Hreflang tag implentation
-
Hi,
We've had hreflang tags implemented on our site for a few weeks now, and while we are seeing some improvements for the regional subfolders I wanted to double check I had the tags implemented correctly (a couple of examples are below). However while the regional subfolder sites are now ranking instead of the US site for some keywords, some key search terms are still returning the US site. Could this be due to incorrect implementation for that specific page?
Due to complications with using Magento we're implementing the tags in the site maps. Also magento appears to be inserting a rel canonical tag automatically for each page and self referencing e.g. On www.example.com/uk/security-cameras (one of the pages we're having issues with) the canonical tag is http://www.example.com/uk/security-cameras" />. Is this an issue?
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
<url><loc>http://www.example.com/uk/dvrs-kits</loc>
<lastmod>2014-07-23</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>0.5</priority></url>
<url><loc>http://www.example.com/uk/dvrs-kits/1080p</loc>
<lastmod>2014-07-23</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>0.5</priority></url> -
Thanks.. it took me a while but I did realise that one eventually.
-
Thanks Thomas. That is how our sitemap now reads. It just seems odd that when you access map via a browser the hreflang tags don't appear...
-
The answers you received here in the thread are correct:
your sitemap implementation is wrong, because it commits a classic mistake: self-referencing hreflang annotations are missing.
In other words, you must declare that the URL http://www.example.com/uk/dvrs-kits is the one Google must show to English speaking users in the UK.
So you must add this:
Seeing the changes taking place in the SERPs is not immediate.
-
So I will test the site map agin after you made the XML sitemap did you tell Google about language and country targeting? Use tell Google Webmaster tools to Geo target the subfolders? http://www.google.com/webmasters/ Check your listing all over the world http://www.isearchfrom.com/ https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2620865?hl=en&ref_topic=2370587 You need the site map to look like this. <url><loc>http://www.example.com/english/</loc> **This is the URL we want to be indexed** <xhtml:link rel="alternate" <strong="">This tells Google there is an alternate version of the URL hreflang="de" **This tells Google the language we’re targeting with the alternate version (German)** href="http://www.example.com/deutsch/" **This tells Google the URL of the alternate version** /> <xhtml:link rel="alternate" <strong="">This tells Google that there is an alternate version of the URL hreflang="de-ch" **This tells Google the language and country we’re targeting with the alternate version (German and Switzerland)** href="http://www.example.com/schweiz-deutsch/" **This tells Google the URL of the alternate version** /> <xhtml:link rel="alternate" <strong="">This tells Google that there is an alternate version of the URL hreflang="en" **This tells Google the language we’re targeting with the alternate version (English)** href="http://www.example.com/english/" **This tells Google the URL of the alternate version** /></xhtml:link></xhtml:link></xhtml:link></url>
Important note - the example above is only for one URL which has three alternate versions. The following code is an example of a full XML sitemap which includes three URLs, each with three alternate versions.
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><url> <loc>http://www.example.com/english/</loc> </url> <url> <loc>http://www.example.com/deutsch/</loc> </url> <url> <loc>http://www.example.com/schweiz-deutsch/</loc> </url></urlset> I will use Deep Crawl to look for hreflang it site maps. You might want to use the header way if it is not working. Thomas
-
I've updated the site maps but the hreflang tags still aren't showing when you view the site map...
-
I think I might see the problem. I'm only referencing the alternative pages with the hreflang tag, I've not included the site itself. it should be:
<url><loc>http://www.swann.com/uk/dvrs-kits</loc>
<lastmod>2014-07-23</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>0.5</priority></url> -
This is the beginning of my sitemap for the UK subfolder, as far as I can see we're following both the case studies you posted and the Google advice on the structure. But as you point out when you view the sitemap online it's not showing the hreflang tags.
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><url><loc>http://www.swann.com/uk/dvrs-kits</loc>
<lastmod>2014-07-23</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>0.5</priority></url>
<url><loc>http://www.swann.com/uk/dvrs-kits/1080p</loc>
<lastmod>2014-07-23</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>0.5</priority></url>
<url><loc>http://www.swann.com/uk/dvrs-kits/960h</loc>
<lastmod>2014-07-23</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>0.5</priority></url></urlset> -
-
- Here is the next test
- Use this link to see in the the site
- http://crawl.blueprintmarketing.com/projects/reports/69930?ro=991e4a1c6d5086bd0bd4d0965e3b6037ed69b692
- http://cl.ly/3G2h3u464400
- Files
- http://cl.ly/3G2h3u464400
- http://searchengineland.com/how-to-implement-the-hreflang-element-using-xml-sitemaps-123030
- https://search.nerdydata.com/search/#!/searchTerm=http://www.swann.com//searchPage=1/sort=pop
- sitemap
- http://cl.ly/text/1d2E2h3P022J
- http://cl.ly/text/0t0T3T2p210h
- https://cl.ly/Xjb3
-
Thanks for running this.
The deeptrawl says that there are no hreflang tags in place. If you view the sitemap.xml files on the site you can't see any there either. However they're definitely in the files I'm giving to my colleague to upload.
I matched the structure of the tag to the two case studies you put in your first post...
-
Here is crawl 1
- http://cl.ly/3u0Z3N0S3m1B
- Interactive URL
- http://crawl.blueprintmarketing.com/projects/reports/69929?ro=0de594f6c4b262001d6d234c282d8ade7e42c020
- http://crawl.blueprintmarketing.com/report_grid/trend/69929/pages_without_hreflang
- &
- http://crawl.blueprintmarketing.com/report_grid/69929?repname=pages_without_hreflang
- I am still running a 2ed full crawl it will post in the AM
Tom
-
You could use the site map however I've had better luck with other methods. If you would like me to I am more than happy to run deep crawl on your site and figure out the problem with your current setup via site map
I have Deepcrawl & will use it to check.
I am referencing this from
http://moz.com/blog/hreflang-behaviour-insights
"Section 4: Tools for the serious International SEO
Essentials:
- Reliable rank tracker that can localize: Advanced Web Ranking, Moz, etc...
- Crawler that can validate hreflang annotations in XML sitemaps or within : The only tool on the market that can do this, and does it very well, is Deepcrawl.
Other nice-to-haves:
- Your own method of "gathering" international search results on scale. You should probably go with proxies.
- Your own method of parsing XML sitemaps and cross checking (even if you use something like Deepcrawl, you'll need to double check).
- Obvious, but worth a reminder: Google webmaster tools, Analytics, access to server logs so you can understand Google's crawl behaviour."
Please look for the report it in the AM,
Tom
-
Hi,
I did have a read through those two case studies previously. My understanding was that we could implement the code purely on the on the sitemap, and that nothing on the site was needed. Are you saying we also need some code on the site as well?
The verification tool doesn't say we have it implemented, but I wasn't sure that it would check the sitemaps or just the sites HTML.
-
Run the site through the tools below
it appears that your only running the site map and not the code itself a good look at the code need it is found in URL below
- http://moz.com/blog/using-the-correct-hreflang-tag-a-new-generator-tool
- http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/case-study-the-impact-of-hreflang-tag
1 validator
- Validator http://flang.dejanseo.com.au/
- 2 site map tool
- site map tool http://www.themediaflow.com/tool_hreflang.php
- http://www.stateofdigital.com/hreflang-sitemap-tool/
- hreflang
- Generator http://www.internationalseomap.com/hreflang-tags-generator/
- From Google
- https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en
For language/country selectors or auto-redirecting homepages, you should add an annotation for the hreflang value "x-default" as well:
Thomas
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
-
Use of title tags on divs for SEO purposes
Hello community, I recently was asked by a client to analyze a website of a competitor. I did was he asked me to do but when I looked at the source code of the website I found this code: I changed the exact words into something for privacy reasons, but I never looked at a code like this.
Technical SEO | | JarnoNijzing
Using a div for an anchor I get but adding a title tag to the div? I never seen that before. Title tags on anchors, yes, using images in divs as background and then adding a title??? Does anyone have any experience with a code like this and if you do how does this impact rankings? Does it impact rankings at all and does anybody know of any correlation between the two? Looking forward for your responses. Regards Jarno0 -
Reciprocal links and nofollow tag
What happens if I link to a site using the nofollow tag and they are linking back to me with a dofollow link? Will it give me as much power and link juice as if it was a one way link (to me) or will Google discount the link because it's reciprocal?
Technical SEO | | Livet0 -
Using a Feedburner RSS link in your blog's header tag
It was suggested in Quick Sprout's Advanced SEO guide that it's good form to place your Feedburner RSS link into the header tag of your blog. Anyone know if this needs to be done for every page header of the blog, or just the home/main/index page? Thanks
Technical SEO | | Martin_S0 -
How are meta tags added once campaign has been set-up?
Once a campaign has been set-up in SEOmoz how can additional meta tags be added? I have not found a simple method to making this happen. Please advise.
Technical SEO | | ScottClark350 -
I need help with a PHP canonical URL tags
I found a little difficult for me to do a canonical tag in my PHP. On-Page Report Card We check to make sure that IF you use canonical URL tags, it points to the right page. If the canonical tag points to a different URL, engines will not count this page as the reference resource and thus, it won't have an opportunity to rank. If you've not made this page the rel=canonical target, change the reference to this URL. NOTE: For pages not employing canonical URL tags, this factor does not apply. I don't know how to tidy my PHP Any suggestion.
Technical SEO | | lnietob0 -
Solving duplicate content with WP authors, tags, categories
I've been kind of neglecting wordpress installations on my websites and noticed many showing duplicate content for pages showing under author and tags, tags and single post, categories and single post. Should this be a concern? Whats the best way of fixing this? Thanks
Technical SEO | | cgman0 -
Implementing Schema within Existing CSS tags
In implementing Schema with a site using CSS and containing existing tags, I want to be sure that we are (#1) using the tags effectively when used within a product detail template and (#2) not actually harming ourselves by telling Google that all products are named or described by the SS tag and not actually the product name or description (which obviously could be disasterous). An example of what we are looking at implementing is the following: Old: <ss:value source="$product.name"></ss:value> New: <ss:value source="$product.name"></ss:value> Old: <ss:value source="$product.description">New: <ss:value source="$product.description"></ss:value> Basically, is Schema at the point where the SS tag be replaced (in the eyes of the search engines) with the actual text and not the tag itself?</ss:value>
Technical SEO | | TechMama0 -
Canonical tags
Hi there, I have just noticed that SEOmoz picked up some duplicates links that I would like to resolve but not sure how. For example, the "Finding work in the arts" article has two links: http://www.creative-choices.co.uk/develop-your-career/article/finding-work-in-the-arts http://www.creative-choices.co.uk/develop-your-career/article/finding-work-in-the-arts?utm_source=Website&utm_medium=Website&utm_content=Finding+work+in+the+arts&utm_campaign=Footer+Links Both links can be found on this page http://www.creative-choices.co.uk/industry-news-views/article/what-employers-are-looking-for (see attachment). Would automatically generated canonical tags by the CMS solve this issue? rmxiP
Technical SEO | | CreativeChoices0