Google didn't show my correct language-version homepage.

[jsteimle]

I have a website which serves two languages - English and Chinese. My English homepage can be indexed by Google. But when I search the brand term in English, Google returns my Chinese homepage. I already added the hreflang attributes. And I'm working on building the XML sitemap for three languages.

What other things I can work on to fix the issue? Thanks!

[Kateparish]

@jsteimle In addition to the steps you've already taken, there are a few more things you can do:
Language-specific URLs: Ensure that your English and Chinese homepages have different URLs. This will help search engines understand that they are distinct pages targeting different languages.
Canonical Tags: Implement canonical tags on each version of your homepage. This will indicate the preferred version of the page to search engines, reducing the chances of indexing the wrong language version.
Content Optimization: Optimize your English homepage's content for relevant keywords and ensure it aligns with the brand term you want to rank for. This can improve the English page's visibility in search results.
Backlinks: Focus on obtaining high-quality backlinks from authoritative English-language websites. This can enhance the English homepage's authority and improve its chances of ranking higher in search results.
Consistent Language Usage: Ensure consistent usage of the targeted language across the page's metadata, headings, and content. This will help search engines understand the language and context of your content.
User Experience: Provide clear language selection options on your website. This can help users navigate to the desired language version easily, reducing confusion for search engines as well.

[effectdigital]

It's hard to know everything which could be affecting this without a link to both pages.

1) It's possible that the Chinese version is just so much more popular (links) that it still gets returned instead of the EN page despite Hreflangs (which Google can overrule in extreme circumstances).

**2) **It's possible that Google still thinks users will get the 'best deal' on the Chinese version of your site, even when ordering products or services from abroad (look at your currency-normalised price points).

3) It could be that the English version of the page has other technical issues which prevents it from being indexed, which forces Google to list one version only (a common one is if, you have regional redirects implemented for Google - but you forgot to 'exempt' Google from those redirects, and thus it crawls from a particular data centre and can only see one version of your site which it keeps being redirected back to).

4) It could be that the brand term originated in China and thus Google considers the brand term to be part of the Chinese language, not part of the English language (and thus you get keyword targeting problems all over the place). If the brand term looks and sounds Chinese and was originally created in (or for) the Chinese market, if most of the links around the web which mention the brand term are Chinese - you can see how Google could get confused.

5) It could just be a Google glitch which you could post about here (but there's no guarantee of a reply).