What is international SEO?
International SEO is basically utilising hreflang to properly display pages of your website that are targeted at international audiences of different countries and language groups.
What is hreflang?
Hreflang is a tag attribute (referred to as rel=”alternate” hreflang=”x”), that helps to direct Google to the language that is used on a specific page when users are searching in that particular language. For example, if you have a website in English as well as French, but want it to reflect the French version of the website when a French user searches for a related keyword, using hreflang can help Google to correctly display the French website instead of the English.
Examples of International Websites and SEO done by iClick Media
Cortina Watch – https://www.cortinawatch.com/en/
Cortina Watch (Malaysia) – https://www.cortinawatch.com/my/en/
Cortina Watch (Thailand) – https://www.cortinawatch.com/th/en/
What is hreflang?
Hreflang is a tag attribute (referred to as rel=”alternate” hreflang=”x”), that helps to direct Google to the language that is used on a specific page when users are searching in that particular language. For example, if you have a website in English as well as French, but want it to reflect the French version of the website when a French user searches for a related keyword, using hreflang can help Google to correctly display the French website instead of the English.
Examples of International Websites and SEO done by iClick Media
Cortina Watch – https://www.cortinawatch.com/en/
Cortina Watch (Malaysia) – https://www.cortinawatch.com/my/en/
Cortina Watch (Thailand) – https://www.cortinawatch.com/th/en/
How do you see if Google brings up the right webpage?
Instead of being unsure if Google is able to redirect your foreign users properly, use international SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) to check and see if the website is accurately displayed. The way to access foreign versions of Google from other countries is to key in a specific link – writing the google CCTLD, followed by the language and country that you are targeting, as well as de-personalising and lastly, the query.
What are the benefits of using hreflang?
Using hreflang helps to point users in the right direction and lower bounce rates. This in turn increases the search rankings and improves user experience, as they are directed to the right version of your website. It will also help Google to distinguish between content that is either similar or a duplicate as it is for different regions, and can contribute to local link building for the correct version of the website.
What are the benefits of using hreflang?
Using hreflang helps to point users in the right direction and lower bounce rates. This in turn increases the search rankings and improves user experience, as they are directed to the right version of your website. It will also help Google to distinguish between content that is either similar or a duplicate as it is for different regions, and can contribute to local link building for the correct version of the website.
What using hreflang won’t do?
Using hreflang will not be able to replace geo-ranking factors, meaning that the page rank for your local page will not have the same ranking as your other foreign pages. If one of your pages is ranked high on Google, it does not mean that the other versions of the same page are automatically highly ranked as well. If you have duplicate copies of the same page that target the same keywords, it doesn’t always mean that the right version will appear. hreflang will not fix duplicate content issues, as in SEO, Google will always choose which page to rank if there are exact or nearly duplicates. The version with more authority ranking will generally be chosen by Google. Over at iClick Media, we will work with you to ensure that your content across all your different domains and folders are all unique and rankable in Google’s eyes.
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