Does hreflang help international SEO?
-
I have a very large US based website and series of European sites which are very new and therefore have very limited inherent equity. my US collegues have suggested using alternate language headers:
In my opinion this should significantly help the SEO of the new European sites. Does anyone have any experience with this tag?
Thanks for your help in advance
-
Google don't look at Bing for their results
About a year ago Google complained that Bing were copying their results - http://searchengineland.com/google-bing-is-cheating-copying-our-search-results-62914 - but really that's an aside.
That said, in an ideal world I would also still recommend (wherever possible) that completely different content is created for UK and US markets.
Partially to dodge the duplicate content bullet (although with href lang it looks like this isn't going to be so much of an issue any more); but mainly because there are a lot of differences between UK and US consumers. Although we both speak English, the English we speak, the way we search, the messaging we respond to is different.
Obviously the option to create separate content isn't open to everyone (budgets, resources, etc). As such, if you can't stretch to creating separate content for each market I'd probably go with the hreflang implementation.
However it is important to note that all that really deals with is the duplicate content - if your pages aren't strong enough then they still won't rank, so you'll need to think about building links to these pages too.
I hope this helps,
Hannah
-
Google looks at Bings trending of our site, so penalty for the duplicated content in Bing will reduce our Google ranking
I have never heard anything like this suggested. Bing and Google are competitors. They may look to each other for ideas, but it is highly unlikely either search engine uses any information from their competitor as a basis for ranking or duplicate content determinations.
If your UK content is at the site's root and the US content is in the /us folder, then you have a clear separation of content. There are numerous distinctions between the US and UK content which can be helpful for both Bing and Google to properly index your content:
-
use the meta language tag
-
ensure each version of the page uses proper spelling. For example "specialize" vs "specialise"
-
use the proper monetary units (pound vs dollar), measurements, and cultural references (king vs president), etc.
-
you can geo-target your site sections in Webmaster Tools
-
it would also be helpful for pages to earn links from their target audience. UK pages should ideally earn UK links, whereas US pages should earn US links.
-
-
I currently have a US and UK site and I'm looking at merging the two sites and using
example.com/ = uk content
example.com/us = us contentThe content is pretty much identical with spelling corrections and currency/price differences. I am looking at setting up HREFLANG.
I am being advised by our developers to create completely different US to UK content because Google looks at Bings trending of our site, so penalty for the duplicated content in Bing will reduce our Google ranking, I've never come across this, is this sound advice?
-
Hi Danielle,
There was a hangout with Pierre Far which might be helpful to you - https://plus.google.com/115984868678744352358/posts/9zA3a96XahN
There he speaks pretty extensively about how to implement this.
I guess it's important to note that this tag is designed for use when you have duplicate content - e.g. the same content in English for say UK / US / Australia etc and/or translated content e.g. English content, French content etc.
My understanding is that if your content isn't duplicate - i.e. you have unique content for each market then the use of this tag isn't appropriate.
I'm also not sure if this will help your less established international sites in real terms - I'm guessing that the issue might be that they lack the raw link strength to rank as opposed to it being a geo-targeting issue.
I hope this helps,
Hannah
-
Hello there, Danielle!
I have done lot of testing, examines and checks and in my opinion hrefllang is not an attribute that is under any value for source code metrics in the website pages.
Some basic meta data is a good idea and maybe this you mentioned.
But focus on the pages markers like your content language:
Titles, great no spelling errors texts, images and video descriptions, Street Addresses and codes, phone numbers, people names, mentioned in the contents, Maps.
What most matters for me is the content itself in your pages and i always focus on this. hreflang or meta datas have never helped me at all.
As a additional todo for you, I can mention local external links, pointing to viral local clean country resources.
And of course, we do not forget your Google Tools settings if your comain is not local .es domain.
Some really pro members can aggree with me or give more informational for you.
Good luck!
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
-
SEO Agency with experience in the loyalty rewards marketing space?
Looking specifically for an SEO agency that has experience doing SEO work for businesses in the loyalty/rewards market space. Brands that occupy this space could include Swagbucks, eBates, PCH (Publisher's Clearing House.) I've looked at the sample clients page of MANY agencies, but I never see any of these types of businesses being featured. Thank you so much for your help!
SEO Learn Center | | sgarrels0 -
SEO as part of University Curricula - real examples
Does anyone know of any universities that offer SEO as part of the curricula? I am currently working on getting SEO into an Argentine University and it would be nice to have precedents. There appears to be demand as you can see here http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=seo%20university yet when you search "SEO university course" or something similar, no name brand universities show up. https://www.google.com/#q=seo%20university%20course. Distilled does. I am interested in hearing people’s opinions on having SEO be taught at universities. Thanks Carla
SEO Learn Center | | Carla_Dawson0 -
How can get inffo on all in one SEO plugin
I have the plugin All In One SEO. I do not know how to use it. How can I get instructions telling me how to use it. I have gone to the website but there does not seem to be a way to contact anyone.
SEO Learn Center | | RQB0 -
How do I find a great SEO Mentor?
I've had good experiences growing with Mentors. I don't mind paying the high rates as it has always left me with a good return. What I'd be looking for: Someone to give me direction Someone to correct and provide advice on a strategy that I have come up with Someone to provide answers when I'm stuck Someone that I can grow with It would help if the mentor has good knowledge of and can help with how social media, blog writing, email marketing all ties in to a good SEO campaign. Ultimately we want to be able to help our clients reach more people any way possible. With this I feel I can take the next step and start offering these services in a way that works for our business and more importantly allows us to meet the needs of our clients. But finding an SEO mentor is proving harder than I thought. So does anyone have any tips on where to find a mentor? Who is actually doing it now and would be a good option? And what would the rates be? I was thinking in the $100-150 range. Is this reasonable for an SEO mentor? Any help here will be greatly appreciated. Thanks,
SEO Learn Center | | Daniel_B
Daniel.0 -
Is ASO The End of SEO?
App Store Optimization (ASO): Is It Really the New SEO? Which type of technique we have to follow in ASO? Is it same in different App store or every APP store have same technique?
SEO Learn Center | | afycon1 -
Help Finding Specific SEOMoz Blog Post - Help meh puhleeze
Hi everyone! Hopefully everyone had a great weekend. I'm having trouble finding a specific blog post (from the SEOMoz blog), that was pertaining to content writing. I think (but could be wrong), that it was written by Rand, but I'm having the most difficult time finding it. The overall theme of the post was about Writing/Blogging about topics OUTSIDE of whatever your niche is. I didnt bookmark the thread (doh!), but the theme of it was to basically not just write about stuff pertaining to your niche on your blog. but to write about other topics as well (I.E if I have a site about blue widgets, not only writing about blue widgets). Is there anyone that is familiar with the post that I am referring to that could possibly point me in the right direction? Thanks a ton
SEO Learn Center | | bashseo0 -
Is SEO Certification.org Worth Having?
I am new to SEO and I am trying to get properly trained. Have the SEO Certification.org professional is worth it? What's your think? Are there any other certifications to have that will properly train you? I know google has one.
SEO Learn Center | | AppleCapitalGroup0