Hreflang: Language Optimization for International Targeting

Many websites choose to use many languages that can be accessed by many people. The purpose of this multilingual is to allow many users to view your content easily. Website owners who use it need to know what Hreflang is.

These attributes are important for determining the target language and country to be selected for your website. Curious about what these attributes are and their functions? Let’s look at the following article review.

Understanding Hreflang

Hreflang Tags are codes that can inform Google about the language it should use when presenting search results to targeted users based on their geographic location.

The way this attribute works is to signal to the browser that the user is making a language request by wanting the results of your content. So, instead of providing other content that uses the language that the user wants.

Therefore, this will be useful for converting your website content into the language desired by the user so that it can be read in various languages.

Also Read: Content Types To Increase Social Media Engagement

Hreflang Function For SEO

Every content creator must create a website based on the concept of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) so that Google can more easily place your website in the best search. This way improving SEO can be done with various methods.

Starting from the original content and determining the right keywords, SEO Friendly theme management, to the use of this multilingual. These attributes also help you get various benefits that can increase the ranking of the website.

The functions of this attribute are as follows:

1. Providing Better Service to Users

This attribute tag makes it easier for users to get your content in a language they understand. So that the website can improve user experience so that customers prefer your articles.

When the user gets the right content and can be read and understood using the language of his country, this will make the user stay on your website for a long time. Thus, visitor traffic becomes higher.

The bounce rate problem that is often experienced by website owners can be reduced, where the bounce rate is a calculation of the number of people who open the website and immediately exit quickly.

A high bounce rate will affect SEO because it can be seen that the content is not of high quality. On the other hand, if the bounce rate is low and website visitors open it for a long time. This shows that your content is quality.

Thus, this will have a positive effect on improving your website’s ranking for the better. Especially if the website is already on the first page of Google, the opportunity to be read by users will become more so that your traffic becomes higher.

Also Read: 3 Official Ranking/SEO Factors Shared By Google

2. Prevent Content Plagiarism

The next benefit of this tag attribute is that it can prevent content plagiarism. When you present content that is in English for two regions, it means that there will be two different links available.

In general, the two URLs have almost the same content, it’s just that the pricing information may be different because it is adjusted to the currency in their respective regions.

However, both contents will be considered safe and do not contain plagiarism because you provide this Hreflang attribute.

It’s different if you don’t use this attribute, then Google can judge that the content is plagiarism or duplicate so that your website’s ranking drops with only one of the annoying content.

Therefore, use this attribute to make it clear that the content created is intended for multiple users in different places so that it can escape google’s duplicate content detection.

Also Read: Top 10 Websites To Check Content/Article Plagiarism

Proper Use of Hreflang

When does this attribute need to be used? You can find out the characteristics of using the right attributes for your website when you are in the following circumstances:

• Having the same content is just different languages.
• The website has content that is specifically based on the geographical area of the user but has the same language. For example, you want to create content from English, but it is used for two different regions, namely the United Kingdom and Australia, which have slightly different languages. Therefore, the use of this attribute will help to translate according to the region. It will usually be coded “en-gb” for the Territory of Britain and “en-us” for the United States.

How to Use Hreflang Tag

To implement it, you can create it using 3 easy ways, which are as follows:

1. HTML links within the page

The first step is to add its HTML to the section. This method is fairly easy and simple but takes a lot of time because you enter it manually on each page.

Therefore, this method is suitable for use when the website does not have many language options provided. So, you can add to each page.

Also Read: 10 Ways To Optimize On-Page SEO To Increase Website Traffic

2. In HTTP headers

Furthermore, is a website that publishes content in PDF, Doc, or non-HTML format. You can provide this attribute in the header section.

Thus, users will find it easier to organize and select the desired language according to its region and geographical location. Add different languages such as English, Dutch, German, Espanol, etc.

3. In XML sitemap

The next attribute is used in the XML sitemap. This method is the best choice for those of you who have a website that already has many language versions.

The way it is implemented in XML Sitemap is to provide an element in the URL that has an attribute with the code.

This is useful for including the desired language information so that users can understand your content according to the user’s region. There are 3 links intended for several languages, including the following:

• www.example.com/english/page.html: intended for users of the international language i.e. common worldwide English.
• www.example.com/french/page.html: intended for users who use the French language around the world.
• www.example.com/scweiz-french/page.html: targeted at your website visitors who speak French in Switzerland.

Differences between Hreflang and Canonical

Many consider these two attributes to be the same even though these attribute tags have fundamental differences.

The difference is if the canonical tag is an attribute used to search for URLs that have the same content. The goal is to avoid any content plagiarism.

As for hreflang, it is used to distinguish what pages will be displayed on the same website. In addition, the same content also changes to a specific language according to the region.

The use of these canonical tags for different languages is not allowed even if they discuss the same content. This tag must be on a page with the same language and region.

An example is when you have a www.techbriefers.com site that has a page that discusses digital marketing in English.

Then, you have a subdomain www.fr.techbriefers.com which is also the same as discussing digital marketing but in French.

Based on this case, it is not permissible to use the techbriefers.com domain as canonical in en.techbriefers.com.