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  4. How does link juice flow through hreflang?

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How does link juice flow through hreflang?

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  • CuriosityMedia
    CuriosityMedia last edited by Jan 12, 2016, 4:58 PM

    We want to use the hreflang tag on our site (direct users searching for the Spanish version of spanishdict.com to spanishdict.com/traductor). Before doing so, we were wondering how link juice flows through hreflang? Any insight or resources on this would be very helpful. Thanks!

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • CuriosityMedia
      CuriosityMedia @DirkC last edited by Jan 19, 2016, 1:43 PM Jan 19, 2016, 1:43 PM

      Thanks for this helpful response, Dirk! Yep, you understood our question correctly. Looks like we may not be able to add an hreflang tag on our /traductor page then.  If there's any way around this please let us know!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • gfiorelli1
        gfiorelli1 last edited by Jan 25, 2016, 12:59 PM Jan 13, 2016, 7:19 PM

        The answer by Dimitri is wrong! (Sorry Dimitri).

        The hreflang's href doesn't pass any link equity (use this definition, not link juice, please :-)).

        It is a rel="alternate" and doesn't have any connection with things like 301s.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
        • DirkC
          DirkC @CuriosityMedia last edited by Jan 13, 2016, 7:22 PM Jan 13, 2016, 7:15 PM

          Hreflang is reciprocal - so if page A indicates page B as equivalent - page B has to declare page A as equivalent.

          If I understand your question well - you want to have 2 English pages with a hreflang pointing to the same Spanish page. This is not possible.

          Dirk

          CuriosityMedia 1 Reply Last reply Jan 19, 2016, 1:43 PM Reply Quote 1
          • CuriosityMedia
            CuriosityMedia @DirkC last edited by Jan 13, 2016, 5:23 PM Jan 13, 2016, 5:23 PM

            Hi Dirk --  Thanks for your helpful response! One more question, can we have an hreflang tag from both our homepage (www.spanishdict.com) and another page (www.spanishdict.com/translation) to the Spanish version of the site (www.spanishdict.com/traductor)?

            DirkC 1 Reply Last reply Jan 13, 2016, 7:15 PM Reply Quote 0
            • DmitriiK
              DmitriiK @DirkC last edited by Jan 12, 2016, 7:05 PM Jan 12, 2016, 7:05 PM

              Ok, that's what I thought. I guess I just didn't explain properly in my first answer 🙂

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • DirkC
                DirkC @DmitriiK last edited by Jan 12, 2016, 7:01 PM Jan 12, 2016, 7:01 PM

                In that case it will reinforce the domain (like any external link to any page on the domain).

                It's just that a link to domain.com/es/page will not count as a link to domain.com/en/page even when they are "linked" via the hreflang tag. Idem where the domains are different. ex domain.es/page & domain.co.uk/page - a link to .es page will not count for the .co.uk page (and domain) even when they are connected via the hreflang.

                Dirk

                DmitriiK CuriosityMedia 2 Replies Last reply Jan 13, 2016, 5:23 PM Reply Quote 2
                • DmitriiK
                  DmitriiK @DirkC last edited by Jan 13, 2016, 7:22 PM Jan 12, 2016, 6:54 PM

                  Hi. Well, they do not consolidate, that's for sure. However, I have a question then: so, if, let's say i have a to site.com/ and site.com/es/ for Spain and then somebody links to site.com/es/, wouldn't this increase DA of the whole domain, which is site.com?

                  DirkC 1 Reply Last reply Jan 12, 2016, 7:01 PM Reply Quote 2
                  • DirkC
                    DirkC last edited by Jan 13, 2016, 5:28 PM Jan 12, 2016, 6:45 PM

                    Not sure if what Dmitrii is stating is correct.
                    If you check the comments here https://www.distilled.net/blog/distilled/distilledlive-london-a-few-thoughts-on-hreflang/ they state:
                    " hreflang anotations do not consolidate link equity." (source: Maile Ohye (Google's Developer Programs Tech Lead) at SES London) "Hreflang was not designed to consolidate link authority" (source John Mu - chat with David Sottimano)

                    Also on Moz - Gianluca seems to be convinced of the same - https://moz.com/community/q/will-website-with-tag-hreflang-pass-link-juice-to-other-country-language-version-of-website -

                    Dirk

                    DmitriiK 1 Reply Last reply Jan 12, 2016, 6:54 PM Reply Quote 2
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