Hreflang: Is it really still necessary and how to use it successfully in 2023
Learn if hreflang annotations are still necessary in Intenational SEO projects in 2023, in which scenarios and how to effectively implement it while minimizing issues and maximizing success and impact.
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI But Google deprecated the GSC International Targeting Report, used to show hreflang status & give geolocation feature! Is it really necessary nowadays?
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI Because of this, I asked for the “official” hreflang status back: Why not show hreflang status if it’s used? I didn’t get an answer.
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI Google added a note about hreflang used to identify alternate content variations but not to detect language Oct 2021 Now vs
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI Oct 2021 Now The International Targeting info to geolocate gTLDs to a country was eliminated from many sections too vs
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI What about country-targeted versions, especially those w/ the same language tho? #HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI eBay.com: Steady rankings for relevant US market while drastic decrease since July 21 in non-relevant countries
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI So relevant country targeting has also improved although not so much for gTLDs as for ccTLDs #HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI Also, is better for different language markets than for same language ones #HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI X But should be executed with care to avoid time-losing mistakes, especially now without the GSC International Report
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI The hreflang challenge is caused by having to specify pages lang/country & their alternates, & the same in each https://www.site.com/en/ https://www.site.com/en-us/
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI The reality is that most errors end up falling into
3 buckets that we should avoid at all costs Featuring URLs in hreflang that don’t exist in certain markets Featuring URLs that are not indexable (redirected, noindexed, canonicalized) Generating hreflang tags with syntax or value errors
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI 1) Including as alternates pages that don’t exist in a market, don’t make sense and would generate “no return” errors
Page A for US Page A for UK Page A for AU
Page A doesn’t exist in Australia, shouldn’t be tagged as alternate X https://domain.com/us/page-a https://domain.com/gb/page-a https://domain.com/au/page-a
In Australia, Page A is redirected to another URL, so that’s the one that should be included instead 2) Including as alternates pages that exist but are not indexable (redirected, noindexed, canonicalized URLs) - https://domain.com/au/page-a-new https://domain.com/us/page-a https://domain.com/gb/page-a https://domain.com/au/page-a
There’s a space left after the “en-au” value! 3) Including hreflang annotations with errors in syntax or featured language or country values, careful with spaces! https://domain.com/us/page-a https://domain.com/gb/page-a https://domain.com/au/page-a
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI Don’t include hreflang on pages that don’t actually need it, only do it in those suffering from overlay issues with indexable alternates
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI If you’re using popular CMS like WP this can be done with plugins (like WPML) automatically, but what if you’re not? Adding a self-referring hreflang is unnecessary if you don’t have alternates, but at least won’t generate errors either
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI Semrush & Google Search Console 1. For your different country Web versions: Identify which pages are getting traffic/ rankings from non- relevant markets. Eg. The pages from your Spain version getting traffic from Mexico Which of these have a Mexican indexable version that should be getting this traffic instead?
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI 2. Check which of these pages getting traffic from non- relevant markets have an indexable alternate version in the relevant ones Check for alternate .co.uk URLS and check their indexability and relevance, to verify they’re really featuring the same content .com URLs ranking in the UK attracting the highest traffic share
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI 3. Select only those that are actual alternate pages in the relevant market that are also indexable & create a sheet
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI 4. Once you have all of the pages with international misalignment issues and indexable alternates, identify the relevant values using Google documentation linking the ISO values https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ international/localized-versions#language-codes
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI You can also get them, as well as the correct hreflang tags patterns for both HTML and XML sitemap implementation via my free hreflang tool https://www.aleydasolis.com/english/international-seo-tools/hreflang-tags-generator/
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI Careful when trying to automate hreflang generation by using GPTChat, the values might be incorrect depending on the prompt Correct Incorrect
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI Wait! But, should you use x-default too? Only if you want to refer non-targeted users to a specific “fallback” page https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ international/localized-versions#language-codes For main branded terms Terms in the same language
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI 5. Now it’s time to decide the method of hreflang implementation, following this simple criteria BETTER FOR SMALL NUMBER OF VERSIONS TO TAG AND WHEN USING A PLATFORM THAT ALLOWS TO EASILY EDIT THE HTML HEAD HTML Head BETTER FOR BIGGER SITES WITH A HIGH NUMBER OF VERSIONS (+3 VERSIONS OR +1K PAGES) AND/OR WHEN YOU CAN’T EDIT YOUR HTML HEAD XML Sitemap WHEN SPECIFYING HREFLANG FOR NON-HTML DOCUMENTS LIKE PDFS, DOCS, ETC. HTTP Header
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI BETTER FOR SMALL NUMBER OF VERSIONS TO TAG AND WHEN USING A PLATFORM THAT ALLOWS TO EASILY EDIT THE HTML HEAD HTML Head BETTER FOR BIGGER SITES WITH A HIGH NUMBER OF VERSIONS (+3 VERSIONS OR +1K PAGES) AND/OR WHEN YOU CAN’T EDIT YOUR HTML HEAD XML Sitemap WHEN SPECIFYING HREFLANG FOR NON-HTML DOCUMENTS LIKE PDFS, DOCS, ETC. HTTP Header My preferred one, for flexibility, especially if there are no dev resources, is the XML sitemap to tag static pages
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI For this, I like to use TechnicalSEO.com's XML sitemap generator, that uses a CSV for which they give a template https://technicalseo.com/tools/xml-sitemap/
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI 7. Validate if the XML sitemap is correctly generated by using an SEO crawler supporting hreflang validation Screaming Frog
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI 9. Monitor that the tagged pages start ranking in their relevant markets for their top targeted queries Advanced Web Ranking
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI 10. Profit! You should see the increase in traffic and conversions in those markets from relevant audience GSC & GA
#HREFLANGSUCCESS BY @ALEYDA FROM #ORAINTI ● ccTLDs
● Country in metadata
● Country, Address and Phone numbers in pages copy
● Local language & currency
● Backlinks from local sites
● Connected Business Profile
● Hreflang specifying alternates from stronger same language country version Well aligned ccTLD Not Well aligned ccTLD Finally, remember that good geolocation is a matter
of aligned signals not only hreflang, the more the better
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