Internationalization and migrations
Internationalization compares traffic by country with the locale folders of your site; Migration Compare checks what happened to traffic after a move. This page explains both, the Google rules behind them and a known misreading of the /uk/ folder.
✓ Checked against Google documentation and the workspace code · 7 October 2026
Two tools for sites in several markets
Internationalization checks whether the traffic that reaches each language or country version of your site comes from the country you meant it for. Migration Compare compares two sets of pages, two properties, two folders or an old and a new URL list, to see what happened to traffic after a move.
Internationalization: how it reads your site
It does not read hreflang. The report takes locale from the first folder of each URL and compares it with the countries in Search Console. That is a useful sanity check, but it is not an audit of hreflang tags. Google’s own rules for those are separate: a language code (ISO 639-1) with an optional region (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2), pages that point to each other, and an x-default fallback; without return links the tags are ignored, and the URL structure is not used to decide the audience (localized versions).
| Analysis | What it does |
|---|---|
| Folder-Based | reads locale folders such as /en/, /de/, /en-gb/ and compares each folder’s clicks by country |
| Domain and Property Based | compares at least two properties, for example country domains, by country |
The period is 7, 14 or 31 days of final data.
How a folder is interpreted
- /en/ is always a language. /en-gb/ is a language with a country, and the country is the target.
- Other two-letter codes are ambiguous, so a setting decides: Countries reads /de/ as Germany, Languages reads it as German.
- Target traffic is the share of a folder’s clicks that come from its target country.
- Misaligned clicks are clicks from one folder’s target country that landed on another locale folder, shown as country cannibalization.
Check /uk/. The built-in map reads /uk/ as the United Kingdom (and as English in Languages mode). In ISO 639-1, uk is the code for Ukrainian, so a site whose /uk/ folder is Ukrainian will be misread. Look at the folder’s own row and ignore the target it assigns if the code is not the one you used.
Domain and property analysis
Select at least two properties. The report lists each country with the clicks, impressions and position of every property, and flags countries where more than one property gets clicks: a sign that country domains compete for the same audience.
Migration Compare
| Mode | Compares |
|---|---|
| Cross-property | two Search Console properties, for example an old and a new domain |
| Two URL paths | two folders inside one property |
| Two regex groups | two sets of URLs described by regular expressions |
| Redirect mappings | each old URL with its new URL from a file you upload |
Choose clicks, impressions or position, a period and, if you wish, a comparison period (see dates and comparisons). The report draws a trend, then compares queries and pages with Winning and Losing filters. It uses final data.
Validating redirect mappings
- Prepare a CSV or TSV with the columns
from_urlandto_url, between 1 and 5,000 rows. - Choose the source and target properties and the period, then upload.
- Read the table: clicks and impressions of the old URL, of the new URL and the difference.
URLs are matched by exact text against the pages Search Console returned, so a trailing slash, a different case or a missing protocol means no match and a row of zeros. Pages with too few impressions may be absent from Search Console’s export, which also gives zeros. A zero is therefore a prompt to check, not proof that traffic was lost.
What Google recommends for a move
- Use permanent redirects, 301 or 308, from each old URL to its new URL (site moves with URL changes).
- Prepare the old-to-new mapping before the move.
- Keep the redirects as long as possible, generally at least one year.
- Expect a few weeks or more before the new URLs replace the old ones in results, for small and medium sites.
- Use the Change of Address tool only for a domain or subdomain move, not for HTTP to HTTPS or www changes.
Limits to keep in mind
- Capped exports. Up to 250,000 rows are fetched per side and per dimension; larger sites are flagged as truncated.
- Final data only. The newest days are not included.
- Folder rules are conventions. A folder name does not prove which audience Google serves.
If something looks wrong
| Symptom | Cause and fix |
|---|---|
| A folder is assigned the wrong target | its code is ambiguous, for example /uk/; switch Countries or Languages and read the row yourself |
| Domain analysis will not start | select at least two properties |
| Mapping rows show zeros | the URL text does not match exactly, or the page is missing from the export |
| “Upload between 1 and 5,000 redirect mappings” | the file is empty or too large; split it |
Internationalization and migrations, answered
Does the report check my hreflang tags?
No. It infers locales from URL folders and compares them with traffic by country.
How long should I keep redirects after a move?
Google advises generally at least one year.
Why does my mapping show zero?
The URLs are matched as exact text; check slashes, case and protocol.
Continue
Next, see indexing and sitemaps and the FAQ on international targeting.