If your website targets users internationally, you will definitely want to translate it into different languages ​​to cater to users in different countries or regions. And audience behavior research data will convince you that content translation is a necessity:

 

• 40% will not shop in another language.
• 65% prefer content in their native language.

 

While content in the user’s language is certainly good for them, it may not be so for search engines .

 

Hreflang helps Google with language selection

Publishing translated versions of your content to different URLs won’t help Google understand the relationship between URLs and how your site is set up. This can cause your pages to not rank as well as they could.

The best practice if you operate in markets in different countries is to have separate top-level domains for each of them. However, if this is an expensive solution for you, the hreflang meta tag is another way to overcome the problem.

 

What is hreflang?

Hreflang is an HTML meta tag that specifies the language and (optionally) relevant geographic region for a site page. Hreflang tells search engines where to find content in other languages. For example, if you have an English and Spanish version of a page, you can determine which page Google should display based on the user’s geographic location and preferred language.

The hreflang attribute tells Google what language and country you are targeting for a particular page, creating a better user experience for users searching in that particular language and country.

It therefore ensures that the search result is delivered in the native or preferred language. Remember the data from the beginning of the text!

 

When to use hreflang?

A quality and well-designed website is a necessity for any serious business. This implies that the site fulfills the needs of users to the greatest extent and satisfies their user experience.

 

Use hreflang when:

• you have the same content in multiple languages;
• you have content intended for different geographic regions, but in the same language.

 

How is it implemented?

There are three ways to implement the hreflang attribute:

 

• HTML tags
• HTTP headers
• Sitemaps

Any of these methods can work, although some are easier to implement than others.

 

Adding hreflang tags to a page

If you have an HTML page, the tag goes in< head> like this:

<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”en” href=”https://www.nazivsajta.com”>

 

For non-HTML pages, such as PDFs, add a note to the HTTP header :

Link:< https://www.nazivsajta.com/> ; rel=”alternate”; hreflang=”en”

 

In the examples above, the hreflang=”en” tag tells Google that the specified URL is the English version of the page. So it will show that URL to users who have English set as their browser language and those in English-speaking countries. If they had hreflang=”es”, Google would display that URL for Spanish speakers.

When you add these tags to your pages, you must include a link to each version of the page. So if you have a page in English, Spanish, and French, each page would have all three tags:

 

<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”en” href=”https://www.example.com”>

<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”es” href=”https://www.example.com/es”>

<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”fr” href=”https://www.example.com/fr”>

 

Adding geographic references

Adding geographies to your tags can be done by adding the country code after the language code in the hreflang attribute. So if the website above targets different countries with each language, they would look like this:

 

<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”en-us” href=”https://www.nazivsajta.com”>

<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”es-mx” href=”https://www.nazivsajta.com/es”>

<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”fr-fr” href=”https://www.nazivsajta.com/fr”>

 

Hreflang and SEO

Hreflang has two main uses when it comes to SEO. The first thing it will do for your SEO is to disable duplicate content. This tag tells Google that there is a link between the two pages and helps its bots interpret the relationship between them, rather than seeing two copies of the same content.

The second is that it helps you make sure the right content is being served to the right users. If you have a website in multiple languages ​​or targeting multiple geographies, you’ve probably put a lot of time, thought and effort into tailoring your content and marketing strategy to this audience. Most people won’t take the time to find the right language version of a page, no matter how prominently you display it on your site.

Hreflang gives your content a global SEO boost. In addition to having content in multiple languages, you can also have content that targets single language variants. This allows you to localize your content for a specific language and region.

 

The most common mistakes when using the hreflang tag

When you add hreflang tags to your website pages, you must remember that they must all contain return tags . If you have three alternate pages, you can’t add hreflang tags to just one of them and expect it to work. In other words, page A ( eg en ) should have links to pages B (es.) and C (fr), while page B should have links to pages A and C, etc.

Search engines analyze all pages. So, all pages for which you have set hreflang tags should refer to each other. Make sure your original page links to alternate pages and vice versa to avoid confusing search engines.

Missing self-referencing hreflang tags is the second most common mistake that can be made. Be sure to check this a few times and make sure that when you add back tags from all pages, don’t forget the self-referencing hreflang.

This error can lead to misinterpretation and indexing problems. Therefore, in addition to all alternate pages, the original page should link to itself, including the language and country code, if applicable.

 

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