Are my translated pages damaging my ranking?
-
Hi there,
I have a site in English but with duplicates in different languages.
The first problem is that these translated versions of my site receive no ranking on google stars (while the english does) - why is this?
The second problem is that SEOmoz counts the errors on my site and then duplicates this error count for all the translated versions of my site - meaning I have a huge amount of errors (too many on-page links).
Add this to the fact that I use affilite ID´s to track different types of traffic to my site - so all page urls in english and other languages, with an affiliate id on the end of the url, count as an error.
This means I have a huge amount of on page errors indicated by SEOmoz, plus no ranking for my translated pages - I think this is really harming my overall ranking and site trust.
What are your opinions on this?
-
Is there a subdomain for each language?
Is there a "default" language that exists on the primary domain (i.e. English on www.yourwebsite.com)?
Are you using rel href lang, X-Default Hrefe Lang, rel canonical, or other "tags" or solutions for this at the moment?
If you could share the website address we wouldn't have to ask these questions, by the way. I know that is especially tough on client sites, but I just wanted to say that Dave has asked some vital questions, including the one about setting each subdomain as its own language / geographic target audience. Here is what he is asking about: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=62399
It is not necessary to have completely unique content for each language, as someone suggested below.
-
Bryan I really don't think that is what Dave is saying.
-
Did you claim the subdomain as a new language in webmaster tools?
-
Hi dave, thanks for your reply.
Our translations across the site are as a subdomain, they are hand-translated
-
What dave is saying is it's better to have unique content for each language because it gets crawled.
-
Do you have the translations on language specific TLDs or as a subfolder or a subdomain on your current site? Is the translation being done by a widget or was the content hand-translated by a professional translator?
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
-
Website relaunched: Both old pages and new pages indexed
Hi all, We have recently made major changes to our website and relaunched it. We have changed URLs of some pages. We have redirected old URLs to new before taking website live. When I check even after one week, still the same old and new pages also indexed at Google. I wonder why still old pages cache is there with Google. Please share your ideas on this. Thanks
International SEO | | vtmoz0 -
Sajan Translation Services
Has anyone tried out Sajan Translation Services? What was your experience? Do you have any other translation service companies to recommend? Thanks!
International SEO | | Mike.Bean0 -
What is best practice of using google translate
Hi, I'm thinking of adding google translate to our retailing site so that we could reach more international customers. what about the pros&cons? Any experience of success of utilising it and what potential issues should I be looking at? Thanks
International SEO | | LauraHT0 -
Best International Rank Checker?
Anyone have a recommendation for the best international ranking tool. I'm looking to gather accurate ranking trends and am looking for a service that will return rankings in as many localized countries as possible.
International SEO | | marcbn0 -
Include mobile and international versions of pages to sitemap or not?
My pages already have alternate and hreflang references to point to international and mobile versions of the content. If I add 5 language desktop versions and 5 language mobile versions as https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2620865?hl=en explains, my sitemap will get bulky. What are the pros and cons for referencing all page versions in sitemap and for include just general (English/Desktop) version in sitemap?
International SEO | | poiseo0 -
I rank well but I dont get any clicks !
Hi everyone, I am on page #1 position #2 with my keyword but doesnt get any clicks ! I think I know the problem but I desperatly need your opinion too. Here are some info about my site. what do you think the problem is? Thanks for your help. It means a lot. -My keyword's Global and Local montly search is 1300 (exact) -Seomoz Rank Tracker shows that I rank ( on Page #1, Position #2 in Google / United Kingdom) -I use always private browsing to check my rankings -my domain is a .com and I bought the domain name from godaddy -Hosting is 1&1 and their server is in Germany. Which is a shame, I ve just realized 😞 -My site ranks on Google.uk (The web) but doesnt rank Google.co.uk (pages from uk). Is this the problem? I ve just change the target country to United Kingdom using webmaster tool. Will it help? When I search a query , I dont change it to ''pages from uk'' it came automaticly (the web). Does people care and change it to the ""pages from UK"? I had some clicks at first when my site was page #1 position #8-9 but now its position #2 and I get no clicks at all. Thanks
International SEO | | Jorenr0 -
What is the best way to make country specific IP redirect for only product pricng pages?
My website has 3 services and its price will be different for US/EU/Developed world and Asian/African countries.Apart from pricing page, all other things remain same. I want to use IP based redirect .I heard this thing is called cloaking and used by black-hat guys. What kind of instructions should I give to my web developer to look best to Google/Search bots and correctly show visitors the intended prices.Is there any caution to be taken care of. Thanks for your time
International SEO | | RyanSat0 -
Backlinks that we didnt place, killing our SERP rank and PR
I am in need of advice regarding back links that we did not place, and which are hurting our search engine results. How and why they got there I cannot explain.But they have appeared recently, and are damaging our SERP ranks. For several years, I have been a member with SEOmoz, and we have done our search engine optimization in house. I am the owner of a personal injury law firm, which is a competitive field in search engine optimization. Recently, in the spring, we updated our website, added significant content (over 100 additional pages), we set up a better site structure, and we completed a significant back link campaign from white hat sources. As a result, we were the strongest law firm in search engine results in the state of Arizona, and the page rank from our home page went from a 4 to 6, and from our next highest level of pages, they went from a 3 to 6. This happened in 10 week period. Our search engine results were fantastic. We were getting a significant amount of business from out Places page and our Organic results. That has almost completely dried up. Approximately 6-8 weeks later, we started having some serious problems. Specifically, our search engine results decreased significantly, our page rank reduced from a six to a four. So we started using SEOmoz tools to see what the problem was, and when we created an open site Explorer report, there are approximately 1000 different links from very shady websites they are now linking to our home page. Some of these linking URLs prompt a download to video and other files. Other of the linking are simple on junk sites. Obviously, some other person placed these links. First and foremost I am interested in maintaining the integrity of our site, and if there were a way to remove these links, and protect against that in the future, that is what I want. Secondly, if there were a way to find out who did this, I would like to know that also. What options and/or actions should be taken. I am thinking that I may need to employ a professional/consultant. Will I have to transfer content to another domain? Your thought and help are appreciated. Thanks,
International SEO | | MFC0