International websites : hreflang
-
Hi,
i'm looking for good examples with 'href lang' tag (rel="alternate" hreflang="x")
Have you examples of websites with this tag?
Thanks
D.
-
Found one: freelancer.com
<link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">en</a>" href="[http://www.freelancer.com/](view-source:http://www.freelancer.com/)" /><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">en-AU</a>" href="http://www.freelancer.com.au/" />
<link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">en-NZ</a>" href="[http://www.freelancer.co.nz/](view-source:http://www.freelancer.co.nz/)" /><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">en-GB</a>" href="http://www.freelancer.co.uk/" />
<link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">en-HK</a>" href="[http://www.freelancer.hk/](view-source:http://www.freelancer.hk/)" /><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">en-SG</a>" href="http://www.freelancer.sg/" />
<link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">en-PH</a>" href="[http://www.freelancer.ph/](view-source:http://www.freelancer.ph/)" /><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">de</a>" href="http://www.freelancer.de/" />
<link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">de-DE</a>" href="[http://www.freelancer.de/](view-source:http://www.freelancer.de/)" /><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">en-CA</a>" href="http://www.freelancer.ca/" />
<link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">en-ZA</a>" href="[http://www.freelancer.co.za/](view-source:http://www.freelancer.co.za/)" /><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">en-IN</a>" href="http://www.freelancer.in/" />
<link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">en-JM</a>" href="[http://www.freelancer.com.jm/](view-source:http://www.freelancer.com.jm/)" /><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">es</a>" href="http://www.freelancer.com.es/" />
<link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">es-ES</a>" href="[http://www.freelancer.com.es/](view-source:http://www.freelancer.com.es/)" /><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">es-MX</a>" href="http://www.freelancer.mx/" />
<link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">es-PE</a>" href="[http://www.freelancer.com.pe/](view-source:http://www.freelancer.com.pe/)" /><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">es-EC</a>" href="http://www.freelancer.ec/" />
<link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">es-CL</a>" href="[http://www.freelancer.cl/](view-source:http://www.freelancer.cl/)" /><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">en-PK</a>" href="http://www.freelancer.pk/" />
<link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">id</a>" href="[http://www.freelancer.co.id/](view-source:http://www.freelancer.co.id/)" /><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">id-ID</a>" href="http://www.freelancer.co.id/" />
<link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">en-BD</a>" href="[http://www.freelancer.com.bd/](view-source:http://www.freelancer.com.bd/)" /><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">es-UY</a>" href="http://www.freelancer.uy/" />
<link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">pt</a>" href="[http://www.freelancer.pt/](view-source:http://www.freelancer.pt/)" /><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">pt-PT</a>" href="http://www.freelancer.pt/" />
-
What is weird is that Wikipedia doesn't use it and still ranks 1st for almost every keyword while having alternates in almost every language for every page.
-
Hello,
The hreflang attribute is used with the link element to provide an alternative page in another language.
The simplest way of using it is to be adding a link to the header of your page to give them alternative urls to the same content in another language.Here is a list of language attributes you can use http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2#Decoding_table
You should read google's webmasters tip regarding this topic to get a better understanding: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en.
I actually couldn't find any sites right now that use this technique.
--
Jørgen Juel
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
-
Google Search Console "International Targeting" is reporting errors that are not present on my site
We are currently handling search for a global brand www.example.com/ which has presence in many countries worldwide. To help Google understand that there is an alternate version of the website available in another language, we have used hreflang tags. These hreflang tags are implemented only via the XML sitemap across all geo-locations. Under the “Search Analytics -> International Targeting” section, in Google Search Console, for the Malaysian website (www.example.com/my/), there are a number of “no-return tags (sitemaps)” errors arising. For example, for India as a geo-location, there is one ‘en-IN’ – no return tags (sitemaps) errors listed. The error is listed below: Originating URL - www.example.com/my/xyz/ Alternate URL - www.example.com/in/xyz/ When the XML sitemap for the URL – www.example.com/in/ was checked for the hreflang tags, it was noticed that the implementation of hreflang tags for the URL – www.example.com/in/xyz/ was perfectly fine and it was providing a return tag to the URL – www.example.com/my/xyz/. After the code level verification, it was identified that the implementation of hreflang tags was perfectly fine via the XML sitemap. Even though at the code level it was verified that the implementation is fine, the error still persists in Google Search Console. Kindly suggest a solution to this situation, and also advise the effects of these errors on search engine performance
International SEO | | Starcom_Search0 -
Is this setup of Hreflang xml sitemap correct?
Hi, I'm trying to setup hreflang for 2 domains. One is purely a US site and the other domain has the language-country as subdomains. For example: http://www.websiteUSA.com (Targets English - USA) https://www.websiteINT.com/en-CA (Targets English - Canada) https://www.websiteINT.com/fr-CA (Targets French - Canada) https://www.websiteINT/es (Targets Spanish) ..and so on and so forth for about 12 of these international URLs. I created an XML sitemap that looks something like this: <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><url><loc>http://www.websiteUSA.com</loc></url></urlset> <url><loc>https://www.websiteINT.com/en-CA</loc></url> <url><loc>https://www.websiteINT.com/fr-CA</loc></url> Question 1: Is this correct? In my actual file, I have all the countries listed and self-referencing. Question 2: I'm hosting this file at https://www.websiteINT.com/hreflang.xml AND at http://www.websiteUSA.com/hreflang.xml. Is this correct? Question 3: Will this help the SERPs direct english speakers from the US to http://www.websiteUSA.com while show SERPs for say English Speakers in Canada to https://www.websiteINT.com/en-CA? Question 4: For some reason, when I put up the xml site, it only listed each URL once instead of the full XML file. Should I have uploaded a text file instead? It doesn't seem to render correctly. Thank you!
International SEO | | SylviaH0 -
International SEO - Mixing country targeting and language targeting in GWT.
Hi all! I want to start with International SEO process for my ecommerce. We sell worldwide with a .com domain, although the business is mainly focused in Spain. We maintain three languages, spanish, english and french with a non suitable structure. Now, after read a lot about it, I'm considering to use subdirectories for each language, /es/, /en/ and /fr/. And heres it's my first doubt: Could I avoid /es/ from spanish language as it's the default one? I've understood from recents Q&A that it's not needed although more user friendly. I'm trying to avoid tons of 301 from old urls for my main language. Anyway I want to know the best approach regardless complexity. My second doubt is about country targeting. After some research, I consider that it'd be interesting target country for /fr/ subdomain but language for /en/. Do you see any problem mixing both strategies? I know I also need to add the hreflang tag to guide googlebot. But I prefer to clarify these points first. Thanks a lot! Best regards.
International SEO | | footd1 -
Help: Newbie trying to optimize for several international domains
We have three domain names co.nz, com.au and com. We are very new and have been told to optimize for co.nz first before going into com.au and com. Having said that, we have outsourced an seo company to optimize our co.nz site, however I would like to optimize the com.au and the com based on the information we currently receive for co.nz. Any suggestions on how to go about doing this? I looked at our competition and it seems they have the same content across all 3 domains, but they have changed the meta tags for each domain and that's about it. Any tips or ideas on how we could possibly do better? I know its early stages.... but as a newbie some advice around this would be great! Thanks
International SEO | | edward-may0 -
International Sites - Sitemaps, Robots & Geolocating in WMT
Hi Guys, I have a site that has now been launched in the US having originally just been UK. In order to accommodate this, the website has been set-up using directories for each country. Example: domain.com/en-gb domain.com/en-us As the site was originally set-up for UK, the sitemap, robots file & Webmaster Tools account were added to the main domain. Example: domain.com/sitemap.xml domain.com/robots.txt The question is does this now need changing to make it specific for each country. Example: The sitemap and robots.txt for the UK would move to: domain.com/en-gb/sitemap.xml domain.com/en-gb/robots.txt and the US would have its own separate sitemap and robots.txt. Example : domain.com/en-us/sitemap.xml domain.com/en-us/robots.txt Also in order to Geolocate this in WMT would this need to be done for each directory version instead of the main domain? Currently the WMT account for the UK site is verified at www.domain.com, would this need reverifying at domain.com/en-gb? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!
International SEO | | CarlWint0 -
Can multiple hreflang tags point to one URL? International SEO question
Moz, Hi Moz, Can multiple hreflang tags point to a single URL? For example, if I have a Canadian site (www.example.com/ca) that targets French and English speakers can I have the following: or would I use: Any insight would be very helpful and greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance!
International SEO | | DA20131 -
Exact Copy of website
We have a client who has the exact copy of his site twice (so three identical sites) in a com.au , .com .co.uk all the sites seem to be the same, cached at different times by Google- ranking is ok on main site which we are working on....Any thoughts?
International SEO | | OnlineAssetPartners0 -
SEO for .com vs. .com.au websites
I have a new client from Australia who has a website on a .com.au domain. He has the same domain name registered for .com. Example: exampledomain.com.au, and exampledomain.com He started with the .com.au site for a product he offers in Australia. He's bringing the same product to the U.S. (it's a medical device product) and wants us to build a site for it and point to the .com. Right now, he has what appears is the same site showing on the .com as on the .com.au. So both domains are pointing to the same host, but there are separate sections or directories within the hosting account for each website - and the content is exactly the same. Would this be viewed as duplicate content by Google? What's the best way to structure or build the new site on the .com to get the best SEO in the USA, maintain the .au version and not have the websites compete or be viewed as having duplicate content? Thanks, Greg
International SEO | | gregelwell0