Multinational website - best practice
-
Hello,
I am researching a lot on this subject and have read several articles here on Moz and elsewhere about the best practices for multinational websites. But I'm not yet convinced on what would be the best solution in my case.
Today we have the following websites (examples):
website.com which function as a global website.
website.dk which is for the danish market
website.no which is for the norwegian marketSome of the content on these websites are the same (but different languages; english, danish and norwegian). We want to expand the business to more countries and work with ccTLDs. Both to countries which speaks languages that we don't have content for yet (an example could be Poland), but also more countries that speaks english, like Great Britain (with a .co.uk domain) and Australia (with a .com.au domain). We expect to expand in many countries (as many as it makes sense to do).
I have read a lot about the alternative hreflang tag which would look like and that seems like a good solution, but I have a couple of questions that I hope you guys can answer:
- Should the alternate hreflang tags show every existing language versions including the one you're on or only show the alternative versions?
- Do we risk penalty by having identical or almost identical content for same language websites (could be UK and the global .com one) if we use the alternate hreflang tags? I'm aware that we should use the native spellings and sentences in each country.
- Would the sitemap solution be better in our case?
- We have the same link structure for all websites, but the sub-directories can differ due to their language (like /articles/ is /artikler/ in danish) - is that an issue?
- Will hreflang="en" function as global english? (so searching users that we don't have a local website for will see that).
-
I have an additional question, that I haven't been able to find an answer for elsewhere.
How does Google determine which version is the right one to show for each user? Is it by IP? I mean, in my example we could have an american user that is on vacation in UK. Would he see the .com or .uk result?
It could also be a norwegian user on vacation in Denmark, would he see the .no or .dk results? (danish and norwegian is fairly similar and has a lot of common spellings). -
Thank you for this in depth answer. It's a great help (yours too, Marie).
-
Marie... you're answers are not totally correct.
Please, see my answer below.
-
Here my answers, that partly correct what others answered already (not that they were wrong, but not totally exact).
- Should the alternate hreflang tags show every existing language versions including the one you're on or only show the alternative versions?
Not really. Let me explain.
-
In the case of websites/subfolders/subdomains, which share the same language (eg: USA, UK, AU or ES, MX, AR), using hreflang for every language-country is a must.
-
In the case you have also single websites/subfolders/subdomains that use a unique language (eg.: Italian, which is practically used only in Italy), than you can avoid to add its related hreflang annotation in internal URLs. You should still use it for the home page and every page that may target a not-Italian keyword: I say this so to not see the local site outranked by the most powerful version (usually the English-USA one).
-
In every case you must always implement the hreflang the self-referral annotation (the one you're on, as you defined it).
- Do we risk penalty by having identical or almost identical content for same language websites (could be UK and the global .com one) if we use the alternate hreflang tags? I'm aware that we should use the native spellings and sentences in each country.
No! The hreflang annotation is substantially telling Google that the versions are different and target different users/countries. Even though the differences are very tiny, they are very important (eg.: currencies)
- Would the sitemap solution be better in our case?
It depends. Both the sitemaps and code solutions are valid. The problem of the sitemaps solutions is that it may be harder to update the sitemaps.
- We have the same link structure for all websites, but the sub-directories can differ due to their language (like /articles/ is /artikler/ in danish) - is that an issue?
No! On the contrary, that's the correct thing to do. In fact, also the URLs must be localized.
- Will hreflang="en" function as global english? (so searching users that we don't have a local website for will see that).
Yes, but not with the consequences you are thinking. The "en" only hreflang annotation is telling Google to show that URL to all the English speaking users all over the world (this suggestion is override if exists, for instance, another en-US hreflang annotation).
For having also Spanish users seeing the generic English version of the website, then you should use the hreflang x-default annotation (see here: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com.es/2013/04/x-default-hreflang-for-international-pages.html)
-
- Should the alternate hreflang tags show every existing language versions including the one you're on or only show the alternative versions?
Yes, show all versions including the one that the user is on
2. Do we risk penalty by having identical or almost identical content for same language websites (could be UK and the global .com one) if we use the alternate hreflang tags? I'm aware that we should use the native spellings and sentences in each country.
Google wouldn't penalize this as duplicate content as there really isn't a duplicate content penalty. But, they'll try to pick the best version to rank. They won't rank all of them for all searches.
3. Would the sitemap solution be better in our case?
I'd still use hreflang. Your case sounds like exactly why hreflang was created.
4. We have the same link structure for all websites, but the sub-directories can differ due to their language (like /articles/ is /artikler/ in danish) - is that an issue?
I don't think so, but it's hard to say without digging in. Again, I'd use hreflang wherever appropriate.
5. Will hreflang="en" function as global english? (so searching users that we don't have a local website for will see that).
Here's from the official documentation from Google:
"
It's a good idea to provide a generic URL for geographically unspecified users if you have several alternate URLs targeted at users with the same language, but in different locales. For example, you may have specific URLs for English speakers in Ireland (en-ie), Canada (en-ca), and Australia (en-au), but want all other English speakers to see your generic English (en) page, and everyone else to see the homepage. In this case you should specify the generic English-language (en) page for searchers in, say, the UK. You can annotate this cluster of pages using a Sitemap file or using HTML link tags like this:
"
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
-
Hreflang on non 1:1 websites
Hi. I have a client with international websites targeting several different countries. Currently, the US (.com) website outranks the country-specific domain when conducting a search within that country (i.e. US outranks the UK website in the UK). This sounds like a classic case for hrelang. However, the websites are largely not 1:1. They offer different content with a different design and a different URL structure. Each country is on a country-specific domain (.com, .co.uk, .com.au, etc.). As well, the country-specific domains have lower domain authority than the US/.com website - fewer links, lower quality content, poorer UX, etc. Would hreflang still help in this scenario if we were to map it the closest possible matching page? Do the websites not sharing content 1:1 add any risks? The client is worried the US/.com website will lose ranking in the country but the country-specific domain won't gain that ranking. Thanks for any help or examples you can offer!
International SEO | | Matthew_Edgar0 -
Localization best practice
Hi Guys, I have a question about localization versions of my websites. Currently for other languages we use folders like /de/, /es/ and we have implemented hreflang. But it will be in any help if I add all those localization versions in Search Console as separate properties and specify there which language is it for? Can this help more that just leave it as it is? Thanks, Florin
International SEO | | VeeamSoftware0 -
Multi Regional Website Best Practices
Hi there, I have a website that is targeting 3 countries AU/US & NZ. I have set up hreflang tags for each page on each of the site however I am having difficulties getting it work right. I read this article which was a great insight into the hreflang tags. https://moz.com/blog/hreflang-behaviour-insights and as a result I have implemented hreflang tags in the following manner: When users access the root domain http://[website] it will redirect the user to their locale with a 302 redirect. I have a few questions:
International SEO | | nathanfranklin
1. When building my external link profiles, I'm not sure if I should be building link profiles for http://[website]/ or for the geo graphical pages (http://[website]/aus/ etc..). Note that the http://[website]/ is never used, it just issues a 302 to the actual geographical location. 2. It seems that the hreflang tags are not working correctly. Perhaps its the result of the 302 on the root page, but in google.com.au (using the link http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&gl=au&pws=0&q=[branded search]) I would expect that I should see the search results for /aus/ given the fact that the hreflang tags are setup as en-au. Instead I am seeing the root domain page. Is that correct or should it be showing all the pages with /aus/. ALSO If I do a search in google thailand (http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&gl=th&pws=0&q=[branded search]) it returns the /aus/ version where it should be showing the /us/ using the x-default hreflang tag. In google webmaster tools I have setup 4 site profiles:
http://[website]/
http://[website]/us/
http://[website]/aus/ (Targeted to Australia)
http://[website]/nz/ (Targeted to New Zealand) Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Nathan1 -
Can we use similar images on multi regional websites?
I have couple of questions regarding multi regional websites. Right now, We're working on http://www.canvaschamp.com/ and planning to design new website for Australia region. I have read Google's official guidelines regarding duplicate content on following URL. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en Now, I have biggest question regarding images and videos. We're going to use all photo gallery images on Australia website. http://www.canvaschamp.com/canvas-prints We may use similar name, title tag, meta description for all images. So, Will it work for us? I want to save my website from duplicate content penalty. I am looking forward for any additional help which may help me to perform better on different region with similar images.
International SEO | | CommercePundit0 -
301 juice from my old website to the new one?
Hi there! I am the proud webmaster of two websites, my old one: bioenergeticaconvicen.wordpress.com, currently with decent rankings in Google Spain (as bioenergeticaconvicen.com without the www, if i am not mistaken) on keywords like "Bioenergetica", "bioenergetica barcelona" "formacion en bioenergetica" "bioenergetica transpersonal" -You got the idea. 🙂 and my new one, "www.biomayeutika.org" , wordpress as well, with somehow decent rankings on "centro de bioenergetica" "bioenergetica" etc. It's a health an spiritual business: we dance, breath and mainly just feel our bodies without trying to control anything that happens. Cool 🙂 It's a very local business, aiming mostly for people from Barcelona/Catalonia but also for people from the rest of Spain. a) I guess my main question is just how to pass the old "SEO juice" to the new website. Currently, there's just a link on the old one pointing to the new one. b) Will I somehow merge the rankings of the two? c) How do i do a 301? which pages? With a wordpress plugin? Thanks very much in advance for your help. P.D.: Secondarily, I am open to suggestions on how to improve my SEO strategy (currently, none :)) I am very active in Facebook and have a few good videos and pictures, but I haven't really tried to do good SEO.
International SEO | | roybatti0 -
Multinational URLs
Hi I'm wondering if the following URL structure using subdirectories would be alright to use on a multinational site. I have local products only in the local language and english. I plan to use: /uk/ - UK product in English (geo target in GWT to UK, href lang="en") /fr/ - French product in French (would geo target this in GWT to France, and hreflang="fr-FR") /fr-en/ - French product in English (no geo-targeting, hreflang ="en") /de/ - German product in German (would geo target this in GWT to Germany, and hreflang="de-DE") /de-en/ - German product in English (no geo-targeting, hreflang ="en") /at-de/ - Austrian product in German (would geo target this in GWT to Austria, and hreflang="at-DE") /at-en/ - Austrian product in English (no geo-targeting, hreflang ="en") Does the name of the subfolder matter? I've tried to keep the URL's shorter, so german users in Germany would get just /de/ rather than /de-de/, and have made the english version of the content the more ugly URL as it's used much, much less. The URL structures aren't really consistent here (ie. uk and fr-en are for english content, but are different in URL format) but I'm wondering if this is an issue, or if the above would be fine. Thanks!
International SEO | | pikka0 -
Spanglish? Picking keywords for an English website with a Spanish speaking search demographic
I'm putting together meta data for an English website whose target search demographic is the Hispanic market. The website has a Spanish translation as well. When I entered the website into the Google Adwords keyword tool to begin doing keyword research, all keywords returned to me were in Spanish. I am unsure if the meta data keywords I'm preparing for the page should be in Spanish despite the fact that I am preparing the meta data for the English version. Moreover, should there be any mixed Spanish English (Spanglish?) keywords as users might be searching under the English search but in Spanish or with queries that are partially in Spanish?
International SEO | | IMM0 -
French Canadian Website and French Language URLs
Hello, One of my clients has a question on a new Quebec, Canada version of their website. The website content and copy is in the French Canadian language, but the IT Director has asked if, for the purpose of SEO, should the URLs be in French as well? So, this questions has two parts... For SEO, should the URL's be in French or left in English, to avoid crawl errors? For visitor UX, is there any reason to have them in French versus English?
International SEO | | Aviatech0