Href lang tag - do I need it?
-
Hey Guys!
I have a multi-lingual site in Switzerland serving french and german content.
URL structure looks like this:
homepage (main) http://www.exmaple.ch/
German http://www.exmaple.ch/de/
French http://www.exmaple.ch/fr/
You can choose a drop down on every page to convert the page into french or german. So there are basically two seperate sites, URL's do not cross over i.e. I have no french pages linking to german pages, it is all pretty good. The default language is german.
I have checked in Google.ch/ in both languages french and german for which pages are being served up and they seem all relevant, i.e. on french browser settings when I go to google.ch I see french pages being served and vice versa.
My question....Do I need href lang tags?
Cheers all!
-
Hi Gianluca,
Is that only if your site utilizes sub-domains or would it be the same if you utilize a sub-folder structure?
-
Kayleigh,
I would love to. I have 2 languages that are spoken in numerous countries around the world, on the same domain so I will definitely let you know what I am able to find out.
I will also take @Gianluca's advise and implement on the home page for the brand.
-
Hi!
I don't have any posts on it, it's just from my experience working on international SEO, as Gianluca says.
-
Hi,
I don't have a specific document to show you, but that statement is consequence of mine and many others international SEO experience.
Moreover, Google quit every mention of the contemporary use of the hreflang and the canonical tag from the helps pages about hreflang.
-
Thanks Guys, that's helpful!
@Brooke when you have implemented the tags across the sites can you share if anything has noticeably changed? Would be interesting to know.
@Ariel why would Google present non-matching sitelinks? I don't understand why it would do that? There are posts on it that I could read?
@Gianluca regarding your recommendation '...use the hreflang only on URLs that are canonical and not in canonicalized one. Contemporary usage of hreflang and rel="canonical" is not recommended.' Do you have a publication about this that I could read so I can understand the principal of it a little better? Would really help me understand how Google 'thinks'.
Thanks all for your input! Much appreciated.
-
Hi Keyleigh,
in a case like your, when you are targeting audiences using different languages, to use the hreflang is not an obligation, because you are giving Google enough language targeting signals already.
However, as Ariel wrote in his answer, I suggest to use at least for the home page and for those pages that usually are shown in the SERPs for brand name queries (the home page, for instance, but it could be also the about us page).
In fact, apart the potential sitelink issue, for the brand name search, Google could decide to show the "home page" with the highest authority, and not necessarily the one in the language corresponding to the users.
Said that, Google suggests using the hreflang practically always, hence - if it is not a complication - I would implement it.
One recommendation, though, use the hreflang only on URLs that are canonical and not in canonicalized one. Contemporary usage of hreflang and rel="canonical" is not recommended.
-
Thanks Brooke for sharing my post here on Moz.
90% of what I wrote is still valid, but the hreflang part, because in that moment Google was suggesting to use cross-domain canonical in case two or more pages were serving the same content in the same language in combination with the hreflang annotation, and to do so in order to avoid duplicated content issues.
After 3 years that suggestion is not valid anymore, mostly because of Google itself, which recognized it said a very stupid thing.
So, right now, if you have two or more websites serving the same content in the same language, but targeting users in different countries (eg.: domain.com for USA, domain.co.uk for UK and domain.ie for Ireland), then you should only use the hreflang annotations, because they are enough for alerting Google to not consider those pages as traditional duplicated content.
(note to myself: I need to ask to update that post)
-
Hi!
I managed several sites that were multilingual and aimed at people from different countries. At first, I didn't put hreflang and people used to see the correct website according to their language and country.
BUT (there's always a but), for example, when people googled the brand name + something, the websites appeared in SERPs with sitelinks, and the sitelinks didn't match the correct language/location.
So, if it isn't much trouble, I would suggest putting hreflang tags, to be sure (kind of) that you won't get into problems like the one I had.
Best wishes Ariel
-
Howdy,
I have not implemented the href tags and I am having similar results, however I have started to see that change a little in traffic so I am going to start the implementation of the tags across the sites.
My situation might be a little different though because I have 30 sites in different countries but there is this article from Gianluca that I have found extremely helpful: https://mza.bundledseo.com/blog/international-seo-dropping-the-information-dust
It is an older post but I still find it very helpful as to the best practices and things to consider when running international websites.
Hope this helps. - Brooke
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
-
href lang questions - please help
Hi I have a few questions about href lang implementation and I was hoping for some guidance / opinions. An international website is using mostly a folder structure, but for some locations it might have standalone sub-domains. Some folders are there to target locations and languages, with others just targeting languages. See the list below: domain.com/es-mx [Language: Spanish - Location: Mexico]
International SEO | | MarkCanning
domain.com/pt-br [Language: Portuguese - Location: Brazil]
domain.com/ja-jp [Language: Japanese - Location: Japan]
domain.com/en-jp [Language: English - Location: Japan]
domain.com/fr-ca [Language: French - Location: Canada]
domain.com/en-ca [Language: English - Location: Canada]
domain.com/en-ie [Language: English - Location: Ireland]
domain.com/ar [Language: Arabic]
domain.com/ph [Language: Tagalog]
domain.com/it [Language: Italian]
domain.com/tr [Language: Turkish]
domain.com/kr [Language: Korean]
domain.com/fr [Language: French]
domain.com/ru [Language: Russian]
domain.com/vn [Language: Vietnamese] domain.in/en [Language: English - Location Indian]
domain.in/hi [Language: Hindi - Location Indian] My questions are: Is href lang sitemap equally as good as the href lang meta tag in terms of effectiveness. I know that the sitemap is easier to maintain and upkeep but i don't know which one is better as google recommends both. How do you mix your listings when some are targeting language and country and others are just targeting language speakers (not tied to any specific country). So take for example in the list above: there would be a general site for french speakers and then one for french speakers in Canada. Thanks for your advise in advance.0 -
Hreflang implementation via sitemap - don’t need canonical tags?
Hi, Quick easy question here I hope! An international site has hreflang and canonical tags in page head sections and also hreflang in the sitemap so I can see one version needs removing. The head section versions are relative URLs and need updating so think we will keep the sitemap hreflangs instead. If the sitemap implementation is going to be used (sitemap auto-updates when changes are made to pages so seems easier to do this way) am I right in thinking No canonical tags are needed at all (and can safely be removed from head section too?). Pretty sure links included in sitemap are assumed to be canonicals, or any issues with this approach? Will be using x-default for the default language version of homepage too.
International SEO | | MMcCalden0 -
Correct Hreflang & Canonical Tags for Multi-Regional Website English Language Only having URL Parameters
Dear friends, We have a multi-regional website in English language only having the country selector on the top of each page and it adds countrycode parameters on each url. Website is built in Magento 1.8 and having 1 store with multiple store views. There is no default store set in Magento as I discussed with developer. Content is same for all the countries and only currency is changed. In navigation there are urls without url parameters but when we change store from any page it add parameters in the url for same page hence there are total 7 URLs. 6 URLs for each page (with country parameters) and 1 master url (without parameters) and making content duplicity. We have implemented hreflang tags on each page with url parameters but for canonical we have implemented master page url as per navigation without url parameters Example on this page. I think this is correct for master page but we should use URL parameters in canonical tags for each counry url too and there should be only 1 canonical tag on each country page url. Currently all the country urls are having master page canoncial tag as per the example. Please correct me if I am wrong and **in this case what has to be done for master page? **as google is indexing the pages without parameters too. We are also using GEOIP redirection for each store with country IP detection and for rest of the countries which are not listed on the website we are redirecting to USA store. Earlier it was 301 but we changed it to 302. Hreflang tags are showing errors in SEMRush due to redirection but in GWT it's OK for some pages it's showing no return tags only. Should I use **x-default tags for hreflang and country selector only on home page like this or should I remove the redirection? **However some of the website like this using redirection but header check tool doesn't show the redirection for this and for our website it shows 302 redirection. Sorry for the long post but looking for your support, please.
International SEO | | spjain810 -
How should I handle hreflang tags if it's the same language in all targeting countries?
My company is creating an international version of our site at international.example.com. We are located in the US with our main site at www.example.com targeting US & Canada but offering slightly different products elsewhere internationally. Ideally, we would have hreflang tags for different versions in different languages, however, it's going to be an almost duplicate site besides a few different SKUs. All language and content on the site is going to be in English. Again, the only content changing is slightly different SKUs, they are almost identical sites. The subdomain is our only option right now. Should we implement hreflang tags even if both languages are English and only some of the content is different? Or will having just canonicals be fine? How should we handle this? Would it make sense to use hreflang this way and include it on both versions? I believe this would be signaling for US & Canda visitors to visit our main site and all other users go to the international site. Am I thinking this correctly or should we be doing this a different way?
International SEO | | tcope250 -
Hreflang tags and canonical tags - might be causing indexing and duplicate content issues
Hi, Let's say I have a site located at https://www.example.com, and also have subdirectories setup for different languages. For example: https://www.example.com/es_ES/ https://www.example.com/fr_FR/ https://www.example.com/it_IT/ My Spanish version currently has the following hreflang tags and canonical tag implemented: My robots.txt file is blocking all of my language subdirectories. For example: User-agent:* Disallow: /es_ES/ Disallow: /fr_FR/ Disallow: /it_IT/ This setup doesn't seem right. I don't think I should be blocking the language-specific subdirectories via robots.txt What are your thoughts? Does my hreflang tag and canonical tag implementation look correct to you? Should I be doing this differently? I would greatly appreciate your feedback and/or suggestions.
International SEO | | Avid_Demand0 -
Proper use of HREF-LANG tag and Geotargeting.
I am working with a global company that has different country sites (these are distinguished via country subdomains - country.site.com). Upon looking at the Google Analytics data, I noticed that even though the different country geotargeting settings aren't set up correctly, we are reaching the right target market for each site. My hunch is because even though there is no geotargeting, the language for each country site is making the content relavant (this in combination with the subdomain). I have read through various resources here on MOZ, and noticed that the primary purpose of the href-lang tag is important if you have similar/identical pages that are targeted towards different countries/languages. If the pages are translations however, how important or impactful is it to set the geotargeting and href-lang tags for the other sites altogether?
International SEO | | marshseo0 -
Do we need to update our sitemaps each time our content changes?
Dear SEO experts! We have created sites maps to get our international sub-domains indexed, however we're unsure if we have to update our sitemaps each time our content changes on our many landing pages which are translated to 17 different languages? Obviously the goal is to make it dynamic so it updates itself. I hope you can help us with some advice. Thanks a lot! Allan
International SEO | | Todoist0 -
Will website with tag hreflang pass link juice to other country/language version of website?
For example, I have a website XXX.com and I made hreflang tags to other country/language versions of website: ru.XXX.com (for Russia/Russian) XXX.com.ua (for Ukraine/Russian) ua.XXX.com (for Ukraine/Ukraine) Then I will acquire links to XXX.com. The question is: will XXX.com pass link juice to websites ru.XXX.com, XXX.com.ua and ua.XXX.com. Will these websites rank in their countries if I will acquire links ONLY to XXX.com? I looked at https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en, but haven't found what google think about that. Thank you in advance. I will appreciate your help.
International SEO | | Kabanchik0