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://moz.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
-
Why Google Is Changing our Title Tags?
Hi fellow Moz SEOs, Need your URGENT help! We set an optimised title for our client websites. These titles are approved by our clients. When they checked on Google, noticed the title was not the same. They notified me about this issue. The title looks fine when I checked the source code. Why Google set our title differently? For example: Title approved by client: Heart Specialist Clinic Singapore | Cardiology Clinic | Dr. Lim Ing Haan
International SEO | | Verz
**Google set our title: **Dr. Lim Ing Haan: Heart Specialist Clinic Singapore ... Title approved by client: Hernia Surgery Singapore | Arden JR Surgery
**Google set our title: **Arden JR Surgery: Hernia Surgery Singapore Title approved by client: Top Specialist Divorce & Family Lawyer - Yeo & Associates LLC
Google set our title: Yeo & Associates LLC: Top Specialist Divorce & Family Lawyer Title approved by client: Child care Centre in Singapore| Top Preschool | Carpe Diem
Google set our title: Carpe Diem: Child care Centre in Singapore| Top Preschool Every day, they are requesting me to update Google's title with their approved title. Also, asking me these questions.
Why did this happen?
Why didn't set their recommended title? Is there any way to set our approved titles? Please, help me to find the solution. ASAP Thanks in advance!0 -
Does not having any hreflang tags for U.S Visitors lead to an increase in International Visitors?
I have seen a massive increase in International Visitors on our website and visitors within the United States dropped off hard this month (by about 20%). Could it be possible that not having any hreflang tags can lead to an increase in International Customers visiting the site even though your sitemap is set to "Target users in United States" within the Google Search Console? In the Google Search Console, I have International Targeting set to "Target users in United States." However, Google Search Console is saying our site doesn't have any hreflang tags. In the Google Search Console, it says "Your site has no hreflang tags. Google uses hreflang tags to match the user's language preference to the right variation of your pages." I'm not sure when that was flagged, but recently we have seen a massive increase in International Visitors to our site from countries such as Russia, Vietnam, Indonesia, the United Kingdom and so on. This poses a problem since our chances of turning one of those visitors into a customer is extremely slim. Along with that, nearly every international customer is contributing to an extremely high Bounce Rate. Attached is a screenshot of the Error about hreflang tags. https://imgur.com/a/XZI45Pw And here is a screenshot of the Country we are targeting. https://imgur.com/a/ArpWe9Z Lastly, attached is a screenshot of all of the Countries that visited our site today: https://imgur.com/a/d0tNwkI
International SEO | | MichaelAtMSP1 -
Hreflang tags
I know these are intended for specifying different language/regional versions of one site, but can they be used to specify just ONE country (eg. "en-au")? Or does it only work to specify an ALTERNATIVE to another language/region variation?
International SEO | | muzzmoz0 -
Is It valuable to use hreflang tags for blog posts?
I realize it's important to use hreflang tags when your site is translated into multiple languages and that content is very similar if not identical to the original language. However, is there value in having hreflang tags implemented for every blog post that gets translated? Does the same value hold true? In my case, the blog posts which get translated into different languages can somewhat vary from the original. By no means are they a direct translation. They are often adapted to meet the needs of that language and audience.
International SEO | | UnbounceVan0 -
International SEO Question: Using hreflang tags across two different TLDs.
Hi! My UK based company just recently made the decision to let the US market operate their ecommerce business independently. Initially, both markets were operating off the same domain using sub-directories (i.e: www.brandname.com/en-us/ , www.brandname.com/en-gb/ ) Now that the US team have broken away from the domain - they are now using www.brandnameUSA.com while the UK continues to use www.brandname.com/en-gb/. The content is similar across both domains - however, the new US website has been able to consolidate several product variations onto single product pages where the UK website is using individual product pages for each variation. We have placed a geo-filter on the main domain which is 301 redirecting North American traffic looking for www.brandname.com to www.brandnameUSA.com However, since the domain change has taken place, product pages from the original domain are now indexing alongside the new US websites product pages in US search results. The UK website wants to be the default destination for all international traffic. My question is - how do we correctly setup hrlang tags across two separate TLDs and how do we handle a situation where multiple product pages on the "default" domain have been consolidated into one product page on the new USA domain? This is how we are currently handling it: "en-us" href="https://www.BRANDNAMEUSA.com/All-Variations" /> href="https://www.BRANDNAMEUSA.com/All-Variations" />
International SEO | | alexcbrands0 -
Change Lang. IP base, Browser Base or Manually?
Hello I would like to ask a question about multi lang/international Website. Which one is better for SEO? User in Different Countries automatically see The website in their Language? or User see the English version and can change the language manually?
International SEO | | Vahid-af0 -
Which hreflang tag to use for .eu domain
Hi there, We're trying to solve a problem with one of our domains, we have a .eu CCTLD and we're trying to implement hreflang tags. On our US and UK sites, we use "en-us" and "en-gb", but it's not clear how to approach this european problem, as there is not a "en-eu" tag. The site is in English, but serves several European countries speaking different languages. What's the best hreflang code to use in this situation? Any help much appreciated, Thanks!
International SEO | | dennis.globalsign0 -
Russian SEO Specialist Needed
Hi All, Looking for a bit of help here. We are quoting for a big SEO project on a Russian website and need high quality Russian link builders to work on building the links to the website. As well as this, we need to have a little look at the on-page content (but that will be more of just straight translation stuff, nothing big). If you're a Russian link builder and could help me here then get in touch. I only want ethical, white-hat and relevant links being built to the website so if that's not what you do, please don't waste my time 🙂 Also, this should really go without saying but I'll mention it anyway... you MUST speak Russian! Look forward to hearing from you. Matt matt@wowinternet.net
International SEO | | MatthewBarby0