20
votes
Accepted
Is using optional URL segments bad for SEO?
If you canonicalise appropriately, it is fine. Use rel="canonical" to specify that the pages are identical, and hreflang for the alternate languages.
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example....
- 2,727
15
votes
Accepted
Should I translate URL for better SEO?
It is more user friendly to translate slugs, but don't expect, it will bump your site's ranking like a bomb.
Google is able to translate URLs by itself, so it can match a meaning of a page with ...
- 9,599
12
votes
Accepted
Hreflang & duplicate content on a multi-language website
With the rel=canonical across languages (eg, de -> canonical -> en), you're saying that these pages are equivalent and that you have a preference regarding which URL to index. If that's the case, if ...
- 7,303
10
votes
Accepted
Should I include the current language code in <link rel="alternate" hreflang="" />?
Yes! In a recent blog post we mentioned:
Your [rel-alternate-hreflang] annotations should be self-referential. Page A should use rel-alternate-hreflang annotation linking to itself.
- 7,303
7
votes
Accepted
When using country and language codes in a URL, which goes first?
The typical format for a locale is comprised of the two letter language code followed by the two letter country code. For example, here is a list of all the locales supported by Java:
Language ...
- 93.8k
6
votes
Accepted
Is having a landing page for multi-country websites detrimental for search engine ranking?
Splash screens are acceptable according to Google. They do offer some best practices however, when using multi-language/multi-regional sites.
In this article, Google recommends the use of the hreflang ...
- 176
6
votes
Accepted
Landing page on multi language site: Canonical AND x-default
It is a confusing state of affairs, but here are some pointers:
Don't use the canonical tag in the way you were thinking. Content translated into several languages is not duplicate content. So you ...
- 486
6
votes
Accepted
When the root URL of a domain doesn't have a specific site, how should visitors be directed to language folders?
Many multi-lingual sites don’t have the language tag for the default/primary language in the URL¹, but I think it’s better to include it. So yes, in my opinion, it’s not only good design, it’s the ...
- 21.5k
5
votes
Accepted
Google sitemap HrefLang tag without the main site url
Ok. Found the answer at:
Help Google serve the correct language to your visitors
We need to have a url tag for each of the url and specify the others as alternate urls.
- 211
5
votes
When using country and language codes in a URL, which goes first?
This is the language which dominates because there are many countries which use the same language. That's why, you need to specify to language first and then precise with the country.
Thus, the most ...
- 10k
5
votes
Accepted
Foreign text on English website
You should use the lang attribute (e.g., on the html element) to declare the language, not a meta tag.
This allows you to overwrite the language declaration for other parts on the page (note the lang ...
- 21.5k
4
votes
SEO - Redirect on first page (example.com -> example.com/en)
As of Jun 10, 2014 Google recommends either ccTLDs, Subdomains with gTLDs or Sub-directories with gTLDs. URL parameters such as ?lang=en are not recommended:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/...
- 141
4
votes
Do Search Engine Spider's submit POST forms?
Bing absolutely does. Before I told it not to it would continually submit both a contact form and a survey form. I knew it was Bingbot because I included $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] in the $_POST ...
- 449
4
votes
Proper status code for language redirection (301, 302, … 307)?
For users either a 302 or 307 redirect is fine. The only practical difference between those and a 301 redirect is caching. Browsers cache a 301 redirect. If the user changes their browser language ...
- 93.8k
4
votes
Accepted
Should we localize URLs for default language or not?
I think it’s better to include the language code for the default language, too. Quoting the pros from my answer on Stack Overflow:
If you decide to change the default language, you don’t have to ...
- 21.5k
3
votes
Accepted
I used rel="canonical" and hreflang="x-default", but global site is missing and receiving "no return tags" error
The hreflang tags are on all these URLs yet Google hasn't pick up the global site
Assuming that you're intending the last link to be the "global site", since you indicated that to be default page ...
dan♦
- 15k
3
votes
Accepted
When the page language can be determined by the browser settings, which URLs should go into sitemaps?
I think that what you'll want to do is change the way your system works. If no language is specified in the URL, but you detect the language via the browser settings, then your site should redirect ...
- 3,330
3
votes
Do Search Engine Spider's submit POST forms?
They can and do. I've got a simple email collection form on the front of a site I'm about ready to launch. I just received a submission from that form from IP 66.249.73.214, which is a GoogleBot IP.
- 31
3
votes
Accepted
Multi-language site, landing page
In each language-specific page, ensure you have the language set. Either use the <meta http-equiv="content-language" content="ll-cc"> tag in the section of your page, where "ll-cc" stands for ...
- 5,794
3
votes
Accepted
When translating a site go with URLs in Chinese or English?
The URLs should be in the same language as the content. Ideally you would also translate the relevant path segments (like "product" in your example), not only the slug.
A URL that’s in a language ...
- 21.5k
3
votes
Clean URLs at multilingual single-page site
There is nothing wrong with your desire to clean the URL's up a but per-sey, however I will point out a few things here...
Users are generally accepting of having a language code in the URL (either ...
- 10.1k
3
votes
What is the difference between HTML lang attribute and LINK hreflink attribute?
Which method should I use ...
What is the difference between <html lang> and <link hreflang>.
You can use both.
The lang attribute on the html tag informs user-agents the language of the ...
- 4,277
3
votes
How can I use dual language metadata?
So you have a page with content (in the body) in one language, and you want to provide the metadata (in the head) in multiple languages.
HTML
In general this is easily possible by providing ...
- 21.5k
3
votes
Does different IP address of similar sites affect SEO?
Separate IP addresses for different languages is not in and of itself something that can improve SEO. Hosting content within the country to which it is targeted can improve SEO. There are a couple ...
- 93.8k
3
votes
Accepted
German site is not indexed, Search Console says it is duplicate of the English site, even though it is different language content
Your German site isn't 100% translated. It has an English footer, site notice, and privacy policy. If all of those were translated, I would bet that Googlebot wouldn't see your site as duplicate ...
- 93.8k
3
votes
Accepted
Are hreflangs needed in the XML sitemap if they are used in the head of each page?
Wherever you put the hreflang is fine you have to use only one of the above methods. Find the methods suggested by Google here: Tell Google about localized versions of your page
Methods for ...
- 729
3
votes
Accepted
Root index.html file of a multi-language website
Search engines love multiple-languages and are super flexible
Google and Bing are very flexible when it comes to structuring a website with multiple languages. The first thing you should know about ...
- 32.6k
3
votes
How to configure the robots.txt file with a multilingual site?
Your question is not clear. Are you trying to block any version of your site?
Robots.txt is used to disallow or allow search engines from crawling particular locations of your website.
Also, your ...
- 938
3
votes
Accepted
SEO impact on switching the landing page language
That's really interesting question, Google generally consider it as some kind of mistake by webmaster and will lower the position of that page, for example when site is hacked by someone, Google ...
- 5,487
3
votes
Why do some websites have language specific URLs, when the users still use the .com version?
Automatic language detection doesn't work well. It is usually based on either the geographic region associated with the IP address or based on the Accept-Language parameter.
Geo IP databases are ...
- 93.8k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible