Sensational news that is making waves in the international SEO community.
Google is making a significant change to its domain structure, combining its country-specific domains like India’s–google.in or Canada’s–google.ca under the main google.com umbrella. This news raises an important question for digital marketing professionals: How do we signal international content, and what does this consolidation mean for the hreflang tag attribute?
For many years, hreflang has served as a very useful standard technical instruction for websites to inform search engines like Google about the language and regional version of a webpage. This is essential for directing users to the relevant page of the website (e.g., UK English vs. US English) and preventing duplication of content across different versions of the same page. So, how does Google’s own domain shift impact your website?
The Core of the Change: Google.com Takes Center Stage
The fundamental change is that Google plans to phase out country-specific domains, redirecting them to google.com. Google’s explanation for this move, initially hinted at and now being rolled out, is rooted in their improved ability to provide localized search experiences regardless of the domain a user starts from.
Since 2017, Google has been serving local results to users even when they land on google.com, making the country-level domain less crucial for that specific function from their perspective.
This transition will happen gradually over the coming months. Google has stressed that while the URL in the browser bar will change, the search experience itself, including the delivery of localized results and adherence to national laws, should remain consistent for the end-user.
DO NOT GO AND CHANGE YOUR INTERNATIONAL SEO SETUP BASED ON GOOGLE'S CCTLD CHANGES. Nothing has changed with how Search works… Do not redirect your ccTLDs to your .com because Google is doing that. And don't suddenly change your hreflang setup based on this either.
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) April 17, 2025
Again,… https://t.co/0jciDJCSrD
Speculation vs. Clarification: The Hreflang Debate
Speculations:
- Consolidation of Google’s international domain structure raised concerns within the SEO community.
- Some believed Google might reduce reliance on hreflang tags.
- This was fueled by statements suggesting a desire for fewer manual annotations and advancements in AI/machine learning for language and region detection.
Clarifications:
- Google has officially stated that the domain consolidation doesn’t change international SEO best practices.
- John Mueller emphasized the continued importance of hreflang for webmasters.
- While advancements in AI may lead to less reliance on manual tags in the long term, this isn’t related to the recent domain changes.
Implications for Your International Marketing Strategy
So, what are the practical takeaways for SEO and marketing professionals?
Firstly, expect changes in your website analytics. Referral traffic that previously appeared as coming from country-specific Google domains (like google.in) will increasingly consolidate under google.com. This requires adjusting how you track and analyze referral sources to accurately understand user behavior across regions.
Secondly, while users might see a uniform google.com URL, they should still experience search results localized to their perceived location. This reinforces the importance of ensuring your website’s content is genuinely relevant and optimized for specific regions, beyond just language translation.
Next Steps for International Content and SEO
Despite the domain consolidation news and ongoing discussions, Google’s message is clear: fundamental international SEO practices, particularly regarding hreflang, remain essential for now.
Here are key steps you should take:
- Continue Using Hreflang Correctly: Don’t remove your hreflang tags and just ensure they are technically sound and cover all relevant language and regional variations of your content.
- Clear Language and Region Signal On-Site: Make sure to include clear signals like language switchers and local formats (currency, dates) alongside hreflang tags.
- Closely Monitor Your Analytics: Pay close attention to the transitions in referral traffic patterns as the domain consolidation rolls out.
- Review Strategies Reliant on Google Country Domains: If any of your historical SEO or marketing strategies were heavily reliant on the presence or specific behavior of Google’s country-specific domains, evaluate how this change impacts them.
It’s crucial to remember the point confirmed by John Mueller: Google’s decision to consolidate its own domains is a strategic business decision specific to their global brand and technical capabilities. It is not a blanket recommendation for other websites to necessarily consolidate their international domain structures (e.g., redirecting example.fr to example.com).
Final Takeaways from us
- Google is consolidating its country-specific domains to google.com, marking an operational shift.
- This change highlights Google’s improved ability to deliver localized search results.
- Despite this domain unification, Google states that the requirements for using hreflang tags for international SEO remain unchanged.
- Therefore, websites still need to use hreflang to clearly indicate the language and regional targeting of their content.
- SEO professionals should stay updated on this development and monitor its impact on their website analytics.
- It’s crucial for SEOs to reinforce fundamental international SEO best practices. Explicitly signaling content language and regional targeting via hreflang continues to be essential for successful international digital marketing on Google.
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