Hreflang Implementation
-
Hello All,
I'm currently working on a website with different folders for different country. For now I have defined the href lang implementation as below:
http://www.homepage.com/en/default.html"/>
Language: English - Country: United Kingdomhttp://www.homepage.com/enus/default.html"/>
Language: English - Country: United Stateshttp://www.homepage.com/nl/default.html"/>
Language: Dutch - Country: Netherlandshttp://www.homepage.com/nlbe/default.html"/>
Language: Dutch - Country: Belgiumhttp://www.homepage.com/fr/default.html"/>
Language: French - Country: All french speaking countrieshttp://www.homepage.com/de/default.html"/>
Language: German - Country: All german speaking countrieshttp://www.homepage.com/es/camisa-a-medida.html"/>
Language: Spanish - Country: Spainhttp://www.homepage.com/enen/default.html" />
Language: English - Country: All other countriesDoes this make any sense?
Furthermore, how do I implement this on underlying pages. Do I fill out the URL dynamically according to the URL the tags are found on? Or do I use these tags mentioning the homepage on all underlying pages? If so, how do I avoid duplicate content issues between NL and NL-BE and EN-GB, EN-US and EN? Canonicals?
Besides the whole hreflang implementation I was wondering if it's worthwhile or advisable to implement lang="en" xml:lang="en_"_ in the HTML tag and http-equiv="content-language" content="en_"_ in the META tags?
-
Hi Bulserik
regarding those two questions, if we look just at Google, they are not taken into consideration by Google for International SEO.
On the other:
- because they don't harm a site;
- because they are used by Bing for geolocalization and geotargeting (Bing does not use the hreflang)
then, it is a good idea using them.
Check this old but still valid post on Bing about how to geotarget for them: http://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/2011/03/01/how-to-tell-bing-your-websites-country-and-language/
Finally, just to be sure:
remember to create Google Webmaster Tools profile for each subfolder and geotarget them for their corresponding countries.
-
No one able to help me out on this one?
-
Great, thanks. I'm afraid I'm on ISS though so have to see how to get that working. I understand from your answer the correct way of doing this is by implementing a dynamic URL in the hreflang tag and not just the homepage.
Besides the technical implementation you explained above, I'm assuming the way I segmented the site is okay right?
After that I still have this part unsolved: Besides the whole hreflang implementation I was wondering if it's worthwhile or advisable to implement lang="en"xml:lang="en" in the HTML tag and http-equiv="content-language" content="en" in the META tags?
-
Assuming you're on an Apache server, this works for internal pages:
" hreflang="x-default" />
" hreflang="en-au" />
" hreflang="en-ca" />The REQUEST_URI will pull the internal page you're on (so if you're /about, then it will add /about to all 3 hreflang tags. I don't know if (but I think) this won't work on IIS servers. Just a thought if it doesn't seem to work.
Assuming your folder structure stays the same, you should be all set.
And once you're done, test it using Flang.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Hreflang and canonical
Hi all, I'm hoping someone can help me solve this once and for all! I keep getting hreflang errors on our site crawls and I cannot understand why. Does anything here look off to you? Thank you! JGdWcqu
Technical SEO | | eGInnovations1 -
My translated pages are categorized as subpages of the originals / Importance of hreflang tags
Hi there We have a website that is originally in German, but has an English translation for all pages.
Technical SEO | | Jess_Smunch
I recently created a crawl map for it, which showed that all our translated pages are indexed as subpages of the German originals. I wonder if this is normal, or if it will have a negative impact on our SEO. If they are subpages, will Google still index and rank them with the same importance as the originals?
If not, what can I do to make them standalone pages and not subpages? Also, we have a few issues with hreflang tags that we cannot fix easily as our CMS does not give us a flexible option for editing our code. I wonder how much impact hreflang tags have on our ranking and if we can just disregards these issues? We use Hubspot as a CMS, if that matters. Thanks for your feedback!0 -
Hreflang Tags - error: 'en' - no return tags
Hello, We have recently implemented Hreflang tags to improve the findability of our content in each specific language. However, Webmaster tool is giving us this error... Does anyone know what it means and how to solve it? Here I attach a screenshot: http://screencast.com/t/a4AsqLNtF6J Thanks for your help!
Technical SEO | | Kilgray0 -
International Config in a WP Multisite environment: GWT, Yoast, Hreflang, SiteMaps etc ?
Hi If setting up on a WP multisite environment using Yoast seo plugin how should you: 1) Geotarget in GWT - set up a profile for the different tlds OR the network.domain.com different subfolders ? 2) Set up hreflang sitemaps - can Yoast handle this or anything manual need to be done such as disabling Yoast and creating a bespoke site map with hreflang ? Would this plug in help: https://wordpress.org/plugins/language-selector-related/ 3) Any other ideas or recommendations for setting up geotrageting correctly using WP Multisite ? Thanks Dan
Technical SEO | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Implement rel canonical on a Blogspot blog
Does anyone know how to implement a rel canonical tag on a Blogspot blog? I am trying to pass link juice from an old Blogspot blog to a self-hosted website.
Technical SEO | | ProjectLabs0 -
Hreflang on non-canonical pages
Hi! I've been trying to figure out what is the best way to solve this dilemma with duplicate content and multiple languages across domains. 1 product info page 2 same product but GREEN
Technical SEO | | LarsEriksson
3 same product but RED
4 same product but YELLOW **Question: ** Since pages 2,3,4 just varies slightly I use the canonical tag to indicate they are duplicates of page 1. Now I also want to indicate there are other language versions with the_ rel="alternate" hreflang="x" _element. Should I place the _rel="alternate" hreflang="x" _on the canonical page only pointing to the canonical page with "x" language. Should I place the _rel="alternate" hreflang="x" _on all pages pointing to the canonical page with the "x" language? Should I place the _rel="alternate" hreflang="x" _on all pages and then point it to the translated page (even if it is not a canonical page) ? /Lars0 -
Is this tabbed implementation of SEO copy correct (i.e. good for getting indexed and in an ok spot in the html as viewed by search bots?
We are trying to switch to a tabbed version of our team/product pages at SeatGeek.com, but where all tabs (only 2 right now) are viewed as one document by the search engines. I am pretty sure we have this working for the most part, but would love some quick feedback from you all as I have never worked with this approach before and these pages are some of our most important. Resources: http://www.ericpender.com/blog/tabs-and-seo http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=03fdefb488a16343&hl=en http://searchengineland.com/is-hiding-content-with-display-none-legitimate-seo-13643 Sample in use: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors **Old Version: ** http://screencast.com/t/BWn0OgZsXt http://seatgeek.com/boston-celtics-tickets/ New Version with tabs: http://screencast.com/t/VW6QzDaGt http://screencast.com/t/RPvYv8sT2 http://seatgeek.com/miami-heat-tickets/ Notes: Content not displayed stacked on browser when Javascript turned off, but it is in the source code. Content shows up in Google cache of new page in the text version. In our implementation the JS is currently forcing the event to end before the default behavior of adding #about in this case to the url string - this can be changed, should it be? Related to this, the developer made it so that typing http://seatgeek.com/miami-heat-tickets/#about directly into the browser does not go to the tab with copy, which I imagine could be considered spammy from a human review perspective (this wasn't intentional). This portion of the code is below the truncated view of the fetch as Googlebot, so we didn't have that resource. Are there any issues with hidden text / is this too far down in the html? Any/all feedback appreciated. I know our copy is old, we are in the process of updating it for this season.
Technical SEO | | chadburgess0 -
How I implement the cross domain rel canonical?
I just watched the WBF on cross domain rel canonicals. I understand the concept, but not sure how I go about actually doing the rel canonical? If I have www.mysite.com and someone we just partnered with, www.othersite.com wants to create new pages and use my content, what will the rel canonical tag look like on www.othersite.com? Do I need to also put this tag on www.mysite.com? I want to make sure each of my pages that the other site is copying is getting the "SEO credit."
Technical SEO | | NueMD0