Create a global-audience copy of our website in a subfolder (non-Canada targeting)

About us: We run a business website on a Canadian domain (.ca). Our current audience and search visibility are Canada-focused. We now want to serve clients outside North America.

What we need: A duplicate of our existing site placed in a subfolder (e.g. ourdomain.ca/global/), with the content adapted for an international audience — and, most importantly, correct technical signals so search engines understand this section targets a global audience, not Canada.

Scope of work:

Clone/copy the existing site's pages into the new subfolder, keeping the design intact.

Implement hreflang correctly across both versions, using generic en for the global section (not en-CA, en-US, or any other country code), plus x-default pointing to the global version.

Add self-referencing canonicals on every page in both versions; ensure no cross-canonicalisation or duplicate-content conflicts.

Create a separate XML sitemap for the new section and reference it in robots.txt.

Set up and verify the section in Google Search Console / Bing Webmaster Tools; submit the new sitemap.

Make sure the global section is crawlable, indexable, and not blocked by existing rules.

Deliverables: Live, indexed global subfolder; working hreflang/canonical setup; separate sitemap; short handover doc explaining the implementation.

Required skills: Technical SEO, hreflang/international SEO, sitemaps, Search Console, basic web development/CMS.