Are you struggling with your international SEO and are not using hreflang tags? Then, you’ll need to add these tags to enjoy the many benefits of targeting global audiences.
By the end of this article, you’ll see that hreflang tags can help segment your website for different languages.
We’ll share the best practices for using these tags and their advantages. So, without further ado, let’s unpack!
Table of Contents
What Are Hreflang Tags?
Hreflang tags are HTML attributes used to indicate to search engines the language and geographical targeting of different versions of a web page. This allows search engines to serve the most relevant version to users based on their language and location.
You must add Hreflang tags to the <head> section of a web page’s HTML code. Also, you can add several hreflang tags to a webpage to indicate content availability in multiple languages.
Overall, hreflang tags are important for international SEO efforts. That’s because they help ensure you direct users to the most relevant and appropriate version of a webpage.
What Hreflang Tags Look Like
You might be wondering what hreflang tags look like. Here’s an overview of the structure to help you visualize the tags in your HTML code:
- Rel: This part informs Google that the link of the hreflang points to a different webpage than the original.
- Hreflang: The format for this is “language-region,” and it tells you what region and language the version is about.
- Href: This includes the link that Google needs to send users to for the particular geographic location.
Top 5 Advantages of Using Hreflang Tags
You may wonder if it’s worth understanding and implementing hreflang tags. You can decide by the end of the section since we will share the top five advantages.
However, using geotargeting marketing, hreflang tags can be a game-changer.
1. Better SEO Performance
Hreflang tags signal to search engines like Google which language and regional variations of your website exist. This helps search engines understand the structure of your site and display the correct version in search results.
Therefore, this improves your SEO performance and visibility in international markets.
Better SEO leads to more traffic from search engines. This can dramatically improve the number of sales you receive from search engine traffic. Good SEO can make the difference between profitability and failure for some businesses.
2. Avoid Duplicate Content Problems
When you have multiple language or regional variations of your website, there is a risk of duplicate content issues. This can negatively impact your SEO rankings and decrease sales.
However, hreflang tags help prevent these issues by informing search engines that you have different language versions of your website. This allows you to have duplicate pages without receiving the duplicate penalty for the different versions.
3. Improved User Experience (UX)
Hreflang tags help ensure that you direct users to the most appropriate version of your website based on their language and location preferences. Therefore, your customers will have a better user experience and a higher likelihood of buying products or services.
This is especially important in generating sales from users who only buy products online when interfacing with one language. Therefore, incorporating more languages into your websites helps target a broader audience.
4. Increase International Traffic
By correctly implementing hreflang tags, you can attract more international traffic to your website. This can help expand your global reach and grow your audience in international markets.
However, you’ll also need to use marketing strategies that cater to different countries, and here are a few ideas:
- Provide multiple currency options: Offer multiple currency options on your website to accommodate users. This includes displaying prices in the local currency and providing currency conversion tools. Therefore, you will help users understand the cost of your products or services in their own currency.
- Local payment options: Make it easy for international customers to purchase from your website by offering local payment options. Hence, you’ll need to research the most popular payment options customers use to buy in each region. This can increase your customer base in those regions.
- Localize your marketing campaigns: Tailor your marketing campaigns to resonate with users in different countries and regions. For example, use language and imagery that are culturally relevant and appealing.
5. Competitive Advantage
Correctly implementing hreflang tags can give you a competitive advantage in international markets. This is especially true if some of your competitors are not using hreflang tags to optimize their websites.
These tags can dramatically improve the customer’s online shopping experience over the competition. Therefore, you can sell products at similar prices and quality yet have a competitive advantage. This strategy is especially important where there’s a lot of commotion, and the margins are thin.
What Is a Hreflang Generator Tool?
A hreflang generator tool is a software application or online service that helps website owners generate hreflang tags. Using these tools, you’ll improve your efficiency, and it’s also great for beginners. That’s because there’s no lengthy learning curve for coding the tags into HTML.
Here’s an overview of the features that you can expect when using hreflang generator tools:
- URL input: Users can input the URLs of the webpages for which they want to generate hreflang tags. Furthermore, some tools may also allow users to input sitemaps or CSV files containing multiple URLs.
- Language and region selection: Users can specify the language and region for each webpage. This is one of the more important features because these tags are all about targeting the right languages.
- Automated tag generation: The tool automatically generates hreflang tags based on the input URLs and language/region selections. It may also provide customization options, such as specifying alternate URLs or implementing x-default tags.
- Validation and error checking: Hreflang generator tools often include validation and error-checking features. This helps prevent common mistakes that could affect SEO performance. Also, when experiencing SEO problems, use this part of the tool to fix potential problems.
- Export options: Users can export the generated hreflang tags in various formats. This includes HTML code snippets, XML sitemaps, or CSV files. This makes it easier to transfer the code to your website.
HTML Lang vs Hreflang
Are you interested in learning about the differences between HTML lang vs hreflang? These tags allow you to target countries and languages with the same website. The language tag tells the browser about the language of the current webpage.
In comparison, the hreflang tag tells browsers about the language of the webpage to which the link refers. However, you can use both tags on the same webpage to give browsers more information about your website.
3 Best Practices for Hreflang Tags in SEO Business
Understanding the best practices for hreflang tags in SEO business is important. That’s because getting it right lets you put your business on the digital map and generate sales internationally.
In this section, we’ll share three of the best practices so you can hit the ground running.
1. Add the Correct Language and Region Codes
Ensure you use the appropriate language and region codes in your hreflang tags. This is vital for accurately specifying the language and target audience of your alternate versions. You can look up the relevant codes based on your target regions.
However, a generator ads the correct codes. Therefore, use a generator to avoid making mistakes. This is great for beginners who want to minimize errors when adding the correct language and region codes.
2. Implement Hreflang Tags on All Relevant Pages
Make sure to place hreflang tags on all relevant pages of your website. This includes the homepage, product pages, category pages, and others. It ensures that the search engines understand the language of every page and serve it to the correct audience.
You’ll need to audit your entire website to ensure the tags are correct for each page. You can complete this using automated tools or hire a professional. Also, when a specific page performs poorly in your analytics data, check the tags to ensure they are correct.
Furthermore, you can use the Google Search Console to verify the implementation of hreflang tags on your website and identify any errors or issues. Google provides a Hreflang report to help you monitor the performance of your hreflang implementation.
3. Test Across Devices and Browsers
Test your hreflang implementation across different devices and browsers. This ensures you direct users to your website’s correct language or regional version. You may need to hire testers in other parts of the world to test your website or use a virtual private network (VPN).
Ideally, you will test every web page of your website to ensure there are no errors. This may be time-consuming, but it can prevent you from losing customers due to a bad experience.
Hreflang Tags: Are They Worth Using?
Hreflang tags are worth using to create alternative versions of your website for different audiences. This provides several benefits, such as improving your international SEO and getting more traffic from search engines.
Overall, it’s easy to use the hreflang attribute on your website to increase the overall performance.
Now that you understand how the hreflang tags work, you can add them yourself. Use the correct region codes for the audiences you want to target. Also, consider using an English version generator to help start.
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