The 8 Things to check if Google are ignoring your hreflang - Final.pptx

8 Things to check if
Google are ignoring
your hreflang
Dave Cousin
Oban International
slideshare.net/OBAN-IDForum
@davetheseo

Why do you even need Hreflang?
2

obaninternational.com
Why Hreflang Matters
• Google may try and guess, but wrong
• Different link equity
• Historic CTR
• Duplicate content
• Users care, & don’t want to waste time:
• Moving between versions
• Going to a site that not be relevant
• Free boost of Hreflang Clusters

Those 8 (or 25) things to check
4

• Invalid ISO codes
• Language & Country Order
• e.g “gb-en”
• Non-Countries
• e.g. California, Wales
• Non-Supported Languages
• e.g. Northern Thai, Scots
• Country only tags
• e.g “gb”
ISO 639-1 2 letter Language codes
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-1_codes
ISO 3166-1 2 letter Country/Territory codes
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2
1. Codes and tags that are just plain wrong
Common Mistakes

6
Website targeting Arabic users
What’s wrong with this example?
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/ar" hreflang=“ar-ar" />
Common Mistakes

7
Website targeting Arabic users
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/ar" hreflang=“ar-ar" />
AR is a country BUT it’s Argentina
AR is a language though and it is Arabic
Common Mistakes
Only 2% of
Argentines
speak Arabic

8
Website targeting Austria
What’s wrong with this example?
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/at" hreflang="at-at" />
Common Mistakes

9
Website targeting Austria
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/at" hreflang="at-at" />
AT is a location
AT isn’t a language
DE is the language (Austrians speak German)
Common Mistakes

• Formatting
• Using Relative or Root Relative URLs: Only use Absolute
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-ie" hreflang="en-ie" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-ca" hreflang="en-ca" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-gb" hreflang="en-gb" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-gb" hreflang="en" />
• Related country and languages with different codes
Common Mistakes

Using UK for United Kingdom, use GB
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-gb" hreflang="en-gb"/>
Common Mistakes

Using UK for Ukraine.
UK is correct for Ukrainian but UA is correct for Ukraine
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/uk-ua" hreflang=“uk-ua"/>
Common Mistakes

For Japanese use JA for Japan use JP
For Swedish use SV, for Sweden use SE
For Danish use DA, for Denmark use DK
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/ja-jp" hreflang=“ja-jp"/>
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/sv-se" hreflang=“sv-se"/>
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/da-dk" hreflang=“da-dk"/>
Common Mistakes

• Non-indexable URLs
• incl. SPAs
• Language doesn’t match content
• Using homepages or similar where local
version doesn’t exist
• Mapping clearly unrelated URLs into a
cluster
• Content doesn’t have to match, it
should be localised
Plain Stupid Mistakes

• If one URL is nice enough to give a shout
out to another in its cluster
• URLs should be polite and return the
compliment
Shoes
Shoes
2. Missing Tags
Missing Return Tags

• You really do need self
referencing tags
• Yes all (indexable) pages do
need tags, yes even the
privacy policy
2. Missing Tags
Lack of Any Tags No hreflang? Shame, I guess you
might be relevant to English speakers
but I’m not sure where?
Hey, I just added an EN Tag
Ok, you’re relevant to Global users with
English Browser Language
Hey, I just added an EN-GB Tag too
Ok, you’re especially relevant to users
with a UK IP address

• Should be simple to get right
• Two URLs just need to agree to reference
each other
• And themselves
• With matching tags
• And no one else
Shoes
Shoes
Shoes
Shoes
Dress
3. Mismatching Tags
1:1 Mismatches

• Should be simple to get right
• Two URLs just need to agree to reference
each other
• And themselves
• With matching tags
• And no one else
Shoes
Shoes
Shoes
Shoes
3. Mismatching Tags
1:1 Mismatches

• Slightly more tricky
• So much easier where everything is
mapped and automated
• Use testing tools
• e.g. https://technicalseo.com/tools/hreflang/
Shoes
Shoes
3. Mismatching Tags
>2 URL Hreflang Clusters

• 2 URLs for 1 tag in 1 cluster is definitely
Wrong
• e.g. 2 “fr” pages or 2 “en-us” pages
• Only use 1 URL for per tag per cluster
• Same language in multiple different tags, on
multiple URLs is all good
• e.g. “fr-fr”, “fr-ca” & “fr”
Shoes
Shoes
Dress
3. Mismatching Tags
More than one URL for 1 tag

Shoes
Shoes
3. Mismatching Tags
More than one URL for 1 tag
• 2 URLs for 1 tag in 1 cluster is definitely
Wrong
• e.g. 2 “fr” pages or 2 “en-us” pages
• Only use 1 URL for per tag per cluster
• Same language in multiple different tags, on
multiple URLs is all good
• e.g. “fr-fr”, “fr-ca” & “fr”

• 1 URL mapped to >1 Incompatible tags is also
Wrong
• e.g 1 URL with a “da-dk” and “en-us” tag
• Avoid incompatible tags
• 1 URL used for >1 country is all good
• e.g. 1 URL for “en-gb” & “en-ie”
• >1 language is Wrong
• Except Macro and ‘sub’ languages e.g Norwegian
and Norwegian Bokmål
Shoes
Shoes
3. Mismatching Tags
One URL for multiple incompatible tags

• Don’t use Hreflang tags &
Canonicals within a cluster
• Stop confusing Google with
conflicting tags
• Google may prioritise
Canonicals as a priority over
Hreflang
• This DOES NOT mean Don’t use
Canonicals at all
• For duplicates (within a
country/language site) ONLY add
Hreflang to Canonical URL
/en-
gb/
/en-
gb/
/en-
gb/
4. Canonicals & Hreflang
Ah thanks, I will not index this and
show /en-us/ instead
el="alternate" href=http://example.com/ en-gb
hreflang=en-gb"/>.
Oh wait, but you told me to show /en-us/
instead?
Ok ok, I made the Canonical self-referencing
Humm, you’re an idiot but I’ll think about
it
rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/en-
us/"

• Lang tags:
• Less important signal
• Can cause issues when contradictory
• ‘Lang tag’ of the URL should:
• Match 1 tag
• Not contradict any others
• Look out for multilingual sites with 1 lang tag
for all pages
<html lang=“da-dk">
<link rel="alternate"
href="https://example.com/
" hreflang="en-US"/>
" hreflang="en" />
5. Lang Tag Mismatches

• Lang tags:
• Match 1 tag
for all pages
<html lang="en-GB">
" hreflang="en" />

• Lang tags:
• Match 1 tag
for all pages
<html lang="en-US">
" hreflang="en" />

• Only have either on-page tags or sitemap
hreflang
• At least each cluster in one place
• Also make sure the source and initial DOM
match
6. On-Page & Sitemap Tag disagreements

• Technically all good?
• Google might ignore it anyway
• Hreflang is a Signal not a Directive
• If one version was:
• Established before Hreflang setup,
• Has great CTR or
• Has great Link Equity
• It may still show for the wrong countries
7. Vastly different link equity or user
experience

• Google has trust issues
• Just like the time you screwed up Canonicals, or had
out of date XML Sitemaps
• If you got one or some of the first 6 wrong:
• Across a chunk of your pages
• For a long period of time
• Google may decide you can’t be trusted to do your own Hreflang
• It can take a significant amount of time to rebuild trust
• and for Google to decide you have learnt from your mistakes and
move past it
8. Give it time, Google
takes time to trust again

Crawl
• Screaming Frog
• Sitebulb
Migrations
• Plan ahead
• Make sure everything is mapped
• Futureproof
• Test in staging
Support
• I love a challenge so get in touch
linkedin.com/in/davecousin
@davetheseo
@obanintl
Webinar 20/09/23:
An Early look at
Organic Search in 2024
Some Final Tips

The 8 Things to check if Google are ignoring your hreflang - Final.pptx

The 8 Things to check if Google are ignoring your hreflang - Final.pptx

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