AI & Automation
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
Last month, I had a client approach me about expanding their SaaS platform to three European markets. Their first instinct? "Let's register separate domains for each country - example.fr, example.de, example.es." This is exactly what I used to recommend five years ago, and it was a disaster.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: most businesses approaching international expansion are making a fundamental SEO mistake that costs them months of progress and thousands in opportunity cost. They're treating each language market like a completely separate business instead of leveraging their existing domain authority.
After migrating dozens of multilingual sites and seeing the data firsthand, I've completely changed my approach to Webflow localization. The conventional wisdom about separate domains? It's outdated and often counterproductive for most businesses.
In this playbook, you'll discover:
Why domain authority concentration beats domain spreading for 90% of businesses
The hidden SEO costs of separate domains that agencies won't tell you
My proven subdirectory strategy that saved clients $50K+ in SEO rebuilding
When separate domains actually make sense (hint: it's rarer than you think)
Step-by-step Webflow implementation for maximum SEO juice
Ready to avoid the multilingual SEO trap that derails most international expansions? Let's dive into what the industry gets wrong.
Industry Reality
What Every Agency Tells You About Multilingual Domains
Walk into any web agency, and you'll hear the same advice about multilingual websites: "Each market needs its own domain for the best user experience." They'll show you examples of major corporations using country-specific domains and paint a picture of localized perfection.
Here's the standard agency playbook for multilingual Webflow sites:
Separate domains for credibility: "French users trust .fr domains more than .com/fr"
Better local SEO performance: "Google prefers local domains for local searches"
Easier content management: "Each market can manage their own site independently"
Regulatory compliance: "GDPR and local laws are easier to handle with separate domains"
Performance optimization: "Regional hosting improves site speed for local users"
This advice sounds logical on the surface. It's what most international marketing guides recommend, and it's how Fortune 500 companies often structure their global presence. The problem? Most agencies are applying enterprise strategies to businesses that aren't enterprises.
What they don't tell you is that separate domains come with massive hidden costs. You're essentially starting from zero SEO authority for each new market. Every backlink, every piece of domain trust, every ranking signal you've built over years - gone. You're competing against established local competitors with fresh, untrusted domains.
The worst part? Most businesses realize this mistake 6-12 months into their international expansion when they're struggling to rank for basic keywords in new markets. By then, they've lost momentum, wasted budget, and often have to completely restructure their approach.
The industry pushes separate domains because it's more billable work. More domains mean more ongoing management, more hosting fees, more complex setups. It's great for agency recurring revenue, but terrible for most client outcomes.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The wake-up call came from a B2B SaaS client I'd been working with for two years. They had a solid domain authority (DA 52) and were ranking well for competitive keywords in English. When they decided to expand to French and German markets, I followed the "best practice" playbook and recommended separate domains.
The setup seemed perfect: example.fr for France, example.de for Germany, clean separation, localized hosting. The client was excited about their "professional" international presence. We spent three months setting everything up, translating content, and launching with big expectations.
Six months later, the results were brutal. The German site was ranking on page 3 for keywords where competitors with weaker content were dominating page 1. The French domain wasn't even showing up for branded searches. Meanwhile, their original English site continued to perform well, but we'd essentially handicapped their international expansion.
The client was frustrated: "We're paying for three Webflow subscriptions, three sets of hosting, and getting worse results than our competitors who started after us." They were right. We'd focused so much on the "professional" setup that we'd ignored the fundamental SEO reality: domain authority doesn't transfer between separate domains.
The breaking point came when I analyzed their competitors. A smaller UK company had launched French and German versions using subdirectories (/fr and /de) six months after my client. They were outranking us everywhere because they were leveraging their existing domain authority instead of starting from scratch.
That's when I realized the conventional wisdom was fundamentally flawed for most businesses. We weren't Nike or McDonald's with massive marketing budgets to overcome the SEO handicap of fresh domains. We were a growing SaaS company that needed to leverage every advantage possible.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
After the separate domain disaster, I completely restructured my approach to multilingual Webflow sites. Instead of spreading domain authority thin across multiple domains, I developed a domain authority concentration strategy that leverages existing SEO power for international expansion.
The Core Philosophy: Your domain authority is your most valuable SEO asset. Every new domain starts at zero, but subdirectories inherit the parent domain's authority. This isn't just theory - it's measurable in tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush.
Here's the exact framework I now use for every multilingual Webflow project:
Step 1: Domain Structure Decision Matrix
I created a simple decision framework based on three key factors:
Domain Authority: If your main domain has DA > 30, subdirectories are almost always better
Brand Recognition: If you're not a household name in target markets, leverage existing trust
Resource Allocation: Separate domains require 3x the ongoing SEO effort
Step 2: Webflow Subdirectory Implementation
The technical setup is cleaner than most people think. In Webflow, I structure multilingual sites like this:
Primary domain: example.com (English)
French subdirectory: example.com/fr/
German subdirectory: example.com/de/
The magic happens in the URL structure. Each language gets its own folder, but they all benefit from the parent domain's authority. Google treats subdirectories as part of the main site, so all backlinks and trust signals flow to every language version.
Step 3: Hreflang Implementation
This is where most DIY attempts fail. Proper hreflang tags tell Google which version to show to which audience. In Webflow, I add custom code to the head section of each page:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/page" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="https://example.com/fr/page" />
Step 4: Content Strategy Alignment
Instead of treating each language as a separate site, I treat them as connected parts of one authority site. This means:
Cross-language internal linking to boost page authority
Consistent URL structure across all languages
Strategic content overlap to reinforce topical authority
Step 5: Technical SEO Optimization
The subdirectory approach requires specific technical setup in Webflow:
Language-specific sitemaps submitted to Google Search Console
Proper canonical tags to avoid duplicate content issues
Language detection and redirect logic for user experience
This strategy completely transformed results for my clients. Instead of starting from zero SEO authority in each market, they were leveraging years of existing domain trust from day one.
Authority Leverage
Domain authority transfers to subdirectories, giving new language versions immediate ranking power instead of starting from zero.
SEO Efficiency
One domain requires one-third the ongoing SEO effort compared to managing separate domains for each language market.
Cost Reduction
Single Webflow subscription and hosting setup vs. multiple subscriptions saves $200-500+ monthly for most businesses.
Risk Mitigation
If one market underperforms, the domain authority remains intact for other markets and future expansion opportunities.
The results from switching to subdirectory strategy were immediate and measurable. Within 3 months of migrating the same client from separate domains to subdirectories, we saw dramatic improvements across all metrics.
SEO Performance Gains:
French pages jumped from page 3-4 to page 1-2 for target keywords
German organic traffic increased 340% compared to the separate domain approach
Time to rank for new content dropped from 4-6 months to 2-8 weeks
Overall international organic traffic grew 280% year-over-year
Operational Efficiency: Management became exponentially easier. Instead of juggling three separate Webflow projects, we had one centralized system. Content updates could be coordinated across languages, and SEO improvements benefited all markets simultaneously.
Cost Savings: The client saved approximately €2,400 annually on hosting and subscription fees alone. More importantly, they avoided the estimated €45,000 in SEO rebuild costs that would have been required to get separate domains to the same performance level.
The most surprising result? Brand trust actually improved in international markets. Users perceived the company as more established when they saw content on a strong domain rather than a fresh country-specific one.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After implementing this approach across dozens of multilingual Webflow projects, here are the critical lessons that separate successful international expansions from expensive failures:
Domain authority is more valuable than local domain perception. Users trust content that ranks well more than they care about domain extensions.
SEO compound interest works in your favor with subdirectories. Every backlink and ranking improvement benefits all language versions simultaneously.
Technical implementation complexity decreases dramatically. One domain means one SSL certificate, one hosting setup, one analytics configuration.
Content strategy becomes more coherent. You can build topical authority across languages instead of fragmenting expertise across domains.
Separate domains only make sense for enterprise companies with dedicated SEO teams and massive marketing budgets for each market.
Webflow's CMS actually works better with subdirectories for multilingual content management and consistency.
Recovery from the separate domain mistake is possible but expensive. Budget 6-12 months and significant SEO investment to migrate back to subdirectories.
When Separate Domains Actually Make Sense: If you're a large corporation with different products per market, regulatory requirements that demand data isolation, or you have dedicated marketing teams with independent budgets per country. For 90% of businesses, subdirectories win.
The Biggest Mistake: Treating international expansion like building multiple businesses instead of extending one business to new markets. Your domain authority is an asset - use it.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups expanding internationally:
Use subdirectories (yoursite.com/fr) to leverage existing domain authority
Implement proper hreflang tags in Webflow custom code
Focus SEO efforts on one domain instead of splitting across multiple
Test market demand with translated landing pages before full localization
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores going multilingual:
Maintain product catalog consistency across subdirectories
Use language-specific URL structures within subdirectories
Implement currency and shipping logic without separate domains
Leverage existing product reviews and social proof across all languages