International Site - Language Targetting
-
Hi Mozzers,
I am currently conducting a technical site audit on a large website. Their main content and audience is in the US, but they have started to add translated versions of the content in different languages (about 30 different languages). Also, they are not using cookies or scripts to auto-populate the language on the page, and the pages seem to be getting indexed just fine.
Currently, they have their language distinguished by sub-folder (i.e. example.org/blog/by-language/spanish/), which I plan to 301 redirect to example.org/blog/es/ for each language. However, they are not implementing any sitemaps or hreflang header tags.
I have not dealt with this in the past as all of my work has been done on smaller US sites, so I wanted to verify the steps I plan to take to ensure this is a solid approach.
- 301 redirect example.org/language/spanish/blog/ to example.org/es/blog/
- Recommend adding hreflang markup into the header for each language. (They have a lot of pages, so they may not implement this if it is too much work.)
- Highly recommend adding XML sitemaps for each content version of the site using the media flow HREFLANG Siitemap Tool.
- Setting up multiple Webmaster Tools accounts and geotargetting them by language. I would also add the XML sitemap for each language.
Is this a solid approach, given the information above? I want to make sure I am fundamentally sound on this before suggesting so many large changes. Thank you in advance for any thoughts / wisdom you can instill!
---------------------additional information---------------------
If I am hearing you correctly, I would only submit one XML Sitemap for international content. It would look something like the below image. I would only use one GWT account to upload the file, and I would not need to add any additional markup on each page, as it will be located in the hreflang xml sitemap.
Finally, would it be a good or bad idea to 301 redirect their naming convention to a new, shorter one?
example.org/by-language/spanish/blog/this-is-an-example --> example.org/es/blog/this-is-an-example
-
Thank you very much Robert for your thorough follow-up. I am humbled at the insights you offered, and am very glad I asked about this. It is much more detailed than I was expecting, and definitely not something to make a hasty, uninformed decision on.
-
Jbanz,
I am happy to help. I want you to realize that for a first multi-lingual, international site, you are taking on a big project. You need to be very clear as to what you are doing before you do it. The reason I preface my comments is: I think you are getting confused between language and country/region or seeing them both as the same (they are not). NOTE: Before you begin to make changes to URLs, use a program like Screaming Frog so you do not lose any of your urls. You will be able to go back afterwards and compare apples to apples on your 301's. (Yes, based on the structure you gave in the example, I do think it would be good to clean them up.)
You state:** Their main content and audience is in the US, but they have started to add translated versions of the content in different languages (about 30 different** languages).
Then you state: **...****Webmaster Tools accounts and geotargetting them by language **If you are geotargeting, you are saying I want to influence a region (not a language). So, a gTLD for the US would set the geotargeting in WMT to US. That same site could have Spanish pages (we do this a lot in Texas), Vietnamese pages, etc. but you are geotargeting the US and you are providing content to people in the US who speak these various languages. That is different from having a gTLD that is trying to influence many worldwide markets. If the US site I mentioned wants to influence (target) all Spanish speakers in the world, you would not set the geo-targeting in WMT to the US as that would dampen your exposure in Spain, Chile, Mexico, etc. You would instead (if using a single site and directories) use the sitemap approach talked about in GWMT. It clearly says, "These annotations help Google serve the correct language or regional URL to searchers." So, you are deciding what you want to do and you can do both.
If you use the example from GWMT, they have an English site, but they want to target German speakers worldwide. So if you are saying that you have German pages and you want to geo-target German speakers in Switzerland and also all German speakers the sitemap would look like theirs. (See notes after code).
-
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" <br="">xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<url><loc>http://www.example.com/english/</loc>
<xhtml:link<br>rel="alternate"
hreflang="de"
href="http://www.example.com/deutsch/"
/>
<xhtml:link<br>rel="alternate"
hreflang="de-ch"
href="http://www.example.com/schweiz-deutsch/"
/>
<xhtml:link<br>rel="alternate"
hreflang="en"
href="http://www.example.com/english/"
/></xhtml:link<br></xhtml:link<br></xhtml:link<br></url><url><loc>http://www.example.com/deutsch/</loc>
<xhtml:link<br>rel="alternate"
hreflang="en"
href="http://www.example.com/english/"
/>
<xhtml:link<br>rel="alternate"
hreflang="de-ch"
href="http://www.example.com/schweiz-deutsch/"
/>
<xhtml:link<br>rel="alternate"
hreflang="de"
href="http://www.example.com/deutsch/"
/></xhtml:link<br></xhtml:link<br></xhtml:link<br></url><url><loc>http://www.example.com/schweiz-deutsch/</loc>
<xhtml:link<br>rel="alternate"
hreflang="de"
href="http://www.example.com/deutsch/"
/>
<xhtml:link<br>rel="alternate"
hreflang="en"
href="http://www.example.com/english/"
/>
<xhtml:link<br>rel="alternate"
hreflang="de-ch" **This is saying German speakers in Switzerland and establishes a location. **
href="http://www.example.com/schweiz-deutsch/" **This is the url for those in Switzerland who speak German. **
/></xhtml:link<br></xhtml:link<br></xhtml:link<br></url>You must create a separate
url
element for each URL. Eachurl
element must include a loc tag indicating the page URLs, and anxhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="XX"
subelement for every alternate version of the page, including itself. </urlset> -
This example uses the language code
de
for the URL targeted at German speakers anywhere, and the language-locale codede-ch
for German speakers in Switzerland. If you have several alternate URLs targeted at users with the same language but in different locales, it's a good idea to provide a URL for geographically unspecified users. 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. In this case you should specify the generic English-language (en
) page for searchers in, say, the UK.
Again, you are taking on a big task. Go at it slowly and methodically until you get the hang of it.
Best,
Robert -
-
Thank you Robert for your thorough explanation! I am sorry your first post timed-out, and I appreciate the follow up post. I added a little clarification based off of what you said.
-
Jbanz,
Your question is reasonable and I wrote an extensive answer that, when I hit post, all went away as moz had logged me out. Even though I could still go to my community profile, etc. and had an option to logout. Makes me want to scream. Spend a lot of time answering and nothing to show for it. But, maybe the shorter version is better.
So, since I have little time I will give you the condensed version. You are trying to use language to target countries and it won't work the way you are trying to do it. You cannot use geo-targeting of a generic TLD when you want to target more than one country.
What you need to do is back up two or three steps and read the following about sitemaps and targeting from GWMT:
Submit rel-alternate-hreflang annotations in a sitemap. (NOTE: not multiple sitemaps for urls from one gTLD domain) This will keep it simple for you. From GWMT (the bold is mine)
If your site targets users in many languages and, optionally, countries, you can use Sitemaps to provide Google with
rel="alternate" hreflang="x"
. These annotations help Google serve the correct language or regional URL to searchers. More information.Imagine you have an English language page, targeted at English speakers worldwide. You also have equivalent versions of this page targeted at German speakers worldwide, and German speakers located in Switzerland. Your full set of URLs is:
I hope this helps you out and makes it all simpler for you.
Robert
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
-
What will happen if i manually click on my backlinks placed on other sites using vpn will it increase my linking domain as i am using vpn
will the linking domain of my website increases when i manually click on the backlinks of my website using vpn
International SEO | | calvinkj0 -
CcTLD vs subfolder for international SEO
In what situations is subfolder better than ccTLD, and vice versa.
International SEO | | MedicalSEOMarketing1 -
International SEO Subfolders / user journey etc
Hi According to all the resources i can find on Moz and elsewhere re int seo, say in the context of having duplicate versions of US & UK site, its best to have subfolders i.e. domain.com/en-gb/ & domain.com/en-us/ however when it comes to the user journey and promoting web address seems a bit weird to say visit us at: domain.com/en-us/ !? And what happens if someone just enters in domain.com from the US or UK ? My client wants to use an IP sniffer but i've read thats bad practice and should employ above style country/language code instead, but i'm confused about both the user journey and experience in the case of multiple sub folders. Any advice much appreciated ? Cheers Dan
International SEO | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
International algorithm update release dates.
Does anyone know if Google releases all algorithm updates worldwide or if they do it slowly across the globe? I have a SEO agency in Argentina and it does not seem like the algorithm updates hit us as they do in the USA. I’ll give you an example. Penguin 2.0 did not even create a dent in some really spammy websites that we watch. Thanks Carla
International SEO | | Carla_Dawson0 -
Duplicate content international homepage
Hi, We have a website which is in english and dutch language. Our website has the following structure www.eurocottage.com:
International SEO | | Bram76
Dutch or English language ones the user has set his language in a cookie. www.eurocottage.com/nl/ :
Dutch language www.eurocottage.com/en/:
English language The .com and the eurocottage.com/nl/ and eurocottage.com have according to Google duplicate content because they are initial both in Dutch. What would be the best strategy to fix this problem? Thanks, Bram0 -
International Link Building - France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Switzerland
I've got a partner agency (non-SEO) in Europe who wants to send some additional SEO business our way, but I don't currently have a system in place geared specifically towards international, country specific link building. Does anyone know of any resources (blogs, lists, tools) specifically geared towards getting links from country specific TLDs for France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Switzerland? (.fr, .es, .de, .it and .ch are the TLDs.) .co.uk sources would also be handy. A list of potential link building sources in those countries would be most helpful. I fully understand the SEO elements in play for international SEO, I just don't have any decent resource lists for those specific countries. Sites in those countries that accept guest blog posts, language specific infographic sites, foreign PR platforms, high-quality non-penalized directories...really anything would be awesome! Thanks in advance folks!
International SEO | | Point_It0 -
Multilingual site - separate domain or all under the same umbrella
this has been asked before with not clear winner. I am trying to sum up pros and cons of doing a multilingual site and sharing the same domain for all languages or breaking it into dedicated subdomains e.g. as an example lets assume we are talking about a french property portal with an english version as well. Assume most of the current incoming links and traffic is from France. A) www.french-name.fr/fr/pageX for the french version www.english-name.com/en/pageX for the english version B) www.french-name.fr/fr/ for the french name (as is) www.french-name.fr/en for the english version the client currently follows approach A but is thinking to move towards B we see the following pros and cons for B take advantage of the french-name.fr domain strength and incoming links scalable: can add more languages without registering and building SE position for each one individually potential issues with duplicate content as we are not able to geotarget differenly on web master tools of google potential dilution of each page's strength as we will now have much more pages under the same domain (double the pages basically) - is this a valid concern? usability/marketing concerns as the name of the site is not in english (but then people looking for a house in France would be at least not completely alien to it) what are your thoughts on this? thanks in advance
International SEO | | seo-cat0 -
International Link Building
Can anyone weigh in on their own efforts to build links into international TLDs? Which tactics have been successful? Which have failed? Have you engaged any agencies to manage this for you and if so, how did they perform and who are they? We have nine ccTLDs plus our .com site to manage so it's a bit overwhelming! Fortunately, we have teams dedicated to managing day-to-day operations of each site. Each team is comprised of managers who speak the targeted language as their first language and have intimate knowledge of the targeted culture. I want to leverage them to help my SEO efforts, but I'm not sure how my advice should be different than what we do for our .com site.
International SEO | | RyanOD0