Question about region codes and Hreflang?
-
A client (see example above) has accidentally place region codes into the hreflang when the content is intended for all audiences that speak the language. So "fr-fr" should really just be "fr" since those that are "fr-be", "fr-ca", and "fr-ch" should all be getting to the French version of the website too. And there isn't a specific subdirectory for French speakers in Belgium or France or Switzerland, etc.
However, when looking at Google Analytics, these region codes don't seem to be stopping those from other regions from getting to the correct landing page. So a user from Belgium is still getting to https://www.example.com/fr/ depsite the "fr-fr" in the hreflang.
So question: is it worth adjusting the hreflang to be non-region specific (from
-
Hreflang tags are essential for indicating to search engines the language and geographical targeting of your web pages. They help search engines serve the most relevant version of your content to users based on their language and location preferences. (study abroad)
Region codes, in this context, are two-letter country codes that you can use in conjunction with hreflang tags to specify the target audience for a particular page. These codes follow the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 standard and are used to indicate the country or region to which your content is specifically tailored.
For example, if you have a web page with content in English but want to target users in the United States and the United Kingdom, you would use hreflang tags like this:
html
Copy code
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-US" href="https://www.example.com/us/page" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-GB" href="https://www.example.com/uk/page" />
In this example:en-US specifies that the page is intended for English-speaking users in the United States.
en-GB specifies that the page is intended for English-speaking users in the United Kingdom.
Hreflang tags help search engines understand the intended audience for your content and improve the user experience by delivering the most relevant version of your page in search results.Remember to implement hreflang tags correctly and consistently across your international web pages to ensure that search engines accurately understand your targeting preferences and display the appropriate pages to users in different regions.
-
Hello
I am facing a Problem. My website DA is very Low. Someone can help me how I can increase my website DA. -
Thanks For The Great Guide.
-
I would adjust it personally. If for no other reason than, if someone analyses the site later on they should be able to get a good idea of your strategy. Even if you come back to the site later and re-crawl it. Leaving it as it is will inevitably cause strategic confusion down the line. Just set it to your original vision, keep all the signals under your control pointing in a single direction
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
-
X Default on hreflang tags
Hi guys, I would like to clarify something about hreflang markups and most importantly, x-default. Sample URLs:
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | geekyseotools
http://www.example.com/au/collection/dresses (Australia)
http://www.example.com/us/collection/dresses (United States)
http://www.example.com/uk/collection/dresses (United Kingdom) Sample Markups: Questions:
1. Can I use my AU page as x default? I noticed that some x default are US. Note that my biggest market is AU though.
2. If I indeed use AU page as x default, and the user is searching from China, does it mean that Google will return my AU page?
3. Can you spot any issues with these markups I made? Anything that I need to correct. Keen to hear from you! Cheers,
Chris0 -
Technical SEO Question: Why is our new platform showing a small decline in traffic?
Hi there! We are in the process of transitioning to a faster platform, and we recently moved a subset of URLs over. The subset that moved over saw a drop. We didn't change the URL pattern, or the content. The only thing that is different is the new platform. Here's a link to one of the URLs that is currently served from the new platform: http://bit.ly/1YjXD7H And, here is an example of a URL currently served from the older platform: http://bit.ly/1Jtx7Di Any ideas why the newer platform is seeing a decline in organic traffic?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nicole.healthline0 -
Internal Duplicate Content Question...
We are looking for an internal duplicate content checker that is capable of crawling a site that has over 300,000 pages. We have looked over Moz's duplicate content tool and it seems like it is somewhat limited in how deep it crawls. Are there any suggestions on the best "internal" duplicate content checker that crawls deep in a site?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | tdawson091 -
Page / Domain Authority Question
If my website were to purchase a sponsored article on a site with a powerful domain authority that contained a do-follow link, and the link would be "domain.com/articles/new-article" ... obviously new-article would have 0 page authority, being new... is that still considered a valuable link and why or why not?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | cat5com0 -
Hreflang or not, or something else?
I'm working on a site that has 10 languages served from centrally located core files in Magento. So each language has its own TLD with localised content served from SQL. GWT has also had the preferred country set for each domain. The problem is that each and every domain is indexed in each of the local Google indexes. In DE Google the FR homepage is ranking higher for the brand keyword. I kind of think I am wasting my time with hreflang but would like some advice whether this is an option or clues how I can handle this situation best.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MickEdwards0 -
Community question- Penguin 2.0 link types?
What type of links do you think Penguin 2.0 targeted most - anchor text abuse , directory links, paid links, low quality guest posts, article directories etc????
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DavidKonigsberg0 -
.htaccess question/opinion/advice needed
Hello, I am trying to achieve 3 different things on my .htaccess I just want to make sure I am doing it the right or best way because I don't have much experience working on this kind of files. I am trying to: a) Redirect www.mysite.com/index.html to www.mysite.com so I don't get a duplicate content/tag error. b) Redirect mysite.com to www.mysite.com c) Get rid of the file extensions; www.mysite.com/stuff.html to www.mysite.com/stuff This is the code that I'm currently using and it seems to work fine, however I would like someone with experience to take a look so I can avoid internal server errors and other kinds of issues. I grabbed each piece of code from different posts and tutorials. Options +FollowSymlinks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Eblan
RewriteEngine on Index Rewrite RewriteRule ^index.(htm|html|php) http://www.mysite.com/ [R=301,L] RewriteRule ^(.*)/index.(htm|html|php) http://www.mysite.com/$1/ [R=301,L] RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.html -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.html Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
Rewritecond %{http_host} ^mysite.com [nc]
Rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.mysite.com/$1 [r=301,nc] Thanks a lot!0 -
Regional websites
Hi, I run 4 websites London, New York, Singapore and Dubai. Same company but some of our products are different in each region. Each domain is registered in the relevant region and I have google webmaster tools set so they know the location of each website. The problem is that our Dubai and US websites are appearing higher that the UK website in google.co.uk organic. Does anyone have any ideas why? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | markc-1971830