Hreflang Implementation
-
Hello All,
I'm currently working on a website with different folders for different country. For now I have defined the href lang implementation as below:
http://www.homepage.com/en/default.html"/>
Language: English - Country: United Kingdomhttp://www.homepage.com/enus/default.html"/>
Language: English - Country: United Stateshttp://www.homepage.com/nl/default.html"/>
Language: Dutch - Country: Netherlandshttp://www.homepage.com/nlbe/default.html"/>
Language: Dutch - Country: Belgiumhttp://www.homepage.com/fr/default.html"/>
Language: French - Country: All french speaking countrieshttp://www.homepage.com/de/default.html"/>
Language: German - Country: All german speaking countrieshttp://www.homepage.com/es/camisa-a-medida.html"/>
Language: Spanish - Country: Spainhttp://www.homepage.com/enen/default.html" />
Language: English - Country: All other countriesDoes this make any sense?
Furthermore, how do I implement this on underlying pages. Do I fill out the URL dynamically according to the URL the tags are found on? Or do I use these tags mentioning the homepage on all underlying pages? If so, how do I avoid duplicate content issues between NL and NL-BE and EN-GB, EN-US and EN? Canonicals?
Besides the whole hreflang implementation I was wondering if it's worthwhile or advisable to implement lang="en" xml:lang="en_"_ in the HTML tag and http-equiv="content-language" content="en_"_ in the META tags?
-
Hi Bulserik
regarding those two questions, if we look just at Google, they are not taken into consideration by Google for International SEO.
On the other:
- because they don't harm a site;
- because they are used by Bing for geolocalization and geotargeting (Bing does not use the hreflang)
then, it is a good idea using them.
Check this old but still valid post on Bing about how to geotarget for them: http://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/2011/03/01/how-to-tell-bing-your-websites-country-and-language/
Finally, just to be sure:
remember to create Google Webmaster Tools profile for each subfolder and geotarget them for their corresponding countries.
-
No one able to help me out on this one?
-
Great, thanks. I'm afraid I'm on ISS though so have to see how to get that working. I understand from your answer the correct way of doing this is by implementing a dynamic URL in the hreflang tag and not just the homepage.
Besides the technical implementation you explained above, I'm assuming the way I segmented the site is okay right?
After that I still have this part unsolved: Besides the whole hreflang implementation I was wondering if it's worthwhile or advisable to implement lang="en"xml:lang="en" in the HTML tag and http-equiv="content-language" content="en" in the META tags?
-
Assuming you're on an Apache server, this works for internal pages:
" hreflang="x-default" />
" hreflang="en-au" />
" hreflang="en-ca" />The REQUEST_URI will pull the internal page you're on (so if you're /about, then it will add /about to all 3 hreflang tags. I don't know if (but I think) this won't work on IIS servers. Just a thought if it doesn't seem to work.
Assuming your folder structure stays the same, you should be all set.
And once you're done, test it using Flang.
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
-
Canonical or hreflang?
I have four English sites for four different countries, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand and I want to share some content between the sites. On the pages that share the content, which is essentially exactly the same on all 4 sites, do I use the hreflang tags like: or do I add a canonical tag to the other three pointing to the "origin", which would be the UK site? I believe it is best practice to use one or the other, but I'm not sure which make sense in this situation.
Technical SEO | | andrew-mso0 -
Spanish United States Vs Puerto Rico Hreflang
Hey Moz, So we are trying to figure out weather it is the same if we have Hreflang for "US-ES" vs "US-PR", IF we do "US-PR" for Puerto Rico for its own links we then have to create 3 parts to our site, PR Spanish PR English US Spanish We looked at Apple as an example and they had a "Latin America" for their Hreflang and labeled everything has either "es-419" is that the same concept as having just "us-es" for Puerto Rico? ( see attached screenshot ) We are trying to figure out what would be more effective and weather or not "US-ES" search results will appear for Puerto Rico also. PZVwg16
Technical SEO | | uBreakiFix0 -
Localizing URLs Path - Hreflang
Hello, This is a simple question regarding how URLs should be managed for proper results with the hreflang tags. Right now, we have a website in English and German. The hreflang tag is working properly. This is how we currently have it: https://www.memoq.com/ https://de.memoq.com/ But we will soon change the way we localize our web, moving out of the sub-domain structure. There is this possibility of localizing the URLs path, but I was wondering if the hreflang tag would work in such case. The new structure would look something like: https://www.memoq.com/why-memoq https://www.memoq.com/de/warum-memoQ So my question is: If we localize the keyword in the path of the URL, will the tag still work? Or do they need to be in the same language than the English version. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | Kilgray1 -
HREFLANG No Return Tag Error
Keep getting WMT no return tag error. Also got an email today on this issue. Here are a couple pages showing up in the error report: Originating URL: /hawaii/kauai-real-estate/ Alternate URL: /jp/hawaii/kauai-real-estate/ Here are the hreflang tags for each page: /hawaii/kauai-real-estate/ /jp/hawaii/kauai-real-estate/ The only thing I can see is the hreflang= is at the end of the snippet but doesn't seem like that would matter. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Technical SEO | | SoulSurfer80 -
Use hreflang language or hreflang language & country code
Hi, our website has 7 languages, but only one English version (site.com/en). When I add a hreflang tag below, is it enough to just target English search queries no matter where they come from by using only the language code, or should I specify all countries (UK, USA, Ireland, Australia, NZ, ...) by using separate hreflangs? Same for Portuguese, Dutch & French... Should I just add the language tags or specify all countries? Like I said, we don't have localized versions for those countries, with specific content targeting those countries.
Technical SEO | | jorisbrabants0 -
How important is using hreflang if u have plenty of other geo signals ?
HI How important is it to use the hreflang attributes and supporting sitemaps (and do you need both) ? Since if sites are being set up on country specific tlds (but on top of WP multisite network.domain.com environment) and geotargeted in GWT, as well as country meta tags and local schema etc etc that should send enough signals shouldnt it 🙂 ? Implementation of hreflang seems like an absolute technical nightmare All Best Dan
Technical SEO | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Schema.org implementation for physician's office vs physician herself?
Hi, Regarding schema.org microdata, which page(s) should have the microdata? 1) http://schema.org/Physician -- appears to be about the office. Since we have all of the contact/address info in the footer on each page, should we do the same with microdata? I can't seem to find a suggested implementation on schema.org Assuming an office has multiple MDs, how should the docs be listed since the physician schema appears to be for the office, not for the individual doctors? Thanks for any insight!
Technical SEO | | Titan5520 -
Did I implement the Canonical Correctly?
Hello, I am trying for the first time to implement a canonical redirect on a page and would really appreciate it if someone could tell me if this was done correctly. I am trying to do a canonical redirect: -from http://www.diamondtours.com/default.aspx -to http://www.diamondtours.com/ As you will see in the source code of the default.aspx page, the line of code written is: <link rel="canonical" href="http://www.diamondtours.com" /> Is this correct? Any guidance is greatly appreciated. Jeffrey Ferraro
Technical SEO | | JeffFerraro0