Several hreflang links pointing to same URL
-
Hi,
Does anyone know whether hreflang links can be used using the following markup?
I can't seem to find any info on this particular usage, but it "feels" incorrect to me. (duplicate content issues)
Our development team tells me this is the way the markup should be, since languages are initially set using a cookie and all different languages are using the same URL.Thanks!
<link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" href="<a class="attribute-value">https://www.littlethingz.be</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">nl</a>"/><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" href="<a class="attribute-value">https://www.littlethingz.be</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">x-default</a>"/><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" href="<a class="attribute-value">https://www.littlethingz.be</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">fr</a>"/><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" href="<a class="attribute-value">https://www.littlethingz.be</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">en</a>"/><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" href="<a class="attribute-value">https://www.littlethingz.be</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">de</a>"/>
-
Yeah you can do language only hreflangs. But it's pure nonsense to direct Google to the very same URL and state that it is the URL for all of those different languages. At the end of the day, Google will crawl from one data centre at once which may be from one of many countries. It will see one version of the page, and assume that 'this is what the page is'
If the site structure is that you have one URL only and the contents are modified based on the user's origin, then the structure is wrong as Google will have a very hard time ranking one URL as many different URLs. People who have such a structure always end up here, always argue why it's ok and then end up 'doing it properly' later on as it just doesn't work
Also note that, if you have one version of a page served to people in different regions (e.g: an EN page which is stated in the hreflangs to be for both Canadians and Americans), Google may see that as a 'minimum effort' deployment with no value proposition. Different audiences need tailored content to suit them, so a re-write of some of the content is still expected if you want to see an increased international footprint (and you're not a giant like Santander or Coca-Cola)
The number of times I see people clone their EN site into a US folder and just 'expect it to rank' with no extra effort, just with hreflangs - is staggering. Google expect to see a value proposition when you build out your site. Value-prop ('value add'), the #1 yet never talked about ranking factor
I don't think your current implementation will work very well, if at all. You may have lots of human-brain reasons why it should - but crawlers are robots
-
Thanks for your reply TukTown.
The website is in 4 languages. English, French, Dutch and German.
Google support states you can target a language only, without specifying a region:
"
Supported language/region codesThe value of the hreflang attribute identifies the language (in ISO 639-1 format) and optionally a region (in ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 format) of an alternate URL. (The language need not be related to the region.) For example:
de: German language content, independent of region
en-GB: English language content, for GB users
de-ES: German language content, for users in Spain
"We are targeting the Dutch language in two different countries. (Belgium and The Netherlands)
The issue I'm raising is that all hreflang-tags, plus the canonical tag, are pointing to the same URL.
Will bots be able to identify the correct language with this mark-up?
Supported language/region codes
The value of the
hreflang
attribute identifies the language (in ISO 639-1 format) and optionally a region (in ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 format) of an alternate URL. (The language need not be related to the region.) For example:de
: German language content, independent of regionen-GB
: English language content, for GB usersde-ES
: German language content, for users in Spain
-
Hi Dimitri,
You're most definitely right in your assumption that this is incorrect. Those are not even properly written hreflang tags, and are therefore useless.
The purpose of hreflang is to help search engines determine which language version of an otherwise duplicate webpage should be served to a user in a particular geographical area. Therefore, each individual hreflang tag includes both a country and a language. For instance, if you want users finding you through search in the US to be served the English language version of a webpage, the hreflang tag would be as follows:
However, if you wanted your users in Canada to be served the French version of a webpage (if it's targeted at a Quebecoi audience for instance), the hreflang tag would be as follows:
I don't think your current hreflang tags are damaging you as they're incorrectly formatted and probably therefore disregarded, but you should at the very least remove them until they've constructed an accurate hreflang set. How many languages is your site in?
Hope this helps!
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
-
Internal Linking issue
So i am working with a review company and I am having a hard time with something. We have created a category which lists and categorizes every one of our properties. For example a specific property in the category "restaurant" would be as seen below: /restaurant/mcdonalds /restaurant/panda-express And so on and so on. What I am noticing however is that our more obscure properties are not being linked to by any page. If I were to visit the page myurl.com/restaurant I would see 100+ pages of properties, however it seems like only the properties on the first few pages are being counted as having links. So far the only way I have been able to work around this issue is by creating a page and hiding it in our footer called "all restaurants". This page lists and links to every one of our properties. However it isn't exactly user friendly and I would prefer scrapers not to be able to scrape all properties at once! Anyway, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Technical SEO | | HashtagHustler0 -
50 Duplicate URLS, but not the same
Hi According to my latest site crawl, many of my pages are showing up to 50 duplicate urls. However this isn't the case in real life. http://www.fortusgroup.com.au/browse-products/rubber-tracks/excavator-rubber-tracks/hitachi/ex-33mu.html is showing 31 duplicate URL. Examples include: http://www.fortusgroup.com.au/browse-products/rubber-tracks/excavator-rubber-tracks/parts/x430.html
Technical SEO | | JDadd
http://www.fortusgroup.com.au/browse-products/rubber-tracks/excavator-rubber-tracks/case/cx-75sr.html Obviously these URL's are very similar and I know that Moz judges URLs by 90% of their similarity, but is this affecting my actual raking on google? If so, what can I do? This pages are also very similar in code and content, so they are also showing as duplicate content etc as well. Worried that this is having an affect on my SERP rankings, as this pages arent ranking particularly well. Thanks, Ellie0 -
Why my external links are zero
What could be the possibility that my Moz crawler showing zero external link for my website http://ultimatecharter.com, i have build many links from different website and when i click them it goes to the website. My website is multi language and the landing page is http://ultimatecharter.com/en/home can this be a possible issue? regards Aqeel
Technical SEO | | Aqeel0 -
Should I make a new URL just so it can include a target keyword, then 301 redirect the old URL?
This is for an ecommerce site, and the company I'm working with has started selling a new line of products they want to promote.Should I make a new URL just so it can include a target keyword, then 301 redirect the old URL? One of my concerns is losing a little bit of link value from redirecting. Thank you for reading!
Technical SEO | | DA20130 -
My seo company has a footer link that links to my site by keyword will this effect my rankings
My old SEo company has a footer link by keyword to my site so it acts like a site wide link will this effect my rankings. My site was in the top 5 for many keywords now page 2 and 3 so I am trying to see what has effected it as we havent changed what we do
Technical SEO | | Casefun0 -
Friendly URLs
Hi, I have an important news site and I am trying to implement user friendly URLs. Now, when you click a news in the homepage, it goes to a redirect.php page and then goes to a friendly url. the question is, It is better to have the friendly URL in the first link or it is the same for the robot having this in the finally url? Thanks
Technical SEO | | informatica8100 -
Why are my links not being counted?
I have a site that has over 400 links going to it. When I use Moz open site explorer or any other SEO tool its says I have only 12 links. Does anyone know why this could be happening?
Technical SEO | | Goopping0 -
URL paths and keywords
I'm recommending some on-page optimization for a home builder building in several new home communities. The site has been through some changes in the past few months and we're almost starting over. The current URL structure is http://homebuilder.com/oakwood/features where homebuilder = builder name Oakwood Estates= name of community features = one of several sub-paths including site plan, elevations, floor plans, etc. The most attainable keyword phrases include the word 'home' and 'townname' I want to change the URL path to: http://homebuilder.com/oakwood-estates-townname-homes/features Is there any problem with doing this? It just seems to make a lot of sense. Any input would be appreciated.
Technical SEO | | mikescotty0