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You're keen to make your website multi-lingual. It's a natural step as you extend your reach to other regions. You're aware that your target audiences may expect the website to be available in their native tongue. Good move.
However, as is often the case at this stage, you've perhaps overlooked one key element. And I'm not referring to a minor technical tweak. The structure of the URLs will significantly influence the Google rankings of each language version. Better to make the right choice now.

URL Structure: A Critical Decision, Not Just Technical
It is worth dwelling for a moment on why URL structure is much more than just a technical decision. When crawlers like Google scan your website, they use the URL as one of the first indicators of the topic of the page, where to place it geographically, and for whom to show it. If you implement a poorly structured multi-lingual site, Google crawlers might get confused. Also, it could cause duplicate content issues and unnecessarily distribute your authority over multiple properties. The user experience is another important consideration: it does instill greater confidence for a French user if they have landed on a clearly marked French website, and this may contribute to improved session length and conversion rates. So the decision touches on technical aspects, SEO strategy and brand communication. All three aspects have to be considered carefully to ensure that the right decision is made.

So, let's discuss the three available options:

Option 1: Subdirectories
This is the first choice when setting up your website for multiple languages. Each language version is found in a subdirectory beneath your main domain. You are not required to build separate websites for your French pages. They exist simply beneath a 'fr' subdirectory under the domain name. There are advantages from an SEO perspective as well as fewer changes to make, as you don't need to purchase a new domain name or make any DNS changes. Also, your branding can be kept consistent across all versions.
The setup for subdirectories is arguably the simplest and most maintainable option. All your domain authority flows directly into each subfolder. If your homepage is well ranked it will positively impact your other language pages directly. Analytics are more straightforward. Teams have access to templates, tools and processes easily as there is only one property and less infrastructure involved. This is especially true if you're a mid-sized business just beginning to look abroad or working with a centralized team.

Option 2: Subdomains
With subdomains, each language version is separate. They live on a distinct domain name as subdomains. The great thing is that the different language domain pages can be managed autonomously, allowing you to tailor each version to your market specifically. Many big brands prefer this structure because they have both the money and the manpower to implement. However, the search engine ranking factors will not be passed as effectively from subdomains to your main domain due to their algorithms and policies for handling subdomains. For that reason, you may have to consider implementing an additional SEO effort to enhance rankings for your language domains. It's better for highly decentralized organizations where specific market teams take full ownership over their individual domain names.
In a practical sense, subdomains do provide certain advantages. It is possible to host them on entirely different servers and use different content management systems; different teams can take control of different subdomains without affecting other sections. So, if your Spanish content team has its own campaign that should use its own website design and URL, they can do so freely without the intervention of others. Your website will be split into separate smaller sites rather than one larger, dominant one. For Google, this is interpreted as multiple sites which are likely to have different strengths and weaknesses, thereby impacting search visibility in favor of your main, most robust language.

Option 3: Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)
Finally, we come to country code top-level domains, or ccTLDs. They refer to using separate domain names like ".de" for Germany and ".fr" for France, for example. From a branding standpoint, ccTLDs will give your foreign customers a sense of trust as they look similar to local domains. Especially for the customers it matters very much where the domains they visit originate from; seeing ".fr" under your main brand name should make any user feel completely comfortable.
However, on the SEO front this option does not appear favorable. CcTLDs, since they have unique domains, are seen by search engines as separate entities, meaning you have to rank every domain name with its own content, SEO, and link-building strategies. This significantly increases the effort and resources required. You will be much better off, if you've got money to spend on it and several country specific teams who have control over their separate sites. This is usually recommended for big businesses with international presence and a strong brand identity in more than one country and sufficient budget, that have established themselves firmly in numerous international markets for a long period. But if you're only just starting your move abroad and are a mid-sized business with less money, ccTLDs will very quickly turn out to be too resource-intensive.
Technical Considerations
As with all aspects of setting up a multilingual site, some core technical fundamentals apply to each method. Using hreflang tags is one of the most crucial, as this code tells search engines how to link to relevant content in other languages. If you have duplicate content across language versions, you also need to implement a canonical tag to tell search engines that other pages are a version of this one. You can also configure geo-targeting options in your Google Search Console. This may help them determine the relevant language version more accurately for different audiences.

Making the Right Choice
So the right choice... The answer to "which is best" really depends on the situation of your organization and objectives. If your current website has established domain authority and search engine ranking, sub-directory can be the ideal solution. And if there is only one marketing group responsible for all markets in your organization, sub-directories are convenient and support well-structured reporting.

It's essential to look at where you stand on SEO currently, prior to choosing your final strategy. A new website launched across several new markets at once might benefit more from starting with sub-directories to quickly establish domain authority in the markets before converting toccTLDswhen the brand is established and well-recognized. It is also possible to change URL structures at a later stage, but this process involves certain risks. Redirection strategies should be executed with care, link authority must be maintained and fluctuations in rankings can occur when making such changes. The optimum approach from the beginning can simplify things considerably.

Another factor to consider is content operations. Which team or individual(s) are responsible for content creation and update? A central in-house team makes sub-directories the obvious choice. When independent local teams or agencies have autonomy on their content creation process, sub-domains and ccTLDs seem to represent their decentralized nature more appropriately.

Conclusion
No matter which structure you choose, make sure to be consistent with your strategy. Never mix up methods, such as implementing sub-domains for some regions and sub-directories for others; a fragmented structure can easily confuse both users and search engines. Expert web design services, like BigDropInc.com, will be able to assist you through the entire process. Talk to them to get advice on the steps that should be taken. They can help you determine your existing domain strength, team structure, market objective and build the perfect multilingual site architecture for all your target regions.