Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
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:
Can I use hreflang in that case like:Many thanks in advance
-
Sure, I did this: http://bfy.tw/2hTu
-
Hi Dmitrii,
can you perhaps tell me the source, where you found the supported annotations above. Many Thanks
-
My answer is the correct. See what I replied above to Dmitrii
-
Lol! You're right. I was indeed thinking about Belgium and not Netherlands
-
It's a cultural thing. I'm that province of Italy people talk or Italian or German, so if you want to target both with your multilingual site you must tell it to Google with hreflang, even if it is not listed in the ISO chart.
you do the same for targeting Spanish speaking people in the usa, for instance.
-
Gianluca - I guess this time it's my turn: As far as I know they only have one official language in the Netherlands (Dutch) - I guess you refer to Belgium (3 official languages Dutch/French/German).
It's a common error to make this mistake - but the difference is easy to spot: Belgium is qualified for Euro '16 - unlike the Netherlands
-
Hi Gianluca,
Thank you for your reply. In fact I'm refering to that exact region. The difference to your CH examples are though, that in Switzerland, the 3 language regions are not the exact same "location".
In my case they are though so I got a bit confused.
So basically Im not saying, a specific region in Switzerland speaks French, another German and another Italian, but I say the exact same location/region speaks German and Italian.
-
Well, I do see the ones you mentioned on that list, but not it-it or de-it.
-
Yes, it exists (it is Alto Agide/South Tirol), and it's the same case of Netherlands (fr-NL and de-NL) or Switzerland (it-CH, fr-CH and de-CH)
-
Yes, you can.
-
Interesting. Google search doesn't return anything on this locale.
-
yes, sure about that
-
Are you sure that locale exists?
-
Hi Dmitrii,
many thanks for your reply. Great list, unfortunately I can't find my case. Though I think this list is not complete. E.x. I miss the the french speaking part in Italy for example,...
Helpful anyway though.
-
Hi there.
I found this list of all available locales, if locales you're trying to do are in this list, then go ahead, otherwise it won't work.
P.S. List might be old and updated by now, but i don't think so.
- af-ZA
- am-ET
- ar-AE
- ar-BH
- ar-DZ
- ar-EG
- ar-IQ
- ar-JO
- ar-KW
- ar-LB
- ar-LY
- ar-MA
- arn-CL
- ar-OM
- ar-QA
- ar-SA
- ar-SY
- ar-TN
- ar-YE
- as-IN
- az-Cyrl-AZ
- az-Latn-AZ
- ba-RU
- be-BY
- bg-BG
- bn-BD
- bn-IN
- bo-CN
- br-FR
- bs-Cyrl-BA
- bs-Latn-BA
- ca-ES
- co-FR
- cs-CZ
- cy-GB
- da-DK
- de-AT
- de-CH
- de-DE
- de-LI
- de-LU
- dsb-DE
- dv-MV
- el-GR
- en-029
- en-AU
- en-BZ
- en-CA
- en-GB
- en-IE
- en-IN
- en-JM
- en-MY
- en-NZ
- en-PH
- en-SG
- en-TT
- en-US
- en-ZA
- en-ZW
- es-AR
- es-BO
- es-CL
- es-CO
- es-CR
- es-DO
- es-EC
- es-ES
- es-GT
- es-HN
- es-MX
- es-NI
- es-PA
- es-PE
- es-PR
- es-PY
- es-SV
- es-US
- es-UY
- es-VE
- et-EE
- eu-ES
- fa-IR
- fi-FI
- fil-PH
- fo-FO
- fr-BE
- fr-CA
- fr-CH
- fr-FR
- fr-LU
- fr-MC
- fy-NL
- ga-IE
- gd-GB
- gl-ES
- gsw-FR
- gu-IN
- ha-Latn-NG
- he-IL
- hi-IN
- hr-BA
- hr-HR
- hsb-DE
- hu-HU
- hy-AM
- id-ID
- ig-NG
- ii-CN
- is-IS
- it-CH
- it-IT
- iu-Cans-CA
- iu-Latn-CA
- ja-JP
- ka-GE
- kk-KZ
- kl-GL
- km-KH
- kn-IN
- kok-IN
- ko-KR
- ky-KG
- lb-LU
- lo-LA
- lt-LT
- lv-LV
- mi-NZ
- mk-MK
- ml-IN
- mn-MN
- mn-Mong-CN
- moh-CA
- mr-IN
- ms-BN
- ms-MY
- mt-MT
- nb-NO
- ne-NP
- nl-BE
- nl-NL
- nn-NO
- nso-ZA
- oc-FR
- or-IN
- pa-IN
- pl-PL
- prs-AF
- ps-AF
- pt-BR
- pt-PT
- qut-GT
- quz-BO
- quz-EC
- quz-PE
- rm-CH
- ro-RO
- ru-RU
- rw-RW
- sah-RU
- sa-IN
- se-FI
- se-NO
- se-SE
- si-LK
- sk-SK
- sl-SI
- sma-NO
- sma-SE
- smj-NO
- smj-SE
- smn-FI
- sms-FI
- sq-AL
- sr-Cyrl-BA
- sr-Cyrl-CS
- sr-Cyrl-ME
- sr-Cyrl-RS
- sr-Latn-BA
- sr-Latn-CS
- sr-Latn-ME
- sr-Latn-RS
- sv-FI
- sv-SE
- sw-KE
- syr-SY
- ta-IN
- te-IN
- tg-Cyrl-TJ
- th-TH
- tk-TM
- tn-ZA
- tr-TR
- tt-RU
- tzm-Latn-DZ
- ug-CN
- uk-UA
- ur-PK
- uz-Cyrl-UZ
- uz-Latn-UZ
- vi-VN
- wo-SN
- xh-ZA
- yo-NG
- zh-CN
- zh-HK
- zh-MO
- zh-SG
- zh-TW
- zu-ZA
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
-
Correct Hreflang & Canonical Tags for Multi-Regional Website English Language Only having URL Parameters
Dear friends, We have a multi-regional website in English language only having the country selector on the top of each page and it adds countrycode parameters on each url. Website is built in Magento 1.8 and having 1 store with multiple store views. There is no default store set in Magento as I discussed with developer. Content is same for all the countries and only currency is changed. In navigation there are urls without url parameters but when we change store from any page it add parameters in the url for same page hence there are total 7 URLs. 6 URLs for each page (with country parameters) and 1 master url (without parameters) and making content duplicity. We have implemented hreflang tags on each page with url parameters but for canonical we have implemented master page url as per navigation without url parameters Example on this page. I think this is correct for master page but we should use URL parameters in canonical tags for each counry url too and there should be only 1 canonical tag on each country page url. Currently all the country urls are having master page canoncial tag as per the example. Please correct me if I am wrong and **in this case what has to be done for master page? **as google is indexing the pages without parameters too. We are also using GEOIP redirection for each store with country IP detection and for rest of the countries which are not listed on the website we are redirecting to USA store. Earlier it was 301 but we changed it to 302. Hreflang tags are showing errors in SEMRush due to redirection but in GWT it's OK for some pages it's showing no return tags only. Should I use **x-default tags for hreflang and country selector only on home page like this or should I remove the redirection? **However some of the website like this using redirection but header check tool doesn't show the redirection for this and for our website it shows 302 redirection. Sorry for the long post but looking for your support, please.
International SEO | | spjain810 -
International SEO Subfolders / user journey etc
Hi According to all the resources i can find on Moz and elsewhere re int seo, say in the context of having duplicate versions of US & UK site, its best to have subfolders i.e. domain.com/en-gb/ & domain.com/en-us/ however when it comes to the user journey and promoting web address seems a bit weird to say visit us at: domain.com/en-us/ !? And what happens if someone just enters in domain.com from the US or UK ? My client wants to use an IP sniffer but i've read thats bad practice and should employ above style country/language code instead, but i'm confused about both the user journey and experience in the case of multiple sub folders. Any advice much appreciated ? Cheers Dan
International SEO | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
For a website in portuguese what would you use? pt.domain.com, br.domain.com or domain.com.br
Hello We are a company with a website in several languages, one of them is portuguese. Our market is 2 times bigger in Brazil than in Portugal, but obviously Brazil has more potential in the future. In domain.com we have our main site in English. What would you use? pt.domain.com, br.domain.com or domain.com.br? In the first case, it means just portuguese, in the second Brazil but it is not geolocalized, and in the third, you are almost ignoring Portugal users... Duplicating content, doesn't seem to make sense... The content is basically international, so it is just the language that matters. Any help will be very much appreciated.
International SEO | | forex-websites0 -
Upper case or/and lower case in rel="alternate" hreflang
Hi Mozzers, I have a question about the rel="alternate" hreflang tag, with an example. When I use two subfolders for two different countries/languages, for instance www.domain.com/nl-nl/ and www.domain.com/nl-en/ (for the English version) and I want to use the rel="alternate" hreflang tag, do I need to follow the ISO standards concerning Uppercase country code and Lowercase language code (en-NL)? Or is it okay to use the Lowercase country and language code (en-nl), since we also use this in the URL of the Subfolder. What does Google prefer? Thanks in advance.
International SEO | | MartijnHoving820 -
SEO for .com vs. .com.au websites
I have a new client from Australia who has a website on a .com.au domain. He has the same domain name registered for .com. Example: exampledomain.com.au, and exampledomain.com He started with the .com.au site for a product he offers in Australia. He's bringing the same product to the U.S. (it's a medical device product) and wants us to build a site for it and point to the .com. Right now, he has what appears is the same site showing on the .com as on the .com.au. So both domains are pointing to the same host, but there are separate sections or directories within the hosting account for each website - and the content is exactly the same. Would this be viewed as duplicate content by Google? What's the best way to structure or build the new site on the .com to get the best SEO in the USA, maintain the .au version and not have the websites compete or be viewed as having duplicate content? Thanks, Greg
International SEO | | gregelwell0 -
Does Keyword and Location Matter?
Hi Everyone, I'm always learning, but here's a question. I would like to know if keyword and location truly matter. For example, I've been trying to rank my website for a LONG time for a UK English term. My site is hosted in the US. My site has great content and internal and external links using the keyword. I cannot seem to climb the SERPs although my "American" keywords do fine and I see results. If anyone wants to take a look, that would be great. My website is JourneyBeyondTravel.com and I wish to rank for "Morocco Holidays" (I am at about #20 currently). I am also having trouble with "Morocco travel" although I have continuously ranked well for "Morocco tours" and "trips." Along this same line, I've been doing some quality guest posting and blogging. I've used longer phrase-type keywords (3-5 words) in the article text that have keyword terms in them. Should keywords be varied like this? How long until I see results? And, should I look for blogs in different countries to keep things balanced (such as blogging on .co.uk sites so that I can get link juice for UK keywords). Thanks again! Thomas
International SEO | | journeybeyondtravel0 -
Spanglish? Picking keywords for an English website with a Spanish speaking search demographic
I'm putting together meta data for an English website whose target search demographic is the Hispanic market. The website has a Spanish translation as well. When I entered the website into the Google Adwords keyword tool to begin doing keyword research, all keywords returned to me were in Spanish. I am unsure if the meta data keywords I'm preparing for the page should be in Spanish despite the fact that I am preparing the meta data for the English version. Moreover, should there be any mixed Spanish English (Spanglish?) keywords as users might be searching under the English search but in Spanish or with queries that are partially in Spanish?
International SEO | | IMM0 -
French Canadian Website and French Language URLs
Hello, One of my clients has a question on a new Quebec, Canada version of their website. The website content and copy is in the French Canadian language, but the IT Director has asked if, for the purpose of SEO, should the URLs be in French as well? So, this questions has two parts... For SEO, should the URL's be in French or left in English, to avoid crawl errors? For visitor UX, is there any reason to have them in French versus English?
International SEO | | Aviatech0