Hreflang tag implentation
-
Hi,
We've had hreflang tags implemented on our site for a few weeks now, and while we are seeing some improvements for the regional subfolders I wanted to double check I had the tags implemented correctly (a couple of examples are below). However while the regional subfolder sites are now ranking instead of the US site for some keywords, some key search terms are still returning the US site. Could this be due to incorrect implementation for that specific page?
Due to complications with using Magento we're implementing the tags in the site maps. Also magento appears to be inserting a rel canonical tag automatically for each page and self referencing e.g. On www.example.com/uk/security-cameras (one of the pages we're having issues with) the canonical tag is http://www.example.com/uk/security-cameras" />. Is this an issue?
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
<url><loc>http://www.example.com/uk/dvrs-kits</loc>
<lastmod>2014-07-23</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>0.5</priority></url>
<url><loc>http://www.example.com/uk/dvrs-kits/1080p</loc>
<lastmod>2014-07-23</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>0.5</priority></url> -
Thanks.. it took me a while but I did realise that one eventually.
-
Thanks Thomas. That is how our sitemap now reads. It just seems odd that when you access map via a browser the hreflang tags don't appear...
-
The answers you received here in the thread are correct:
your sitemap implementation is wrong, because it commits a classic mistake: self-referencing hreflang annotations are missing.
In other words, you must declare that the URL http://www.example.com/uk/dvrs-kits is the one Google must show to English speaking users in the UK.
So you must add this:
Seeing the changes taking place in the SERPs is not immediate.
-
So I will test the site map agin after you made the XML sitemap did you tell Google about language and country targeting? Use tell Google Webmaster tools to Geo target the subfolders? http://www.google.com/webmasters/ Check your listing all over the world http://www.isearchfrom.com/ https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2620865?hl=en&ref_topic=2370587 You need the site map to look like this. <url><loc>http://www.example.com/english/</loc> **This is the URL we want to be indexed** <xhtml:link rel="alternate" <strong="">This tells Google there is an alternate version of the URL hreflang="de" **This tells Google the language we’re targeting with the alternate version (German)** href="http://www.example.com/deutsch/" **This tells Google the URL of the alternate version** /> <xhtml:link rel="alternate" <strong="">This tells Google that there is an alternate version of the URL hreflang="de-ch" **This tells Google the language and country we’re targeting with the alternate version (German and Switzerland)** href="http://www.example.com/schweiz-deutsch/" **This tells Google the URL of the alternate version** /> <xhtml:link rel="alternate" <strong="">This tells Google that there is an alternate version of the URL hreflang="en" **This tells Google the language we’re targeting with the alternate version (English)** href="http://www.example.com/english/" **This tells Google the URL of the alternate version** /></xhtml:link></xhtml:link></xhtml:link></url>
Important note - the example above is only for one URL which has three alternate versions. The following code is an example of a full XML sitemap which includes three URLs, each with three alternate versions.
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><url> <loc>http://www.example.com/english/</loc> </url> <url> <loc>http://www.example.com/deutsch/</loc> </url> <url> <loc>http://www.example.com/schweiz-deutsch/</loc> </url></urlset> I will use Deep Crawl to look for hreflang it site maps. You might want to use the header way if it is not working. Thomas
-
I've updated the site maps but the hreflang tags still aren't showing when you view the site map...
-
I think I might see the problem. I'm only referencing the alternative pages with the hreflang tag, I've not included the site itself. it should be:
<url><loc>http://www.swann.com/uk/dvrs-kits</loc>
<lastmod>2014-07-23</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>0.5</priority></url> -
This is the beginning of my sitemap for the UK subfolder, as far as I can see we're following both the case studies you posted and the Google advice on the structure. But as you point out when you view the sitemap online it's not showing the hreflang tags.
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><url><loc>http://www.swann.com/uk/dvrs-kits</loc>
<lastmod>2014-07-23</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>0.5</priority></url>
<url><loc>http://www.swann.com/uk/dvrs-kits/1080p</loc>
<lastmod>2014-07-23</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>0.5</priority></url>
<url><loc>http://www.swann.com/uk/dvrs-kits/960h</loc>
<lastmod>2014-07-23</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>0.5</priority></url></urlset> -
-
- Here is the next test
- Use this link to see in the the site
- http://crawl.blueprintmarketing.com/projects/reports/69930?ro=991e4a1c6d5086bd0bd4d0965e3b6037ed69b692
- http://cl.ly/3G2h3u464400
- Files
- http://cl.ly/3G2h3u464400
- http://searchengineland.com/how-to-implement-the-hreflang-element-using-xml-sitemaps-123030
- https://search.nerdydata.com/search/#!/searchTerm=http://www.swann.com//searchPage=1/sort=pop
- sitemap
- http://cl.ly/text/1d2E2h3P022J
- http://cl.ly/text/0t0T3T2p210h
- https://cl.ly/Xjb3
-
Thanks for running this.
The deeptrawl says that there are no hreflang tags in place. If you view the sitemap.xml files on the site you can't see any there either. However they're definitely in the files I'm giving to my colleague to upload.
I matched the structure of the tag to the two case studies you put in your first post...
-
Here is crawl 1
- http://cl.ly/3u0Z3N0S3m1B
- Interactive URL
- http://crawl.blueprintmarketing.com/projects/reports/69929?ro=0de594f6c4b262001d6d234c282d8ade7e42c020
- http://crawl.blueprintmarketing.com/report_grid/trend/69929/pages_without_hreflang
- &
- http://crawl.blueprintmarketing.com/report_grid/69929?repname=pages_without_hreflang
- I am still running a 2ed full crawl it will post in the AM
Tom
-
You could use the site map however I've had better luck with other methods. If you would like me to I am more than happy to run deep crawl on your site and figure out the problem with your current setup via site map
I have Deepcrawl & will use it to check.
I am referencing this from
http://moz.com/blog/hreflang-behaviour-insights
"Section 4: Tools for the serious International SEO
Essentials:
- Reliable rank tracker that can localize: Advanced Web Ranking, Moz, etc...
- Crawler that can validate hreflang annotations in XML sitemaps or within : The only tool on the market that can do this, and does it very well, is Deepcrawl.
Other nice-to-haves:
- Your own method of "gathering" international search results on scale. You should probably go with proxies.
- Your own method of parsing XML sitemaps and cross checking (even if you use something like Deepcrawl, you'll need to double check).
- Obvious, but worth a reminder: Google webmaster tools, Analytics, access to server logs so you can understand Google's crawl behaviour."
Please look for the report it in the AM,
Tom
-
Hi,
I did have a read through those two case studies previously. My understanding was that we could implement the code purely on the on the sitemap, and that nothing on the site was needed. Are you saying we also need some code on the site as well?
The verification tool doesn't say we have it implemented, but I wasn't sure that it would check the sitemaps or just the sites HTML.
-
Run the site through the tools below
it appears that your only running the site map and not the code itself a good look at the code need it is found in URL below
- http://moz.com/blog/using-the-correct-hreflang-tag-a-new-generator-tool
- http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/case-study-the-impact-of-hreflang-tag
1 validator
- Validator http://flang.dejanseo.com.au/
- 2 site map tool
- site map tool http://www.themediaflow.com/tool_hreflang.php
- http://www.stateofdigital.com/hreflang-sitemap-tool/
- hreflang
- Generator http://www.internationalseomap.com/hreflang-tags-generator/
- From Google
- https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en
For language/country selectors or auto-redirecting homepages, you should add an annotation for the hreflang value "x-default" as well:
Thomas
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
-
301 Redirect Url Within a Canonical Tag
So this might sounds like a silly question... A client of mine has a duplicate content issue which will be fixed using canonical tags. We are also providing them with an updated URL structure meaning rwe will be having to do lots of 301 redirects. The URL structure is a much larger task that than the duplicate content so i planned to set up the canonicals first. Then it occurred to me id be updating the canonical tags with the urls from the old structure which brings me to my question. Will the canonical tags with the old urls redirect credit to the new urls with the 301? Or should i just wait until we have the new url structure in place and use these new urls in the canonicals? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | NickG-1230 -
Unique use of nofollow tag
Love the community here. I just had a quick question about the using noindex, nofollow. We are a car dealership group that uses a website provider (cobalt). Since they provide the website they are the only ones with access to remove pages etc. We can add pages but only they can remove them. There are some pages we need to have removed but according to them they are unable to remove them, (I think the manufacture might mandate having some pages), anyway some of these pages literally have nothing on them, and there isn't really any useful content we could add to them. So we are using noindex on them to ensure that they stay out of search indices, but I am wondering if we should also use nofollow on them. If I understand nofollow correctly it just means search engines won't follow the links on the page, well for most of these pages the only links on them are the navigation, and since we don't plan on adding any content to these pages and we can't remove them should we use noindex and nofollow as a way to "remove" them from the site as much as we can?
Technical SEO | | Murdock_Auto_Group0 -
Missing "Mobile Friendly" Tag in Google
Hi All, I have noticed that Google are not displaying a mobile friendly tag next to our website (www.wombatwebdesign.com). We made it responsive over a year ago and it is running on Joomla 3.X, as recommended by Google. I have run it through google checking tool and it confirms it is mobile friendly. So why no mobile friendly tag? Any ideas gratefully received. Thanks Fraser
Technical SEO | | fraserhannah0 -
Implementing Cannonical & Alternate tags on a large website
Hi There, Our brochureware website consists of a Desktop site (www.oursite.com)and a Mobile website (m.oursite.com). I know I need to implement the alternate tags on the desktop pages and the cannonical tags on the mobile versions. However we have a huge site is there any dynamic way through javascript to have the code be generated or is it something that should be done manually page by page? Below is sample javascript a colleague completed to attempt to dynamically develop the snippet but I am unsure if bots will be able to interpret it: Alternate version: Thanks in advance Phil
Technical SEO | | Phily0 -
Canonical tag in the Michael Torbert SEO plugin
I am confused about a canonical tag that appears in the header section of a site that uses the WordPress All in One SEO plugin by Michael Torbert. That is a very popular one. It says, I thought that telling Google that a page is canonical means "Don't index this one, it is not the primary page." But in fact, this is the primary page because when you go to www.xquisitevents.com it redirects to xquisitevents.com. Is this done properly or not? Ditto for all the other pages, i.e. xquisitevents.com/about-us has a canonical tag in the wordpress plugin, etc. Which is the real primary page? And does the primary page correctly have the canonical tag in the plugin?
Technical SEO | | BridgetGibbons0 -
Help with duplicate title tags.
Hi Just going through Seomoz crawl diagnostics for one of my clients sites & see that the title tags for over 2,000 pages are the same due to the way there site software generates the titles using php, examples : **home page** = <title>Home - Trade prices,Next Day Delivery,Bulk Discounttitle> other page = <title>A0 Frames - Trade prices,Next Day Delivery,Bulk Discounttitle> So as you can see the page titles have the page name given to the beginning of the title which is fine as they have the keyword, then the text : Trade prices,Next Day Delivery,Bulk Discount Now if i take out the text : Trade prices,Next Day Delivery,Bulk Discount the home page is going to have just the word Home which is rubbish & the other pages will have the keyword which is better but not great, just wondered if any one has a better solution?.
Technical SEO | | askshopper0 -
Should I include A Description Tag for an article page
Hi, I am wondering if i should include a description tag for an article page where the news on that page will change around five times a day. I am not sure if to fill a description in for local news or to leave it blank so the search engines pick up the latest local news and then the next day they show the latest local news again in the search engines instead of having a static description of the news page. any help would be great
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Title Tag won't update
The Home page Title Tag on my Wordpress CMS Website doesn't update. It has the Thesis Theme and All in One SEO plugin. I've updated it exactly the same on the Home page, for SEO plugin, and in the Thesis Theme - but still it displays the old one.. The site was last cached about a week ago - 3X since I've been attempting to change it. The other page's Title Tags update instantly when updated, but not the Home page. I've been digging for a solution and can't seem to find an answer. What could be the problem? (www.austinfitnessgyms.com -It should be: Austin Gym | Kickboxing in Austin | Impact MMA Fitness)
Technical SEO | | OhYeahSteve0