How to Fix Hreflang Conflicts Within Page Source Code
How to Fix Hreflang Conflicts Within Page Source Code Hreflang has been seen as one of the most difficult things about SEO because so many people don’t understand how important this code can be when trying to provide content for multiple languages without creating any hiccups or errors.
Fortunately, we’re here just waiting to help anyone out!
Let’s talk about Hreflang issues and the issues you can potentially face with it.
An HrefLang issue is when the content of a page changes depending on what language your website visitor is using. You’d want this on-page as you don’t want your visitors to leave your website if they don’t know how to navigate the site in their native language.
The majority of websites with an international focus will have some form of HrefLang issue.
An HrefLang is something that you put on an individual page so every page of your website would have a different Lang value.
Some samples of HrefLang HTML codes:
With the Hreflang, you’re basically saying to Google: “Hey, Google! This is the same page as this page but is meant for another audience in a different country with a different language.”
There are three situations where you would want to use Hreflang text:
If you want to be accessible to users from another country.
If you want to reach users from the same location but speak another language or dialect (i.e: French in Canada, Spanish in USA, etc.)
If you want to reach users who use a different currency (i.e: CAD, GBP, AUD, etc)
Hreflang tags are different from using Google translate.
You can use Google Translate to translate your page to another language but Hreflang tags are useful if you’re trying to specifically target users from one of the three categories mentioned above.
With Hreflang, you’re essentially duplicating your site to have another version meant to cater to a different set of audiences. This isn’t meant to spam the Google algorithm with duplicate content. The content is the same, it’s just meant for different users.
Now, if you have gone to the trouble of setting up a different website or different pages for users in another country who speak another language, I’m going to assume that those users are fairly important to you and that they can generate revenue somehow.
If that’s the case, I’m going to suggest that you submit a ticket or find somebody who knows how to implement a HrefLang tag properly. Why? because there have been studies from Google that suggest that as many as 80% of HrefLang tags are not implemented properly.
And if they’re not implemented properly, they can really do more harm than good.
Screenshot from SEMrush of potential HREFLang issues you may have:
You can either submit a ticket to us and we can review your situation and suggest what you might need, or find someone who has dev experience to spot and fix your Hreflang issues.
Hreflangs are somewhat new in terms of SEO and it’s changed over the last few years so it’s not something you really want to take a guess on. You need someone knowledgeable to identify what you could be missing on your Hreflang tags.
Failing to implement hreflang tags correctly on your website can result in receiving a penalty from Google. It is important that you make sure your site has the correct hreflang tags so it will be indexed correctly by search engines.
Here’s the link to the Google tutorial about this, feel free to check it out but if you don’t fully understand what is being said in the video, I highly suggest you submit a ticket so we can do the work for you.