A client says: I want a website in Russian and English. You open the editor and immediately run into a question that sounds technical but actually affects SEO: what will the page addresses look like?
Three options are on the table. Each has its proponents, but arguments often mix SEO, convenience, and technical limitations into one pile. Let's break them down in order.
Three URL Structure Options
Separate Domains. Each language version lives on its own domain: mysite.ru and mysite.com or mysite.de. Sometimes country-specific domains are used: .ru, .de, .fr.
Subdomains. Language versions are separated at the subdomain level: ru.mysite.com and en.mysite.com.
Folders (subdirectory). All versions are on one domain, separated by path: mysite.com/ru/ and mysite.com/en/.
How This Affects SEO
Google officially states that it can work equally well with any of the three options. In practice, there is still a difference.
Separate domains force you to promote several websites independently. Link equity, behavioral signals, and domain authority accumulate separately for each. If you have a strong .ru, it won't help .com at all. Domains for different countries (.de, .fr) signal to Google which country the site is targeting — this is a plus for local search, but only if you are willing to invest in promoting each domain separately.
Subdomains are technically separate from the main domain. Google may treat them as independent websites. This is a debatable point: officially they state that they consider the connection between subdomains, but practice shows that authority is transferred less effectively than with folders.
Folders are the most advantageous option from an SEO perspective. All language versions are on one domain, and its reputation grows simultaneously in several regions and languages. There's no need to spread efforts across multiple sites: content, backlinks, and behavioral signals all work for one domain. If you are already promoting the main site, a new language version in a folder will not start from scratch.
You should only choose a separate domain if you actually plan to develop it as an independent brand in a specific country. For most agency tasks, this is overkill.
In general, geotargeting is a separate, in-depth topic that we discuss in another article:
What else influences the choice, besides SEO?
Management. One domain is simpler: one SSL certificate, one analytics, one account in Google Search Console (although you will have to add versions as separate properties through Search Console for multilingual sites). With multiple domains — multiply everything by the number of versions.
Analytics. With folders, traffic is visible in one GA4 view, filtering by language is easy via the URL path. With subdomains or domains, you either need to set up cross-domain tracking or view reports separately.
Language switcher. With a folder structure like /ru/ and /en/, the switcher can be built by rule, without storing page mapping. With separate domains, this becomes more complex, but Multify solves this problem: it automatically tracks all domains and correctly links pages to each other.
hreflang. It is needed for any structure — this attribute tells Google which version is for which language and region. The only difference is the URL format in the attributes.
Why folders are a problem with Tilda
Tilda technically allows you to create folders, but they will not relate to different languages. You can create a structure like /en/ or /de/, but for search engines, all these pages will have the same language, specified in the project settings. Full multilingualism cannot be achieved with such a structure.
In practice, this does not scale well. When updating content, each language version has to be updated separately. If you add a language, you create another version of the page. And if you have a blog, you will have to create a separate stream for each language, which greatly complicates content management. In addition, without proper setup, languages can get "confused" in search results, as it will be difficult for Google to determine which content is intended for which audience.
But there is a way to get folders without these difficulties.
Folders on Tilda via Proxy
Multify works as a proxy layer: a request comes to mysite.com/en/, passes through the proxy, which substitutes the required language version and delivers it to the user and search engine. Tilda doesn't know what's happening: it works as usual.
As a result, you get a folder structure (/en/, /de/, /fr/) with full SEO: one domain, growing authority, correct hreflang. At the same time, the site itself remains on Tilda without any changes in settings.
hreflang in this approach is generated automatically — no need to manually specify attributes for each page.