Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Google Webmaster's "x-default hreflang" for International Landing Pages

Today, Google Webmaster Blog introduced a new rel-alternate-hreflang annotation that webmasters can use to specify homepages supported by Google and Yandex.

We can annotate this in the sitemaps or by using HTML tags like as follows:







It basically tells Google algorithms that the page containing the new "x-default hreflang attribute" is not targeting any specific locale or language thus making it as a default page as the best pick.

So is your website targeting global or multiple countries? Then you might find this very helpful. Try it now! :)


4 comments:

  1. Does hreflang="x-default" still apply if it's a global site but only uses English as the language? The only thing we change is the currency via the country selector.

    -- topspot-official.blogspot.com --

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  2. Hi Daniel,

    Thanks for your reply.

    According to Google, below are the instances where this tag is recommended:

    1.) You translate only the template of your page, such as the navigation and footer, and keep the main content in a single language. This is common on pages that feature user-generated content, like a forum post.

    2.) Your pages have broadly similar content within a single language, but the content has small regional variations. For example, you might have English-language content targeted at readers in the US, GB, and Ireland.

    3.) Your site content is fully translated. For example, you have both German and English versions of each page.

    So I believe your concern will fall under number 2, having broadly similar content for different regions of your readers.

    Hope it helps.

    Regards

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  3. Your blog has given me that thing which I never expect to get from all over the websites. Nice post guys!

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