Hreflang in header...should I do a Sitemap?
-
A client implemented hreflang tags in the site header. MOZ says you aren't supposed to do an hreflang Sitemap as well. My question is how should I do a Sitemap now (or should I do one at all)?
-
Hi there,
There are many ways to do it. In my opinion:
- If the amount of pages is low, you can do it in just one sitemap.
- If the amount is really huge, do it in different sitemaps, stating in the name of each of them the language (e.g. sitemap-es-mx.xml) and create a sitemap_index.hml with all those.
Remember that its best practice to have the sitemaps in the root folder: domain.com/sitemap
Best luck.
GR. -
Hi Gaston - Thanks for the response. My urls are set up like so:
- mysite.com/us/en/page
- mysite.com/fr/fr/page
- mysite.com/ca/fr/page
- mysite.com/mx/es/page
- mysite.com/es/es/page
And so on. Would you recommend doing a separate sitemap for each language/country? Thus:
- mysite.com/us/en/sitemap.xml
- mysite.com/fr/fr/sitemap.xml
- mysite.com/ca/fr/sitemap.xml
- mysite.com/mx/es/sitemap.xml
- mysite.com/es/es/sitemap.xml
Thanks!
-
Hello there!
Yes you should, better you must do a sitemap, but do not include the hreflang attribute.
Here: Google Search Console help you can see how a sitemap INCLUDING the hreflang looks like. Remove the portion:<xhtml:link <br="">rel="alternate"
hreflang="de"
href="http://www.example.com/deutsch/"
/></xhtml:link>Hope it helps.
Good Luck!
GR.
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
-
Changing sitemaps in console
Hi there, Does anyone have any experience submitting a completely new sitemap structure - including URLs - to google console? We've changed our sitemap plug in, so rather than /sitemap-index.xml, our main sitemap home is /sitemap.xml (as an example). Is it better to 410 the old ones or 301 redirect them to the new sitemaps? If 301, what do we do about sitemaps that don't completely correlate - what was divided into item1.xml, item2.xml is now by date so items-from-2015.xml, items-from-2016.xml and so on. On a related note, am I right in thinking that there's no longer a "delete/ remove sitemap" option on console? In which case, what happens to the old ones which will now 404? Thanks anyone for any insight you may have 🙂
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Fubra0 -
HTML or XML sitemap - benefits
Hi all, Can I use only HTML sitemap or I should use both versions?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Tormar
How much I would lose in case when I would lose only HTML sitemap, without XML sitemap? Thank you.0 -
What is optimal sitemap for large website
My website is having more than 3500 posts. Please let me know what sitemap plugin I need to use for the website and what is the best practice for it?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Michael.Leonard0 -
Do I need to use a trailing slash to homepage in canonical and hreflang?
Currently I have a 301 redirect from
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | lcourse
https://www.mysite.com/
to
https://www.mysite.com And in my canonical and hreflang and also insite links I use consistently https://www.mysite.com without trailing slash. Is this OK? Or do I need to add a trailing slash?0 -
Using Hreflang Tags For Australian Domain Extension
Hi Guys, We have a company with a Australian domain www.domain.com.au which has just launched in the US market. The company is in the process of purchasing the .com version of the domain and then the plan is to have one single global .com site (like apple.com) on a new domain which would be domain.com and put both the (US version) and (Australian Version) on the new domain: domain.com (global). e.g. domain.com/us and domain.com/au However the .com version won't be available till March 2016. The company still wants to launch in the US market asap with it's current .com.au domain. which it has. So basically the current set-up is like this: http://www.domain.com.au/us/ (US homepage) http://www.domain.com.au/ (Australian homepage) I was wondering, does anyone know if hreflang tag can be used on a .com.au extension to target specific pages to the US. e.g. I was wondering will the hreflang tag override the fact that Google would automatically geo-target the .com.au extension to Australia? e.g. would the http://www.domain.com.au/us/ (US version) with the hreflang tag above be considered as the US version, even-though we it's on a .com.au domain extension? Cheers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jayoliverwright0 -
Value in creating an 'All listings' sitemap?
Hello, I work for the Theater discovery website, theatermania.com. Users can browse current shows on a city-by-city basis, such as New York: http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/shows/ My question is, is there any SEO benefit in us creating a single page that lists all shows (both current and non-current) across the US? My boss mentioned that this could help our long tail results, but I'm not so sure.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TheaterMania0 -
Desktop & Mobile Sitemaps Covering The Same Ground - Any Benefit To Having Both?
If my URL structure is the same for the desktop and mobile experience, is there any benefit to creating a mobile sitemap, considering that the sitemap for our desktop site covers the same URLs?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | edmundsseo0 -
Online Sitemap Generator
I have a site that has around 5,000 pages now. Are there any recommened online free/paid tools to generate a sitemap for me?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | rhysmaster0