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I have a splash page which is just link links to the different language versions of the website. I know that this is bad to have but for business reasons we have to keep that. My questions concerns the possible optimizations:

  • To which values should I set the lang attribute of the html tag? (I have the hreflang set to x-default)
  • In which language should I write the keywords, title and description?
  • Most importantly: is it relevant to optimize such a page? It will be shown only on localized version of google in countries with more than a national language
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  • "It will be shown only on localized version of google" -- How are you planning to get Google to show this page? Google doesn't usually index pages that have so little content. Google will send visitors directly into pages appropriate for their language.
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Jan 6, 2017 at 11:54
  • Ciao Stephen! That's true, but what I noticed is that the page appears when you serach in countries that don't have a specific language (for example, if your browser language is en and you are in Belgium and you use google.be you will see that page)
    – Fabbio
    Jan 6, 2017 at 13:31
  • When searching for what the company name?
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Jan 6, 2017 at 13:50
  • Yes, for the company name.
    – Fabbio
    Jan 6, 2017 at 13:54

1 Answer 1

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To which values should I set the lang attribute of the html tag? (I have the hreflang set to x-default)

For the HTML tag, I would recommend using lang="mul" as specified in the IANA Language Subtag Registry which stands for "Multiple Langages."

<html lang="mul">

On the other hand, in regards to using hreflang="x-default", I would follow Google's recommendations as described in the link below:

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2013/04/x-default-hreflang-for-international-pages.html

In which language should I write the keywords, title and description?

You should write the keywords, title, and description in the language of your primary audience.

For content that is in another language, you can encapsulate it in a <div> with a lang attribute set to the appropriate content:

<div lang="es">
    <strong>Español</strong>
</div>

Most importantly: is it relevant to optimize such a page? It will be shown only on localized version of google in countries with more than a national language

Yes. Consider the Wikipedia.org landing page. Wikipedia follows the same advice that I gave you above, and most people never have to interact directly with that page.

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