Why Hreflang Tag is Important for Global SEO?

Posted on 28 Mar at 6:01 am

International SEO can be challenging for established companies looking to expand their operations globally. Your existing SEO strategies may be working well in your native country, but will they convert to global success? According to a survey, SEO takes patience, and most SEO services typically estimate a waiting period of 5 to 6 weeks before seeing desired results.

In a nutshell, even if your company’s website has a solid online presence in your own country, the foreign counterpart may take a bit longer to show the same results.

However, the Hreflang Tag for SEO is making things easier nowadays – it is a key technical SEO element that increases your chances of succeeding while launching your business globally.

The following guide will give you an overview of the hreflang attribute or why it’s crucial.

What is Hreflang?

“Hreflang is an HTML property (a piece of code) applied to the Html file of a website.” It informs Google about a webpage’s or Html tags regional aiming and language because then Google can present the appropriate content in the user’s search engine results.

For instance – Consider a website with two set ups: one for the United States and one for Spain. When the hreflang property is used, Google says that viewers in the United States see the US version while users in Spain see the Spain version.

Secondly, an organisation recognises the value of global markets and offers users of a country with localised options. A company based in the United States focuses on the Chinese region.

Is it necessary for you to use Hreflang tags?

It is recommended to add hreflang attributes if you already have different localised page variants on your website. When there are no hreflang tags in your document, Google might present your website information to consumers in the right manner. In fact, there can be circumstances like: UK pages ranking in the United States, English sites ranking in Spanish-speaking nations, etc. The more alternate URLs you have on your site, the worse the situation grows.

Even if you don’t use Hreflang Tag for SEO, Google says they might be able to locate alternate localised versions of your site. While this is correct, it does not imply that it will always be the same. That’s why it’s essential to prevent confusion and inform Google upfront which alternative language versions are for which global audiences. Even Google advises: “it’s normally recommended for you to define your language or region-specific pages clearly.”

Where Else Can You Put an Hreflang Attribute?

Google “interprets” your hreflang tags and redirects your target audience to the relevant page version in the search engine results based on their evaluation.

Hreflang tags could be used in a variety of ways, including:

Your HTML document’s head> section.
By including an HTTP flag in your post’s GET response or by including an XML sitemap.
XML Sitemaps

Hreflang Tag for SEO always works, although some will be trickier to put into practice than many others. Let’s look more closely at each of these to discover which one would be best for your website.

How to implement Hreflang using HTML?

The first method for adding hreflang is to include HTML hreflang link elements across every page’s head> section.

While this may appear to be a simple way to create hreflang, there are major drawbacks to this method:

It might be time-consuming since every time you create a new variation of a page; you must go back and double-check that you’ve included the required tagging to each one.

Because of how Google fetches pages, this strategy can result in unnecessarily long page load times.

You may have to conduct manual Bing implementation as well.

Implement Hreflang using HTTP headers

You can put your hreflang in your HTTP headers for non-HTML content. Popular sites with a variety of languages, such as the link parts in the head>, may discover that this setting slows their page performance.

They will look something like this:

http://www.example.com/file.pdf; rel=”alternate”; hreflang=”en-us”, http://www.example.co.uk/file. pdf; rel=”alternate”; hreflang=”en-gb”

In your XML sitemap with Hreflang

Your hreflang code could also be included in your homepage using the XHTML link element. If you do not already have one, you will get one and learn how to use it for efficiency. Luckily, you can implement your adjustments directly through the website, eliminating the need to add anything to each website page. This method may also enable adding and removing pages simpler without worrying about the hreflang configuration if your sitemap.xml file is constantly produced.

Using hreflang has SEO benefits.

The major benefits of the Hreflang Tag for SEO are that it attracts organic traffic and reduces return levels by sending visitors in the correct direction. As a result, your search engine rankings will improve. Enhancing customer experience requires optimising site pages for the users’ region and language. Furthermore, surveys have revealed that customers from different nations choose information in their native language.

Hreflang also helps Google distinguish between redundant and similar material. Hreflang makes it clear to Google that now the information is still the same, but it is tailored for various areas. This is helpful whenever the localised content differs just slightly across locations, such as when adjusting for price, currency, or spelling discrepancies between the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

Expand Your Business Globally With New Vision Digital

Regardless of the domain or URL structure you use, it’s critical to inform search engines how your site’s translation variants aren’t repetitions and to make ideas on the web pages you want to perform for various languages in different regions. This gives you more control over the pages in your target audience that you want to rank.

By including the Hreflang Tag for SEO in your HTML or XML sitemap, you can quickly assist Search engine optimisation in displaying the most order to promote in the targeted user’s language in search engine results. Also, if you’re wondering how to bring organic traffic to your business and boost its growth globally, connect with us today.

We at New Vision Digital take pride in being one of the few firms to provide end-to-end digital marketing services. So, whether you’re looking for a responsive website design, a sales-driven website, or a growth-fueled campaign, you can count on us to identify the best approach to make money for your company.