Will hreflang indication help single language site?
-
I have read a few articles that say indicating a language per webpage with hreflang really only helps sites that use multiple languages.
Although my site is only in English, I see that it is ranking for a few foreign language keywords in Google Search Console (not sure exact traffic but roughly 15% of visitors from Search are non English preferred).
My thought is that indicating language will help my single-language site because it will weed out the non-english speakers who are probably bouncing from the site. Overall I am thinking it might improve the quality of my search traffic.
Do you think my logic is sound, or is adding hreflang not beneficial to my site?
All feedback welcomed. Thanks!
-
Are there any major cons to include the hreflang attribute if there isn't a translated version? My site has some pages that are translated, which we include proper hreflang tags, but some pages that do not currently have a translated page. It sounds like it would take more work to remove the tags on those pages without a translated version than to keep it. Will this cause major issues with Google?
-
Thanks for the response, Gianluca. When you point out that rel=alternate is used, that does make it clearer that this is a tag used for a pair of URLs. That makes sense that this feature probably wasn't built to use for my scenario.
So I am guessing, in my situation I can't really inform Google to only target people who speak a certain language. I kind of just have to leave it up to Google to decipher. Even if I set the target country in Search Console to the US, this would exclude other English-speaking countries who are still in my target audience, which includes global English speakers (i.e. Singapore).
Is there anything we haven't brought up that you would recommend for my situation?
-
Ups, then im sorry.
I've never intended to give false information. I had incorrect information.Thanks for correcting me.
GR -
Here the answers:
-
the hreflang tag doesn't slow down websites performance. it makes have an incidence only in the case you have hundreds of hreflang markups in the html code, so that in t case it is better to use the sitemap.xml implementation.
-
you site is only in English, hence you can't use the hreflang, because it is an "alternate", therefore it always needs a pair (eg: "e-US". using it only in self-referential way (as sometimes we do with rel "canonical" is wrong and Google will present it as a mistake and not consider it
-
if you really want to target only the US public, then you must geotarget the domain in Search Console, going to its "International" section and selecting United States as the country targeted by the site.
-
-
You are is wrong and misleadin, sorry.
The he is never redundant and an English site could also be targeting another country than the USA.
You're correct saying it's not useful in this case, but not for the reason you give
-
Thanks for the response Gaston!
I am aware this will not help my page rankings. My thought is that it will improve the quality of my site's search traffic as explained in my original post.
Hmm.. do you really think adding "" to my html will slow down load speed? If that is the case, you are saying adding one link to your page will slow down the load time. I just don't think adding this small piece of code will have a significant effect on page speed.
If I check the International Targeting tab in Search Console, it says no hreflang tags being used, so I'm not sure how redundant this would be. I know Google can pick up languages, but I think of adding hreflang tags as insurance that the right audience will be reached.
I like your example about my mom (haha) and I would like to expand on it. If you were looking for "a woman" and came across my mother, you would be able to read the sign and be satisfied your search came to an end. However, if a non-english speaker was searching for "a woman" and came across my mother, although she has the features of a woman, s/he may be confused by the sign with foreign characters and leave immediately (this is bounce rate IRL).
God (AKA Google) would then take note that 50% of the people searching for a woman, that visited my mother, left confused. So s/he would stop leading people in search of "a woman" to my mother.
Does this depiction change your opinion on my thoughts at all?
-
Hi Jonathan,
Technically speaking, adding the hreflang sentence will not help your SERPs. Because it's redundant.
Also, I'd advise you to not add it. The reason is simple, the more lines of code, the slower the page is. And there is a common sense that google does not like redundant code.
Think it by yourself, in which way will it help you, that knowing that an english site, having a signal expressing that their language is english? Its like your mom would have a sign with ''I am a woman''
Hope it helps.
GR
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
-
Adwords landing pages with no site links
Adwords best practices say to focus landing pages on conversions, with no navigational links to the rest of your website so they don't get distracted. However, now that Google Ads in the SERPs look so similar to organic results, visitors may click the ads instead of the organic result because that's what they see first. What is the risk of turning off these visitors who come to a landing page with a form, instead of a way to navigate through the rest of your site? Discussion question: Trade-offs between a form-focused landing page and providing navigation to the rest of the site?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | JannetteP1 -
No Redirects In Place After Transfer To New Site With Same Domain :(
Hi Moz Folks, I'm new here and am loving all the information! Can't wait to dig in more. Folks, I have a situation and would love to hear more about your experiences here and what advice you all have to give. I have a client whose SEO I helped out with about 4-5 years ago. It went well and they had historically been ranking on pages 1-2 for the majority of their targeted keywords. Client and I lost touch over the years, but now we are in process of working together again. What I learned today is that my client redesigned the entire old site without placing any redirects and entirely creating new URL structures (I already hear the gasps of air of those reading this). Long story short - you guessed it - rankings/traffic has dropped and the old pages have fallen out of index. Considering that I was hired to re-do and re-audit the SEO of the site and also considering that the domain had a relative decent standing in the rankings in the past, I'm wondering what exactly I should do of the following options (or please do suggest other options): 1. We have the ability to completely revert back to the old site with all the old keywords and and search optimized URLs. The new site was launched just 2 weeks ago and the owner has said that he is willing to revert back to the old site while we audit the new site and get all of the proper optimizations in place. This would be a great option if it will help us because at least we can get a site up that we know ranked well with Google in the past. 2. 302 redirect the old URLs to the somewhat appropriate page on the new site while - in the meantime - I work on the new site structure and keywords/SEO optimizations. I say 302 because a 301 redirect from the old pages to the new pages may only do me so good because I would plan on changing the keywords/URL structures of the new site anyway. Once finished with the optimizations, I'd then 301 redirect to the new appropriate pages 3. 301 redirect everything from the old site to the somewhat appropriate page on the new site right away. Then, once I've completed all the appropriate optimizations, I'd need to re-301-redirect to the new pages I've created. As you can see, I'm in a bit of a jam. But, considering that the new site was launched just about 2 weeks ago, maybe there's some hope here. Thanks fellow Mozzers! Hopefully that all makes sense. Cheers!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | pfarsaii
Nickname: "P-drama"0 -
Site Customisation - Urgent Input Required!
Hello, We are currently setting up a way of customising a client's site based on PPC campaign. I am wondering whether or not there are any SEO issues we need to be aware of. Overview Our client’s site, as accessed by a user through Google Organic, will be the complete site; the same site Googlebot will see. The site, as accessed by a user through a particular Google Adwords campaign, will return a customised version of the site. How the Customisation is Happening The Adwords campaign will be set up to target a particular region, using Adwords’ built-in location targeting. Its ads will link to pages on the regular site, but each URL will be appended with a URL parameter that will trigger the customisation. A cookie will also be planted in these users’ browsers to ensure that the customisation continues as the user browses from page to page on the site. The majority of the content will be the same but the site will promote a particular store of the client, one local to the searcher. Other stores won’t be promoted on this customised version of the site. SEO Thoughts All pages will have canonical tags on them referencing the original, unmodified version of the page. I personally can’t see any issue with regard to SEO because we are approaching this in the spirit of helping the user. But with launch on the horizon I am starting to worry slightly and would welcome the feedback from anyone else here – are there any SEO issues that may arise from this?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | xerox4320 -
Help Me Improve this Page, Please
Time for the weekly "help me improve this page" post 🙂 I'd appreciate it if you all would take a look at this page and give me some tips to improve it from a user - point - of - view. The URL is http://goo.gl/9mcyF My main goal is conversions and I'm trying to make this page as good and helpful and easy as possible for potential buyers and visitors. I'd appreciate any tips or suggestions that you think may help. Thanks!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Prime851 -
Does adding a well scripted and produced video help significantly in conversions from visits to my divorce lawyer website to calls for my services?
Should the addition of well scripted and produced video to my divorce lawyer website increase my conversions and, if so, to what extent?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | hildebrandlaw0 -
Image hosting, afraid it will be viewed as doorway
I take lots of picture of product on my fancy new (well, used) dslr camera. My ecommerce platform charges by the amount of data transfer, so I want to host the full-size images on another site. So if Example.com is my e-commerce site full of 400px-wide images, I'm thinking of using Example.net as a sister site to store the 2400px by 3200px pictures, avoiding giant overage charges from volusion. Is there any likelihood of Google viewing this as a doorway or mirror or anything bad? Thanks for your thoughts and time.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | jotham20 -
Conversion Rate - site feedback
Hi We gave a website a bit of a facelift last nov with the aim of increasing its position within Search Engines and getting it to begin making sales. The site: www.funkyfootstools.com is now moving in the right direction for its keyphrases, footstools and ottomans although it still needs some work. The issue I have is that from the visitors that come to the site, the stats prove they have a look around, they are just not purchasing - I am not sure if this is because of the layout, ie. usability or if there is something else. Any ideas & feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Carl
Conversion Rate Optimization | | keane-1145170 -
How can I Monetize My Site with The Type of Traffic it Receives?
I was just in here yesterday asking a question, so I appreciate everyone's patience with this newbie! This is a totally different site that I have a question about so here goes: I have a site that has started to receive large amounts of traffic from an image search. My intention was to use Amazon for products based on my website theme. I haven't been getting traffic from my intended keywords. Now I rank #2 for an image search, loads of traffic! GREAT! But what next? These ppl. aren't looking to buy stuff, they just want the image. Fine, it is a public domain image. I thought of adding some more informational articles and using adsense to bring in some cash. Any opinions on the best way to go with this site? I only have 3 articles up so it could go in any direction from here. Thanks!!!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | iheartkelby0