Can the Alternate/hreflang tags harm SEO?
-
Hello,
Recently one of my regional websites, targeted for Denmark (xxxx.dk (TLD)), received a manual penalty from Google, specified as “pure spam”.
The reason for this (as I suspect) can be the fact that the Danish site’s content, is fully translated from English, on the main site (.com).
To fix that problem with Google, I want to use the “alternate/hreflang” tags on both sites
URL’s (the main and the regional), before submitting it for a second review on WMT.Following this, I would like to ask you few questions:
1. Is there any RISK in using alternate tags between two sites (a “healthy” site to the one that got the penalty), Can it harm the SEO of the main site (.com)?
2. Once done, Will it resolve my problem with Google? Will they remove the manual penalty?
3. Based on your experience, would you recommend me to rewrite all the content on the Danish site, instead of just translating it (the current status)?Would love to hear your opinion on those issues.
Thanks a lot!
-
Hello,
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2604777?hl=en That would be your main guidelines. Now, here are my questions/suggestions. How did you translate that website? Is it automatically generated through google translate? Have you done any other spammy stuff? Is your backlink profile clean?
According to Matt explainations in video above, it would have to be very good reason to mark your website as pure spam. So, if you just translated (properly) english website, then it shouldn't be the reason for taking manual action on your website. So, check everything else.
Now, as to your questions.
- I think that would depend on is your "healthy" website really healthy. Because if it's actually as spammy (at least in the eyes of google), then you'll basically tell google "Hey, look at my another spammy website". But, I believe, if english website is all good and has no spam attached to it, then it shouldn't be a problem.
- According to Matt, it will be pretty difficult to unmark your website and you'll have to spend a lot of time and effort on proving it. So, roll up your sleeves and get ready to work.
- If you're translating it, you're pretty much rewriting it. I used to work as a translator and there is no way to translate word to word, the proper way of translation is when you translate the idea/thought/intent, not words itself.
Hope this helps.
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
-
Looking for an SEO Mentor
I do in-house marketing for a medium sized luxury architectural design firm. I have a good understanding of the moz platform and general SEO but would like to findsomeone to provide regular guidance and answer some specific questions regarding our SEO. Specifically, we want advising on keywords, blog content, and link building. Ideally we'd like to engage a consultant (remotely) on an hourly basis. We'v have had very poor experiences with big SEO firms so that’s definitely not something we’re looking for. Best,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | WorkshopAPD
Caio0 -
Tags and Categories Ranking
Hello A few times I have come across tags and categories ranking for some relevant search terms. This seems strange as all category and tag pages would have 0 external links back to them - whereas pretty much every other page on the site would have external links. In most cases thy seem to rank along with the page, for example: for the search term "voiceover recording xxxxx" The voice over recording page will rank, followed by a similar tag page... If I make the tag links 'nofollow' would that help stop this? Cheers
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | wearehappymedia0 -
Looking for an experienced SEO/SEM contractor
I'm looking to hire an SEO/SEM contractor for about 10 hours a week to work with me at Infer. Will need some help re-architecting our AdWords and continue inbound and SEO optimization of our website. Martech experience a +, Wordpress dev skills ++ Send me a PM if interested.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seanzinsmeister0 -
How important is the optional <priority>tag in an XML sitemap of your website? Can this help search engines understand the hierarchy of a website?</priority>
Can the <priority>tag be used to tell search engines the hierarchy of a site or should it be used to let search engines know which priority to we want pages to be indexed in?</priority>
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mycity4kids0 -
SEO timeline / action plans
Hi, My first question here so thanks in advance for any responses. I have built websites / done basic seo for a while but I am now making a real concerted effort to implement everything I learn from seomoz. I am wondering if there is any advice or general timeline of items to implement with existing websites or brand new websites. For example xxx action in week 1, xxx action in week 2 etc A sort of crib sheet or tick lists which I think would help reduce any errors and help schedule items for future planning, especially in larger groups of people . If there is anything or anywhere that might be of help then would be great or if anyone has a rough plan they stick too
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | wtfi0 -
Posing QU's on Google Variables "aclk", "gclid" "cd", "/aclk" "/search", "/url" etc
I've been doing a bit of stats research prompted by read the recent ranking blog http://www.seomoz.org/blog/gettings-rankings-into-ga-using-custom-variables There are a few things that have come up in my research that I'd like to clear up. The below analysis has been done on my "conversions". 1/. What does "/aclk" mean in the Referrer URL? I have noticed a strong correlation between this and "gclid" in the landing page variable. Does it mean "ad click" ?? Although they seem to "closely" correlate they don't exactly, so when I have /aclk in the referrer Url MOSTLY I have gclid in the landing page URL. BUT not always, and the same applies vice versa. It's pretty vital that I know what is the best way to monitor adwords PPC, so what is the best variable to go on? - Currently I am using "gclid", but I have about 25% extra referral URL's with /aclk in that dont have "gclid" in - so am I underestimating my number of PPC conversions? 2/. The use of the variable "cd" is great, but it is not always present. I have noticed that 99% of my google "Referrer URL's" either start with:
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | James77
/aclk - No cd value
/search - No cd value
/url - Always contains the cd variable. What do I make of this?? Thanks for the help in advance!0 -
Disabled/Accessibilty vs SEO?
Can anyone point me to resources that helps website owners balance these two issues? Or how to SEO a site meant for disabled users? or how to make an SEO'd site more accessible? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mjcarrjr0 -
Redirects/Forwarding
I have two niche e-commerce sites. One is a PR3 with 3K pages indexed, the other is PR0 with 5K pages indexed. Each site has a blog that has been updated regularly. They both rank well for some fairly competitive keywords and some good links pointing to them. I also have a main site that is PR3. I am thinking of closing down the sites because they are not generating enough revenue, here are my questions: What is the best way to get the most SEO value from these sites? Do I just do a redirect to the main site? Should I keep the sites and use canonical URLs to the main site? Should I keep the domain as a wordpress blog and point links to the main site? What should I do with the blogs? They are on sub-domains, neither has pagerank. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | inhouseseo0