re missing out on real insights.

• Segment all traffic by store or country
• Track language-specific conversions
• Monitor SEO metrics like bounce rate and time-on-page by locale
• Keep referral exclusions clean per domain

Analytics is your feedback loop. Use it to improve, not just report.

Testing and QA Before Launch

Launching international stores isn’t just about flipping a switch. Before anything goes live, you need to test everything—because even small issues in a multi-store setup can snowball into SEO disasters or a broken user experience.

Start by thinking like both a user and a search engine. Would a visitor from Germany see the right language and currency? Would Googlebot know which version of your store to index? If the answer is “I think so,” then you’re not ready yet.

You need to go store by store and run a full QA.

Use a hreflang checker to make sure every page is pointing to its correct alternates. This ensures that Google understands which page serves which country-language combo. Check robots.txt files individually—they shouldn’t accidentally block your live sites or allow indexing of your staging environments.

Click through the homepage, product pages, and checkout flows on desktop and mobile for each locale. Test the currency, payment options, and even the footer links. Also, review your localized content for accuracy—bad grammar or untranslated text makes your store look half-baked.

And finally, test your sitemap files. Make sure every localized version is accounted for. A missed sitemap entry can mean thousands of pages stay invisible in search.

Treat QA like your final line of defense—it’s what separates a clean launch from a messy one.

Ready to Go Global with Confidence?

So, now you know what it takes to get international SEO right on SFCC when you’re running multiple stores. It’s not just about translating content or setting up different domains—it’s about giving search engines the right signals and your users the right experience.

Think of it like this: each store you set up should feel native to the region, both for users and for Google. That means clear structure, proper hreflang usage, and smart content localization.

If you’re planning your expansion, don’t rush. Start with your business goals, align your SEO strategy, and then build your multi-store setup with intention.

Get the technical pieces right early, and the SEO gains will follow naturally as you scale.

FAQs

1. Can I use one sitemap for all my SFCC stores?

No, it’s better to create separate sitemaps for each store or locale. This helps search engines understand your site structure and hreflang tags clearly. It also avoids confusion when indexing region-specific content and improves crawl efficiency for international stores.

2. Do I need to create unique meta titles for each country store?

Yes, absolutely. Even if products are the same, each store should have localized meta titles and descriptions. It helps your content match local search intent and language better, which boosts visibility and click-through rates in different regions.

3. What happens if I skip hreflang implementation in SFCC?

Without hreflang tags, search engines might rank the wrong store in the wrong country. That confuses both users and crawlers, leading to poor engagement and lower rankings. Hreflang ensures the right audience sees the right version of your store.

4. Is it okay to automatically redirect users based on their IP?

No, auto-redirection can hurt your SEO and user experience. Search engines might not index all versions of your store. Instead, show a location suggestion banner and let users choose their region manually. It’s safer and SEO-friendly.

5. Should I create separate Google Search Console profiles for each store?

Yes, setting up individual GSC profiles for each domain or subdirectory helps you monitor performance by country or language. You can track errors, indexing issues, and ranking trends specific to each store, making it easier to improve SEO over time.