Hreflang - Is it needed even if the site is only one language
-
This topic came up in a discussion I had with a fellow SEO colleague, I don't believe it makes sense to have Hreflang if you don't have a second language but according to my friend they mentioned that it is great if your only targeting one country. Any opinions out in the Moz community? It seems like overkill to me
-
This may be a little bit outside the scope of the original question, but another use for hreflang tags is when you only have a single language, but localized content in different countries.
So, for example let's say you have web sites/pages in the US and Australia. Both are in English. But you differ the content for each market. In that case, you would use hreflang tags to relate a similar page/site between the two countries. "en-us" and "en-au".
I realize that's not exactly what the original post asked. But adding this info to what has already been answered.
-
Hi Jonathan,
I agree with you, I'd say it's complete overkill for most sites that only have 1 country & language that they're targeting. If it could be a country that covers multiple languages then I would reconsider this. But with most companies that I've seen work with HREF Lang it's already a lengthy and intense process that usually is only worth it when you focus on creating content for multiple languages.
Martijn.
-
Hreflang means the tags that go between different pages and show Google the way to the same content in other languages. There are also your standard language tags, which perform a very similar function to the self-referencing hreflang. IMO, it should be enough to just use language tags e.g:
^ for French. You can even specify a region and a language like:
I would have thought this would be enough to tell Google what language and region a page is targeted at (you can come up with any number of combinations using the HTML ISO country codes and the HTML ISO language codes)
However, according to SEO best practice this is wrong. Even if you only target one language / country, and you do not require the utility of hreflang tags (pointing Google to other language variants of pages) - you are apparently still supposed to have a self-referencing hreflang tag on your pages (confirming the active language)
Since this is what language tags (which existed long before hreflangs) are supposed to do, it seems really stupid to me. But that's the way it is, for whatever reason
In summary, yes do use self referencing hreflangs AND the appropriate language tags in concert
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
-
Do I need Yoast SEO video for YouTube videos?
I have been following advice for improving the SEO of my YouTube videos, for instance by having the keyword early in the title and description. Do I then need a plugin like Yoast Video SEO for my website where the videos are embedded to increase the chance of showing the videos for that keyword?
On-Page Optimization | | AudunBK0 -
URL structure of the page: Does this one need to contain the most important keyword for better SEO?
Hi everyone, I’m trying to get "air-conditioner-repair.html" to rank higher for the keyword "air conditioner los angeles". I am wondering whether or not I should change URL to "air-conditioner-los-angeles-repair.html" to get better results? Will be thankful very much for any advise you can offer!
On-Page Optimization | | kirupa0 -
Why Does This Site Rank Well?
I noticed recently that the website of a local church (http://www.lifepointfc.com/) has climbed toward the top of the SERPS, and I cannot figure out why. The on-site SEO seems mediocre, at best, and their domain authority is 15 while their homepage authority is just 19. Does anyone see how they are working their SEO magic?
On-Page Optimization | | cbizzle0 -
My Site's Name Not Ranking in Google
Hey all, I've seen a few posts like this. But I wanted to start a new thread in hopes I may find the underlying issue. I've had my site: http://www.ctrl-alt-success.com for about 2 years. Recently I've started really adding a lot of content to it. (about 2-3 posts a week). I get zero organic views which is fine as I know it's still in the beginning. But here's my main question. If I type "ctrl-alt-success" into google. I get some site that shows up. "ctrlaltsuccess.com" I've been looking at this issue forever. That site has been "coming soon" for nearly 2 years. lol My site doesn't even show up on the first 10 pages of google. However in Bing and Yahoo it ranks on the first page. What could my site be doing wrong that it's not even ranking for the exact domain name? Keep in mind, if I google "ctrl-alt-success.com" my site comes up fine. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | Ctrl-Alt-Success0 -
In need of guidance on keyword targeting
Hello I'm in need of some guidance as my head has gotten into a spin. Here's the website - www.onsite-sm.co.uk
On-Page Optimization | | Hughescov
Here's the keywords - concrete repair, concrete repairs, concrete repair contractors
Here's the question - The homepage doesn't really rank for anything specific and the concrete repair page isn't really strong enough to rank for the above keywords. What should I do? Thanks for any help.0 -
Any benefit to using HeadSpace AND All in One?
I noticed that somewhere along the line (outside developer or SEO) I ended up with HeadSpace AND All in One on one of my WP sites. There are functions that I appreciate with both and I wonder if there is any danger to completing both forms for a post or page? Is there really any benefit or just a waste of time? I keep finding articles that compare the 2, but nothing that talks about using them together. If I get rid of All in One, …. WOW. Mid question, i realized I'm a dum-dum. All in One has the same no follow options I thought I would miss from HeadSpace. So new question…if I uninstall headspace, will I lose the data/settings that it was used to set up? Jenn
On-Page Optimization | | vernonmack0 -
Blocking Pages E-Commerce Site
Hello, I am working on a site with 1,000's of product pages, some of which do not have inventory in them. Should be blocking these pages in order to reduce bouce rate? How could i manage so many pages efficiently? It would takes weeks to comb through pages to determine which have inventory and which do not. They are also time sensitive as they are live events so dates are always changing. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | TP_Marketing0 -
Monitor site loading speeds
We all know that site loading speed is important for google ( and getting more important), and currently we are considering moving to a dedicated server. But I would like to measure pur current loading times and compare them to our competitors. I know that webmaster tools shows you your loading times, but its seems a bit random with its results, and I know analytics also now records speed, but the sample sizes seems to be too low. When I googled website load times, I got a load of different free tools but they seem to give conflicting results e.g one said that our avg kb load time was 0.02sec and our competitor was 0.01, but a different site says our sites loads in 1.7 secs and our competitor loads in 11sec (our home pages have similar total file size for our homepage. ) Also what would be useful would be a way to monitor of website loading speed to see when it slows down, so we can figure out why. Does anyone know of any good reliable programs or sites that does this?
On-Page Optimization | | eunaneunan0