When should hreflang be deployed in this situation; now or later ?

[Dan-Lawrence]

Hi

I have a question in regard to point 1 in Gianluca Fiorelli first comment on Aleyda Solis old but great international targeting article in regard to hreflang: https://moz.com/blog/using-the-correct-hreflang-tag-a-new-generator-tool   it would obvs be amazing if either Gianlucca or Aleyda can answer but if anyone else feels they can do so confidently then that would be great too   I'm advising someone in similar situation as that (their main brand is USA based on a .com showing up in UK searches too) and they have launched .co.uk sites (without any seo) to target UK brand searches, so obviously the .com is still dominating UK serps for brand, and the .co.uk is ranking on page 4 on average for a brand search.   **BUT **before I tell them to roll out hreflang shouldn't they build up some authority etc first for their new country specific (.co.uk) site ? since they are very new and have no authority or even basic SEO and don't rank higher than page 4 for brand searches (the .com is in no1 in both usa and uk).   I know hreflang needs to be used correctly here but im not sure when it should be, now or later (after authority has built up for the new uk focused sites) ?   In other words I take it deploying the hreflang correctly wont simply cause these home pages to swap positions for brand search in uk (or will it) ? Im worried deploying it immediately could actually destroy the brands current page 1 serps for brand term (since will remove the .com page from the uk serp).   Hence i take it its best to build up the new .co.uk sites seo/authority etc first and at least get that sites brand ranking moving up the listings before deploying hreflang on the .com, to then hopefully remove the .com listing in place of the .co.uk for brand ?   OR does Gianlucca point in his comment suggest that correct hreflang usage on both sites should swap the high authority .com no1 position with the low authority .co.uk for a brand search ?   Many Thanks Dan

[Dan-Lawrence]

Hola & Muchos Gracias Gianluca

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond its very much appreciated !

Ok that's great news thanks !

I was just worried that 'swapping' via hreflang, to the very new & non SEO'd websites immediately would be a mistake since they wouldn't swap 'exactly' due to the brand new UK websites lacking any authority etc. Yes SEO'ing them is a priority, i was just wandering if some months of authority building should be carried out before attempting to roll out the hreflang, to help them swap 'exactly', or therabouts.

But will try think of a way to test anyway, at the moment, client is prioritising brand search results at the moment and the new uk site has different pages (and nowhere near as many as the .com) & different structure so the uk version is by no means a copy of the us site (does that have a bearing if not similar content & structure or should hreflang still be deployed ?)...so Home Page needs hreflang i would have thought. (Any tips here welcome

Many Thanks again !

All Best

Dan

[gfiorelli1]

Hola!

The hreflang is not something based on authority or popularity: it is a “swapper”.

i use that term consciously because “swapping URLs“ is how John Mueller define what the hreflang does.

When Google sees that we are indicating that a URL is the correct one for a given geography, and in that geography is already ranking another URL, then Google will swap the two URLs and start showing the new one.

This means that Google should start showing the .co.uk URLs instead of the .com mes.

However, I suggest you to test this on a limited set of URLs and see the results. If the swap happens, then you can proceed extending the hreflang to all both websites.

Finally, surely it is fundamental to optimize the .co.uk websites, at least starting with basic on page and tech seo action and then, hopefully, with improving their link profiles.

in fact, even if the swapping works, you then must maintain the rankings.