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HREFLANG for International SEO: Lessons from 3,000 Implementations

In 2012 we pioneered the use of hreflang sitemaps within the SEO industry, and in being first found there was a lack of tools and process... so we made our own! Now our hreflang sitemap generator has contributed to our supporting or working directly on over 3,000 unique implementations globally. Here's a few tips on what we learned along the way.

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HREFLANG for International SEO: Lessons from 3,000 Implementations

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  1. HREFLANG Learnings from Over 3,000 Implementations

  2. 2012 Technical SEO agency, working in global ecommerce. Publically documented our adventures in HREFLANG sitemaps… @NicholaStott

  3. Pioneering Stuff is Hard @NicholaStott

  4. So we built a thing!

  5. Today • What HREFLANG can do What it can’t do Ways to implement HREFLANG sitemaps Most common errors Tips to manage and maintain • • • • • @NicholaStott

  6. Hreflang HTML tag to describe the language OR language AND intended region; of a web page, and alternate versions of said page in different language OR language AND region settings. @NicholaStott

  7. Language OR LANGUAGE/location Right (intended) index Right (intended) customer Right (intended) URL @NicholaStott

  8. Grow Accuracy, CTR and Conversion Propensity @NicholaStott

  9. NOT • The answer to your thin content problems Help you rank in new markets Syphon/copy PageRank from one location to another Replace canonical (orthogonal concepts) • • • @NicholaStott

  10. Ways to Implement Manage and Maintain your Set-up

  11. In HTTP Headers For non-HTML content Link: <http://es.example.com/faq.pdf>; rel=“alternate”; hreflang=“es”, <http://mx.example.com/faq.pdf>; rel=“alternate”; hreflang=“es-mx”,

  12. Link elements in <head> HTML pages < link rel=“alternate”; href=: http://es.example.com/” hreflang=“es”/> < link rel=“alternate”; href=: http://mx.example.com/” hreflang=“es- mx”/>

  13. Pros and cons For headers and head • Solution for non-html  • Server configuration access not easy  • Really simple for small suites  • Not for large implementations  • Impact to speed  • Freq. updates - development resource 

  14. Tag Generator: Aleyda Solis See: http://www.aleydasolis.com/en/international-seo-tools/hreflang-tags-generator/

  15. XML Sitemaps For bigger implementations <url> <loc>http://example.com/</loc> <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="http://example.com/" /> <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang=“es" href="http://es.example.com/" /> <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang=“es-mx" href="http://mx.example.com/" /> </url>

  16. RULES, EXCEPTIONS AND OTHER QUIRKS

  17. X-default • ELSE statement at the end of IF • Language selector • Can be used for generic “catch-all” language • Or not at all IF prefer to use language

  18. Each <loc> Must have Self referential REL Alternate

  19. Use ISO Codes LANG = ISO 639-1 REGION = ISO 3166-1 But… you may get away with some common errors! (en-uk)

  20. XML Sitemaps For bigger implementations <url> <loc>http://example.com/</loc> <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="http://example.com/" /> <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang=“es" href="http://es.example.com/" /> <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang=“es-mx" href="http://mx.example.com/" /> </url>

  21. Crawl All sites, sub-domains, folders en en-gb es-mx http://www.themediaflow.com http://www.themediaflow.com/uk http://mx.themediaflow.com http://www.themediaflow.com/1 http://www.themediaflow.com/uk/1 http://mx.themediaflow.com/1 http://www.themediaflow.com/2 http://www.themediaflow.com/uk/2 http://mx.themediaflow.com/2

  22. Sitemap Tool: themediaflow See: https://www.themediaflow.com/tools/

  23. Upload each sitemap to the root • Consolidated only – single site • Specific file to each <loc> • Combination if combination of architectures • Submit in Search console for each site

  24. MOST COMMON HREFLANG MISTAKES

  25. 1. It IS Not your language declaration <!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en-GB" >

  26. 2. Must link to self!

  27. 3. Can’t Target Country/Region oNLY

  28. 4. Not using Iso Codes

  29. 5. Non-canonical URLS

  30. 6. No return tags

  31. 7. No Blank cells

  32. 8. No protocol reference

  33. 9. German CSV – Comma = semi colon

  34. 10. UPLOADING Consolidated only

  35. TIPS to manage & Maintain. You won’t Believe No. 3!

  36. Process 1. Benchmark, measure and quantify. Take a sample of markets most impacted. @NicholaStott

  37. 2. Split Each Region Sitemap Into Thematic Sitemaps

  38. 3. Create a sitemap/Megazord of sitemaps. @NicholaStott

  39. HREFLANG Thanks for Listening!

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