We are planning a website in 20 languages. Each page will have content in its language and link to origin article which will be on the main site in English. Is it better to have for each country www.us.domain.com, [www].es.domain.com, ... or www.domain. es, ...? I was thinking that if we link from all those pages on the same server from different domains to the same pages google can threat it as linking scheme and penalize it. Or not? But if we keep the same domain xy.domain.com there is no worry. But will for example Spanish local search engine index page es. domain.com or much quicker page domain.es? Thank you!
domain.ES will rank BETTER in google.es If you are serious in local ranking, it is worth to consider buying .local domains. I do local optimization, so take this as an advice.