Multinational website - best practice
-
Hello,
I am researching a lot on this subject and have read several articles here on Moz and elsewhere about the best practices for multinational websites. But I'm not yet convinced on what would be the best solution in my case.
Today we have the following websites (examples):
website.com which function as a global website.
website.dk which is for the danish market
website.no which is for the norwegian marketSome of the content on these websites are the same (but different languages; english, danish and norwegian). We want to expand the business to more countries and work with ccTLDs. Both to countries which speaks languages that we don't have content for yet (an example could be Poland), but also more countries that speaks english, like Great Britain (with a .co.uk domain) and Australia (with a .com.au domain). We expect to expand in many countries (as many as it makes sense to do).
I have read a lot about the alternative hreflang tag which would look like and that seems like a good solution, but I have a couple of questions that I hope you guys can answer:
- Should the alternate hreflang tags show every existing language versions including the one you're on or only show the alternative versions?
- Do we risk penalty by having identical or almost identical content for same language websites (could be UK and the global .com one) if we use the alternate hreflang tags? I'm aware that we should use the native spellings and sentences in each country.
- Would the sitemap solution be better in our case?
- We have the same link structure for all websites, but the sub-directories can differ due to their language (like /articles/ is /artikler/ in danish) - is that an issue?
- Will hreflang="en" function as global english? (so searching users that we don't have a local website for will see that).
-
I have an additional question, that I haven't been able to find an answer for elsewhere.
How does Google determine which version is the right one to show for each user? Is it by IP? I mean, in my example we could have an american user that is on vacation in UK. Would he see the .com or .uk result?
It could also be a norwegian user on vacation in Denmark, would he see the .no or .dk results? (danish and norwegian is fairly similar and has a lot of common spellings). -
Thank you for this in depth answer. It's a great help (yours too, Marie).
-
Marie... you're answers are not totally correct.
Please, see my answer below.
-
Here my answers, that partly correct what others answered already (not that they were wrong, but not totally exact).
- Should the alternate hreflang tags show every existing language versions including the one you're on or only show the alternative versions?
Not really. Let me explain.
-
In the case of websites/subfolders/subdomains, which share the same language (eg: USA, UK, AU or ES, MX, AR), using hreflang for every language-country is a must.
-
In the case you have also single websites/subfolders/subdomains that use a unique language (eg.: Italian, which is practically used only in Italy), than you can avoid to add its related hreflang annotation in internal URLs. You should still use it for the home page and every page that may target a not-Italian keyword: I say this so to not see the local site outranked by the most powerful version (usually the English-USA one).
-
In every case you must always implement the hreflang the self-referral annotation (the one you're on, as you defined it).
- Do we risk penalty by having identical or almost identical content for same language websites (could be UK and the global .com one) if we use the alternate hreflang tags? I'm aware that we should use the native spellings and sentences in each country.
No! The hreflang annotation is substantially telling Google that the versions are different and target different users/countries. Even though the differences are very tiny, they are very important (eg.: currencies)
- Would the sitemap solution be better in our case?
It depends. Both the sitemaps and code solutions are valid. The problem of the sitemaps solutions is that it may be harder to update the sitemaps.
- We have the same link structure for all websites, but the sub-directories can differ due to their language (like /articles/ is /artikler/ in danish) - is that an issue?
No! On the contrary, that's the correct thing to do. In fact, also the URLs must be localized.
- Will hreflang="en" function as global english? (so searching users that we don't have a local website for will see that).
Yes, but not with the consequences you are thinking. The "en" only hreflang annotation is telling Google to show that URL to all the English speaking users all over the world (this suggestion is override if exists, for instance, another en-US hreflang annotation).
For having also Spanish users seeing the generic English version of the website, then you should use the hreflang x-default annotation (see here: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com.es/2013/04/x-default-hreflang-for-international-pages.html)
-
- Should the alternate hreflang tags show every existing language versions including the one you're on or only show the alternative versions?
Yes, show all versions including the one that the user is on
2. Do we risk penalty by having identical or almost identical content for same language websites (could be UK and the global .com one) if we use the alternate hreflang tags? I'm aware that we should use the native spellings and sentences in each country.
Google wouldn't penalize this as duplicate content as there really isn't a duplicate content penalty. But, they'll try to pick the best version to rank. They won't rank all of them for all searches.
3. Would the sitemap solution be better in our case?
I'd still use hreflang. Your case sounds like exactly why hreflang was created.
4. We have the same link structure for all websites, but the sub-directories can differ due to their language (like /articles/ is /artikler/ in danish) - is that an issue?
I don't think so, but it's hard to say without digging in. Again, I'd use hreflang wherever appropriate.
5. Will hreflang="en" function as global english? (so searching users that we don't have a local website for will see that).
Here's from the official documentation from Google:
"
It's a good idea to provide a generic URL for geographically unspecified users if you have several alternate URLs targeted at users with the same language, but in different locales. For example, you may have specific URLs for English speakers in Ireland (en-ie), Canada (en-ca), and Australia (en-au), but want all other English speakers to see your generic English (en) page, and everyone else to see the homepage. In this case you should specify the generic English-language (en) page for searchers in, say, the UK. You can annotate this cluster of pages using a Sitemap file or using HTML link tags like this:
"
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
-
How to Localise per Region (Europe, America, APAC, EMEI) and not per country as best SEO practise?
Hi SEO expertises! I am currently working with a client that initially have an English website targeting UK users but want to expand their market into four new regions (Europe, America, APAC and EMEI) keeping English as a main language. I would like to request your help here as I told the client ISO location and hreflang it will be just possible per language and they must need to localise each English region with local keywords, however I would like to double check if it will be any way (Sitemap, Hreflang) we can tell Google we are targeting per region and not per country? Thanks a lot!
International SEO | | Atalig20 -
International website sharing with .com/.au/.uk
I have a small business in the United States and would like to copy our main website for my international partners. My website is a .com. I think that their domains will end in their country codes: .au and .uk. We are open to using different domains. We plan to share blog articles and other content, but do not wish to be penalized for duplication. I have tried to read articles on this topic, but am unfamiliar with a lot of the terms. Is there any way to do this simply? Many thanks, Steph
International SEO | | essential_steph0 -
Hreflang for bilingual website in the same region/location
Hi everyone, got a quick question concerning the hreflang tag. I have a website with 2 different language versions targeting to the same region(Reason: The area is bilingual however not everyone speaks the other language fluently) Question:
International SEO | | ennovators
Can I use hreflang in that case like: Many thanks in advance0 -
Best International Rank Checker?
Anyone have a recommendation for the best international ranking tool. I'm looking to gather accurate ranking trends and am looking for a service that will return rankings in as many localized countries as possible.
International SEO | | marcbn0 -
Can we use similar images on multi regional websites?
I have couple of questions regarding multi regional websites. Right now, We're working on http://www.canvaschamp.com/ and planning to design new website for Australia region. I have read Google's official guidelines regarding duplicate content on following URL. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en Now, I have biggest question regarding images and videos. We're going to use all photo gallery images on Australia website. http://www.canvaschamp.com/canvas-prints We may use similar name, title tag, meta description for all images. So, Will it work for us? I want to save my website from duplicate content penalty. I am looking forward for any additional help which may help me to perform better on different region with similar images.
International SEO | | CommercePundit0 -
Url for Turkish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Vietnamese and Arabic websites
Hello ! We gonna release our next website with new amazing languages. However I was wondering, is it better to keep the url in English or I can translate them in : Turkish (should be fine) Chinese Arabic Vietnamese Arabic Russian All websites are properly translated but I'm hesitating for the url. Tks a lot !
International SEO | | AymanH0 -
Two versions of a website with different languages - Best way to do it?
I'm working on a website for a Swedish artist and her page is in Swedish, everything is in Swedish on the site, even though it's not a lot of text on the site. We would like to have the site in English too, or another version of the site in English on a separate domain, what's the best way to proceed from here? The domain name is a .se (swedish domain), would it be better to create a another domain and host the english version of the site on a .com domain? Or will we bump into problems with duplicate content if we create a replica of the swedish site in english. We're using wordpress and I know that there's translation plugins out there, is that a good option? I'm a bit clueless on how to proceed and would love some help or guidance here.
International SEO | | Fisken0 -
New website coming soon
Currently I'm optimizing content for Anton Laurentiu and I'm doing some keyword strategy, link building... What would be the best way to target his photography and retouching services? He's based in Romania but also able to travel across Europe. Establish the website on the Romanian market (romanian language) or do a research at a larger scale? Thanks.
International SEO | | clotairedamy0