Hreflang usage for language & country x only language
-
Hi guys,
I´m dealing with a website of a client where hreflang tags are implemented as follows:
As you can see the hreflang tags reference language & countrycode as well as only the languagecode with the same URL (for french: website/fr/ihr-besuch/online-tickets" hreflang="fr-fr" as well as hreflang="fr" href="https://www.website/fr/ihr-besuch/online-tickets").
Is this a problem and should be corrected so that either language & countrycode is referenced or only languagecode?
Thanks in advance!
-
HI,
I don't know if it would make a huge difference in how google will understand the site but it is not a 'normal' setup as per documentation: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en
If the site does not have different regional variation pages of english (UK vs USA for example) then there is no need to double up hreflang markup with regional notation. You just need the hreflang='en' and it is good for all english language searches regardless of location. Same goes for all the languages.
Personally I would remove the extra regional tags to avoid confusion and keep things as simple as possible.
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
-
PA & DA High But Serp results are not so higher.
Keyword is "iPhone Service" , URL is youtube.com/iPhoneServiceJoo , meta is revenant again contains "iPhone Service" PA: 33
Technical SEO | | nopsts
DA:96 this is youtube channel. This page is on second page of google, (24th) Why other PA and DA lower pages/sites are showing first? (my competitors) So this is not about PA & DA right?0 -
Duplicated content in moz report due to Magento urls in a multiple language store.
Hi guys, Moz crawl is reporting as duplicated content the following urls in our store: http://footdistrict.com and http://footdistrict.com?___store=footdistrict_es The chain: ___store=footdistrict_es is added as you switch the language of the site. Both pages have the http://footdistrict.com" /> , but this was introduced some time after going live. I was wondering the best action to take considering the SEO side effects. For example: Permanent redirect from http://footdistrict.com?___store=footdistrict_es to http://footdistrict.com. -> Problem: If I'm surfing through english version and I switch to spanish, apache will realize that http://footdistrict.com?___store=footdistrict_es is going to be loaded and automatically it will redirect you to http:/footdistrict.com. So you will stay in spanish version for ever. Deleting the URLS with the store code from Google Web Admin tools. Problem: What about the juice? Adding those URL's to robots.txt. Problem: What about the juice? more options? Basically I'm trying to understand the best option to avoid these pages being indexed. Could you help here? Thanks a lot.
Technical SEO | | footd0 -
Canonical & rel=prev / next changes to website a good idea or not?
Hi all, I decided yesterday to make a load of changes to my website, and today i woke thinking, should i have done that! So below is an example of what i have done (i will try to explain clearly anyway), can you let me know if you think what i have done would harm or help my website in search results etc... ok, so lets take just one category - Cameras And it has the sub categories - box dome bullet it also has other sub categories (which are actually features, but the only way i can show them on my site is by having them as a sub-category with its own static page, and adding the products to these as secondary categories) vandal proof high resolution night vision previously i have it set up so that every single category / sub category / feature had its own static page, with a canonical tag to itself (i.e cameras.html canonical was to cameras.html, vandalproof.html canonical was to vandalproof.html). Any of the categories / sub cats / features that had more than one page were simply not in search results due to the canonical pointing to "Page 1"... What i have now done: Last night i decided to change all this, now for all categories / sub cats / features i have add rel=prev / next where applicable, and removed the canonical from second / third / fourth pages etc, but left the canonical on "page 1". I also removed any keywords from page 2,3,4 etc and changed descriptions to just page "X" + category name. So for example, page one looks like: and page two looks like: I also went a little further (maybe too far) and decided that the features pages would canonicalize back to cameras so for those i now have: Page 1: Page 2: Any advice is welcome on the above, in regards to which way may be better and why, and obviously if anything jumps out as a mistake... Please advise James
Technical SEO | | isntworkdull0 -
Language Selection Splash Page- Impact on SEO
Hi, Our site has a page for new visitors to select their language to view our website So if you type our brand adress (http://www.bdc.ca) you should be redirected to this "splash" page (http://www.bdc.ca/pages/splashpage.aspx). What is the SEO impact of doing this and is there a better way for users to choose their languages, SEO-wise (and UX wise) ? You'll also see that after the visitor select its language, he's redirected to the actual home page using a two 302 redirects ( one to bdc.ca/en/ and then another one to the actual home page). I am aware of this and I know this is really bad. Please share what you think would be the best way to manage this language selection in respect to SEO, but with respect to UX too. Thanks ! Jean-François Monfette
Technical SEO | | jfmonfette0 -
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 -
Most Common Errors & Warnings
Hello there, i would like to ask some basic tips.. regarding found common errors & Warnings. list : Tittle Element Too Long
Technical SEO | | Bretly
Duplicate Page Content
and Duplicate Page Tittle. how could i fixed this one? any help would be greatly appreciated regards,0 -
What SEO considerations for multiple languages on a single page?
I am working on a language teaching site for Chinese speakers learning English. I consider myself above average when it comes to basic SEO issues, but all I know here is that Google doesn't like multiple languages on a single page. Without getting into too many details, both Chinese and English text will appear on the same page with links, tags, phonetic spellings, etc. I'm hoping someone here knows the science about using the lang="zh" xml:lang="zh" attributes within text and the effects on ranking for text within the declarations. And it'd be great if there was clarification on the link juice passed using the hreflang attribute for both internal and external links. Also, of course, any info on using both English and Chinese characters in the URL would be most helpful. A heads up on any other language specific SEO issues would also be much appreciated. My goal is to get the most out of both languages per page in terms of ranking.
Technical SEO | | kwoolf0 -
How to re structure a website & Google
I have a website that requires the site structure to be changed. The website doesnt have many backlnks and rankings are fairly low. I have 11,000 products on the website and want to know the best way to change the site structure without causing 404 errors all over the place. Do I 301 redirect every page? drop all 11,000 pages from the index by adding a no follow no index to all pages? I have the following structure www.domain.co.uk/make/model/part/product I want to change this to www.domain.co.uk/Part/make/model/product whats the best way to preserve the SEO, link juice and on a large scale? 11,000 pages. thank you shivun
Technical SEO | | seohive-2227200