Hreflang - Is it needed even if the site is only one language
-
This topic came up in a discussion I had with a fellow SEO colleague, I don't believe it makes sense to have Hreflang if you don't have a second language but according to my friend they mentioned that it is great if your only targeting one country. Any opinions out in the Moz community? It seems like overkill to me
-
This may be a little bit outside the scope of the original question, but another use for hreflang tags is when you only have a single language, but localized content in different countries.
So, for example let's say you have web sites/pages in the US and Australia. Both are in English. But you differ the content for each market. In that case, you would use hreflang tags to relate a similar page/site between the two countries. "en-us" and "en-au".
I realize that's not exactly what the original post asked. But adding this info to what has already been answered.
-
Hi Jonathan,
I agree with you, I'd say it's complete overkill for most sites that only have 1 country & language that they're targeting. If it could be a country that covers multiple languages then I would reconsider this. But with most companies that I've seen work with HREF Lang it's already a lengthy and intense process that usually is only worth it when you focus on creating content for multiple languages.
Martijn.
-
Hreflang means the tags that go between different pages and show Google the way to the same content in other languages. There are also your standard language tags, which perform a very similar function to the self-referencing hreflang. IMO, it should be enough to just use language tags e.g:
^ for French. You can even specify a region and a language like:
I would have thought this would be enough to tell Google what language and region a page is targeted at (you can come up with any number of combinations using the HTML ISO country codes and the HTML ISO language codes)
However, according to SEO best practice this is wrong. Even if you only target one language / country, and you do not require the utility of hreflang tags (pointing Google to other language variants of pages) - you are apparently still supposed to have a self-referencing hreflang tag on your pages (confirming the active language)
Since this is what language tags (which existed long before hreflangs) are supposed to do, it seems really stupid to me. But that's the way it is, for whatever reason
In summary, yes do use self referencing hreflangs AND the appropriate language tags in concert
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
-
If I host same video on my site which my manufacturer hosted on his site will be consider as duplicate?
Hello All, My manufacturer hosted video's on his site now if I host same video on my ecommerce site will it be consider as duplicate? any penalty ? Any suggestion pls? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | pragnesh96390 -
Does CloudFlare Benefit my site?
I am using the $20 / month CloudFlare service. My site is not running faster, so my question is: is this service adding real value? I do not have a lot of highly sensitive customer data (some email addresses and customer names and nothing more - no credit cards). I am already using Amazon Cloud Server and it appears to work fine. Any thoughts appreciated.
On-Page Optimization | | khi50 -
Meta Geotag - two locations on one website
I have a client that I would like to do a Meta Geotag for. They have two locations. Am I able to do two meta geotags on their website? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | OOMDODigital0 -
Why is our site dropping in Domain Authority
Hi all, I have a question. I have been working SEO on our site www.betxpert.com for the last 4-6 weeks and I have been looking forward to seeing the new DA and PA numbers. However today, our DA is now 30...where it was 31 or 33 a couple of days ago. How come the decrease? I have only improved the site i should say... Hope someone can shed a little light on the issue... -Rasmus
On-Page Optimization | | rasmusbang0 -
I changed my site from HTML to PHP and I need to get some help.
Ok...so the other day I went from HTML to PHP in every part of my website. I want to know the best option for me for redirecting my pages from HTML to php. I had my site scanned with SEOMoz and I was given many 404 errors which is not at all good. I do not have any pages of my site linking to any of these html pages. All of the site links have been updated. I have checked 3 times. I have never created a robots.txt file so I would love to get a little help with this part. I was thinking it would be best to tell Google not to worry about these pages in the file. I kept the pages up and I plan to remove all code with them so that no content shows up if someone visits but the issue with that is my site is already indexed as HTML. I want to have the HTML pages redirect to the PHP without worrying that my visitors will land on my site via Google onto an HTML page. I hope I am making sense. What is the best advice you can give me. I need all pages to redirect to PHP. I used an htaccess redirect from all HTML to PHP but when I get so many of them added I get an error on my site saying too many redirects. Seriously need help.
On-Page Optimization | | TrendyHost0 -
100 links on one page
we're recommended 100 links or less on one page. is the 100 links including header and footer links?
On-Page Optimization | | jallenyang0 -
Best practice for franchise sites with duplicated content
I know that duplicated content is a touchy subject but I work with multiple franchise groups and each franchisee wants their own site, however, almost all of the sites use the same content. I want to make sure that Google sees each one of these sites as unique sites and does not penalize them for the following issues. All sites are hosted on the same server therefor the same IP address All sites use generally the same content across their product pages (which are very very important pages) *templated content approved by corporate Almost all sites have the same design (A few of the groups we work with have multiple design options) Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Again Aaron
On-Page Optimization | | Shipyard_Agency0 -
Is Google Places appropriate for an ecommerce site and blogs
I'm working with a client that has an ecommerce site. He has e physical addresses where they work, however, neither would want customers to go to their office. Is it inappropriate to create a Google Places listing in this situation? I'm working with another client who runs a blog for his PR agency. Is it OK to create a Google Places listing for a blog? He would welcome people to visit his agency.
On-Page Optimization | | EricVallee340