How to report in Google about localized versions of your site

If you have several versions of the page for different languages or regions, it is important to inform Google about it. This will help search engines direct users to the most suitable version of your site based on a language or region.

Please note that even if you do not take any measures, Google can find alternative versions of the page in other languages, but it is usually better to indicate Google, which pages are designed for different languages and regions.

Examples when it is recommended to indicate alternative pages:

If the main content of the page is written in one language, but only elements of the template, such as navigation and basement, are translated into another language.
If your site has content with small regional variations in the framework of one language. For example, English content, focused on the USA, Great Britain and Ireland.
If your site is completely translated into several languages. For example, you have pages in German and English.

Localized versions of the page are considered duplicates only if the main content of the page is not translated.

Methods for indicating alternative versions of pages to search for Google

There are three ways to report Google about different language or regional versions of the page:

HTTP-stacks
SiteMap card (Sitemap)

These methods are equivalent in terms of Google, and you can choose the one that is more convenient for you. Although you can use all three methods at the same time, this will usually complicate the management of sites, so it is better to choose one method.

Use the HREFLANG attribute to tell Google about the versions of your content so that the search engine can understand that these pages are localized versions of the same content. Google does not use Hreflang or Lang attribute to determine the page language; Instead, an algorithm is used that defines the language.

Recommendations for all methods

Each language version should refer to itself, as well as all other language versions.
The addresses of alternative pages should be complete, including the data transfer method (http/https), for example: https://example.com/foo, not //example.com/foo or/foo.
Alternative pages do not have to be on the same domain.
If you have several alternative pages for one language oriented to different regions, it is also useful to provide a universal page for users of this language that do not have a clear geographical indication.
If two pages do not refer to each other, the tags will be ignored.
If it is difficult for you to maintain a complete set of bilateral links for all languages, you can exclude some languages, but it is always important to refer to the main versions, for example, to pages created in French.
It is recommended to add a Fallback page for non -consuming languages, especially on language/regional selectors or on auto -recovering pages.

-toges to indicate localized versions in Google

Add the elements in the pages section to inform Google about all the linguistic and regional versions of your page. This is useful if you do not have a site card or the possibility of specifying HTTP-heads for your site.

For each variation of the page, you need to add a set of elements in the section, one for each page version, including the page itself.

An example of syntax for each element:

Where:

Language_cod-the code of the language and region, for example, En-Sus for the USA, or X-default for pages by default.
URL Pages - a full link to the page version for the specified language/region.

The tags should be inside the correctly designed section of the document.

Example

If your site has pages for the USA, Great Britain and Germany, for example, the following URL contain similar content with small regional differences:

https://example.com/ - The main page for English -speaking users.
https://example.co.uk/ - the main page for UK users.
https://example.de/ - the main page for Germany users.

Example in the section for these pages:

<head>
<title>Ваш сайт</title>
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-gb" href="https://example.co.uk/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.de/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://www.example.com/" />
</head>

Using HTTP-heads to specify alternative versions in Google

You can send the HTTP heading with the GET page to indicate Google about all the language and regional versions of your page. This is useful for pages that are not -documents, for example, PDF files.

Example header:

Link: <https://example.com/page.>; rel="alternate"; hreflang="en", <https://example.de/page.>; rel="alternate"; hreflang="de"

Using a site card to specify alternative pages in Google

You can use the XML website of the site to inform Google about all language and regional versions of each page. Add the element by indicating the URL page, and then put the elements that will refer to all versions of the page.

Example

<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" xmlns:x="http://www.w3.org/1999/x">
 <url>
 <loc>https://example.com/page.</loc>
 <x:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/page." />
 <x:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.de/page." />
 </url>
</urlset>

Supported language and regional codes for Hreflang in Google

The value of the HREFLANG attribute consists of one or two codes separated by a hyphen. For example, en -us. The first code indicates the language, the second is the region.

Hreflang error solution in Google

To diagnose errors and fix the use of Hreflang, you can use third -party tools:

Hreflang tags from Aleyda Solis.
Hreflang tags from Merkle Seo.

On issues of website optimization and implementation of SEO methods, you can contact our company through email: info@seo.computer or by WhatsApp: +79202044461.

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