What is International Targeting?
International targeting is considered as an important aspect of any SEO campaign setup. It guarantees that your website and related content is delivered to the right audience from a specific geographic location.
Why is International Targeting important for your website?
If you want to expand your local firm internationally, you should implement international SEO practices on your website.
You just need to follow some set of steps and be patient to achieve better results.
- Getting a large number of international consumers would be the major benefit to your website.
- Attracting large number of international visitors to your website enhances the efficiency of your marketing initiatives.
- You also gain customer insights about the customers from your target countries.
- You can also find out their location, gender, age, purchase intent and other marketing related information.
- All of this information can be used to shape your international SEO approach.
- You can essentially improve your website visibility by using International SEO.
- Your website can also be optimized for several browsers such as Safari, IE, Chrome, Firefox, etc. That indicates you can reach out to the different users across globe using browsers.
- By using International SEO, you can also find out the success rate in acquiring organic visitors.
Implementing hreflang tags on website (WordPress)
Are you looking for a way to include hreflang tags in your website pages and posts?
If you wish to publish content in various languages or for distinct locations, hreflang tag let you enhance SEO in those areas.
We will show you what hreflang tag is and how to implement hreflang tags in your WordPress website.
What is hreflang tag?
The hreflang tag is HTML code that tells search engine which web page to be displayed specific geographical location and language.
It can also be used to specify different language variants of the same content.
The hreflang tag implementation in plain HTML:
<link rel="alternate" href="example.com" hreflang="en-us" />
<link rel="alternate" href="example.com/fr/" hreflang="fr-fr" />
<link rel="alternate" href="example.com/pt/" hreflang="pt-pt" />
The hreftag is considered as a combination of the region code and the language code such as fr-fr for French and France, pt-pt for Portuguese, etc.
WordPress is accessible in over 60 languages, so you can easily use it in the language of your choice.
Search engines can easily identify a page’s language and match it to the web browser’s language preferences of a user.
Your pages may however compete with one another in the search results, affecting your website’s search engine optimization.
It can easily be fixed by implementing hreflang tags on website. Below are the methods you can use to implement these tags in WordPress.
Also Check – 7 Ways to Improve Website’s User Experience (UX)
Method 1: Adding Hreflang Tag in WordPress Using a Multilingual Plugin
Using a multilingual plugin is the best way to create a multilingual WordPress website.
Using the same WordPress core platform, you can simply produce and manage content in various languages using multilingual WordPress plugin.
These plugins can help you to handle the technical aspects such as the implementing hreflang tags on website, allowing you to focus on generating content.
You’ll need to open a new browser window once you have created some pages or articles in several languages.
From your web browser’s menu, right-click and select “View Page Source”, a source code of the page or article will appear.
Now, you must search for the hreflang tag to ensure that it is functioning.
To find the hreflang tag, press CTRL+F on your keyboard.
Recommended Plugin – Translate WordPress with GTranslate
Method 2: Adding hreflang manually into the WordPress website
This approach is for the users who do not manage translations on their websites using a multilingual plugin.
Adding hreflang to <head>
By editing your header.php file, you may add hreflang tags to your WordPress site without using a plugin. You’ll need to go to Appearance > Theme Editor or use FTP to get this file.
Once the file opens, locate the <head> opener and put the following code into it:
<link rel="canonical" href="http://example.com/content"/>
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="http://example.com/content"/>
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-us" href="http://example.com/content"/>
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="pt-PT" href="http://example.com/pt/content"/>
The tags need to be added to the English-language content in the above example. The x-default and English hreflang tags also direct users to the English-language version of the website.
Hreflang tags that redirect to the correct language versions of pages in Portuguese are not affected by this. Any additional hreflang tags for other languages on your website can be added.
Adding hreflang to Sitemap’s XML
You can update your site’s XML sitemap if you don’t want to edit your header.php file. This method ensures that Google finds your alternate-language pages and indexes them appropriately. Updating your sitemap also reduces the size of your web pages for faster loading times.
<url>
<loc>http://www.example.com/content</loc>
<xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="es-es" href="http//www.example.com/es/content"/>
<xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="pt-PT" href="http//www.example.com/pt/content"/>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.example.com/es/content</loc>
<xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-us" href="http//www.example.com/content"/>
<xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="pt-PT" href="http//www.example.com/pt/content"/>
</url>
Editing your XML sitemap is beneficial for indexing, but it can be time-consuming. The sitemap may become bloated if you have a huge website. Implementing hreflang tags on website can also take longer to include in a sitemap compared to the other ways outlined above.
How to implement hreflang tag on blogger
Want to add hreflang tag in blogger? Let’s learn how to do it.
In any website, hreflang tag can be located between <head> and </head> tags.
Similarly, go to Dashboard and Template and place the hreflang tag between <head> and </head> tags in your blogger blog.
See the below example of hreflang tag for a site that uses English as its blog language.
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com” hreflang="en" />All Language Tags
In case your blog is aiming at a specific geographic location, you can use the hreflang tag to indicate your location.
See the below example of hreflang tag for a site that is targeting Portuguese.
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com" hreflang="pt-PT”/>You can easily change it to your own location code.
All-Region Codes
In case your website is multilingual, then use the below hreflang tag:
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com" hreflang="x-us" />This will definitely increase your website’s ranking in the particular region or language you are targeting for.
Validating hreflang tags on website
Even if hreflang tags are used, they are frequently misapplied on multilingual websites. Implementing hreflang tags on website can be checked for accuracy by validating them.
Various internet tools are available for validating the tags. The information presented by these tools is similar, but it is presented in a different manner. Hreflang tag testing tool Merkle displays the tags on your website and tells you if they are correct.
Also Check- 10 Best Technical SEO Tools For Your Business
List of Implementing hreflang tags on website
| ach | Acholi |
| aa | Afar |
| af | Afrikaans |
| ak | Akan |
| tw | Akan, Twi |
| sq | Albanian |
| am | Amharic |
| ar | Arabic |
| ar-BH | Arabic, Bahrain |
| ar-EG | Arabic, Egypt |
| ar-SA | Arabic, Saudi Arabia |
| ar-YE | Arabic, Yemen |
| an | Aragonese |
| hy-AM | Armenian |
| frp | Arpitan |
| as | Assamese |
| ast | Asturian |
| tay | Atayal |
| av | Avaric |
| ae | Avestan |
| ay | Aymara |
| az | Azerbaijani |
| ban | Balinese |
| bal | Balochi |
| bm | Bambara |
| ba | Bashkir |
| eu | Basque |
| be | Belarusian |
| bn | Bengali |
| bn-IN | Bengali, India |
| ber | Berber |
| bh | Bihari |
| bfo | Birifor |
| bi | Bislama |
| bs | Bosnian |
| br-FR | Breton |
| bg | Bulgarian |
| my | Burmese |
| ca | Catalan |
| ceb | Cebuano |
| ch | Chamorro |
| ce | Chechen |
| chr | Cherokee |
| ny | Chewa |
| zh-CN | Chinese Simplified |
| zh-TW | Chinese Traditional |
| zh-HK | Chinese Traditional, Hong Kong |
| zh-MO | Chinese Traditional, Macau |
| zh-SG | Chinese Traditional, Singapore |
| cv | Chuvash |
| kw | Cornish |
| co | Corsican |
| cr | Cree |
| hr | Croatian |
| cs | Czech |
| da | Danish |
| fa-AF | Dari |
| dv | Dhivehi |
| nl | Dutch |
| nl-BE | Dutch, Belgium |
| nl-SR | Dutch, Suriname |
| dz | Dzongkha |
| en | English |
| en-UD | English (upside down) |
| en-AR | English, Arabia |
| en-AU | English, Australia |
| en-BZ | English, Belize |
| en-CA | English, Canada |
| en-CB | English, Caribbean |
| en-CN | English, China |
| en-DK | English, Denmark |
| en-HK | English, Hong Kong |
| en-IN | English, India |
| en-ID | English, Indonesia |
| en-IE | English, Ireland |
| en-JM | English, Jamaica |
| en-JA | English, Japan |
| en-MY | English, Malaysia |
| en-NZ | English, New Zealand |
| en-NO | English, Norway |
| en-PH | English, Philippines |
| en-PR | English, Puerto Rico |
| en-SG | English, Singapore |
| en-ZA | English, South Africa |
| en-SE | English, Sweden |
| en-GB | English, United Kingdom |
| en-US | English, United States |
| en-ZW | English, Zimbabwe |
| eo | Esperanto |
| et | Estonian |
| ee | Ewe |
| fo | Faroese |
| fj | Fijian |
| fil | Filipino |
| fi | Finnish |
| vls-BE | Flemish |
| fra-DE | Franconian |
| fr | French |
| fr-BE | French, Belgium |
| fr-CA | French, Canada |
| fr-LU | French, Luxembourg |
| fr-QC | French, Quebec |
| fr-CH | French, Switzerland |
| fy-NL | Frisian |
| fur-IT | Friulian |
| ff | Fula |
| gaa | Ga |
| gl | Galician |
| ka | Georgian |
| de | German |
| de-AT | German, Austria |
| de-BE | German, Belgium |
| de-LI | German, Liechtenstein |
| de-LU | German, Luxembourg |
| de-CH | German, Switzerland |
| got | Gothic |
| el | Greek |
| el-CY | Greek, Cyprus |
| kl | Greenlandic |
| gn | Guarani |
| gu-IN | Gujarati |
| ht | Haitian Creole |
| ha | Hausa |
| haw | Hawaiian |
| he | Hebrew |
| hz | Herero |
| hil | Hiligaynon |
| hi | Hindi |
| ho | Hiri Motu |
| hmn | Hmong |
| hu | Hungarian |
| is | Icelandic |
| ido | Ido |
| ig | Igbo |
| ilo | Ilokano |
| id | Indonesian |
| iu | Inuktitut |
| ga-IE | Irish |
| it | Italian |
| it-CH | Italian, Switzerland |
| ja | Japanese |
| jv | Javanese |
| quc | K’iche’ |
| kab | Kabyle |
| kn | Kannada |
| pam | Kapampangan |
| ks | Kashmiri |
| ks-PK | Kashmiri, Pakistan |
| csb | Kashubian |
| kk | Kazakh |
| km | Khmer |
| rw | Kinyarwanda |
| tlh-AA | Klingon |
| kv | Komi |
| kg | Kongo |
| kok | Konkani |
| ko | Korean |
| ku | Kurdish |
| kmr | Kurmanji (Kurdish) |
| kj | Kwanyama |
| ky | Kyrgyz |
| lol | LOLCAT |
| lo | Lao |
| la-LA | Latin |
| lv | Latvian |
| lij | Ligurian |
| li | Limburgish |
| ln | Lingala |
| lt | Lithuanian |
| jbo | Lojban |
| nds | Low German |
| dsb-DE | Lower Sorbian |
| lg | Luganda |
| luy | Luhya |
| lb | Luxembourgish |
| mk | Macedonian |
| mai | Maithili |
| mg | Malagasy |
| ms | Malay |
| ms-BN | Malay, Brunei |
| ml-IN | Malayalam |
| mt | Maltese |
| gv | Manx |
| mi | Maori |
| arn | Mapudungun |
| mr | Marathi |
| mh | Marshallese |
| moh | Mohawk |
| mn | Mongolian |
| sr-Cyrl-ME | Montenegrin (Cyrillic) |
| me | Montenegrin (Latin) |
| mos | Mossi |
| na | Nauru |
| ng | Ndonga |
| ne-NP | Nepali |
| ne-IN | Nepali, India |
| pcm | Nigerian Pidgin |
| se | Northern Sami |
| nso | Northern Sotho |
| no | Norwegian |
| nb | Norwegian Bokmal |
| nn-NO | Norwegian Nynorsk |
| oc | Occitan |
| or | Odia |
| oj | Ojibwe |
| om | Oromo |
| os | Ossetian |
| pi | Pali |
| pap | Papiamento |
| ps | Pashto |
| fa | Persian |
| en-PT | Pirate English |
| pl | Polish |
| pt-PT | Portuguese |
| pt-BR | Portuguese, Brazilian |
| pa-IN | Punjabi |
| pa-PK | Punjabi, Pakistan |
| qu | Quechua |
| qya-AA | Quenya |
| ro | Romanian |
| rm-CH | Romansh |
| rn | Rundi |
| ru | Russian |
| ru-BY | Russian, Belarus |
| ru-MD | Russian, Moldova |
| ru-UA | Russian, Ukraine |
| ry-UA | Rusyn |
| sah | Sakha |
| sg | Sango |
| sa | Sanskrit |
| sat | Santali |
| sc | Sardinian |
| sco | Scots |
| gd | Scottish Gaelic |
| sr | Serbian (Cyrillic) |
| sr-CS | Serbian (Latin) |
| sh | Serbo-Croatian |
| crs | Seychellois Creole |
| sn | Shona |
| ii | Sichuan Yi |
| sd | Sindhi |
| si-LK | Sinhala |
| sk | Slovak |
| sl | Slovenian |
| so | Somali |
| son | Songhay |
| ckb | Sorani (Kurdish) |
| nr | Southern Ndebele |
| sma | Southern Sami |
| st | Southern Sotho |
| es-ES | Spanish |
| es-EM | Spanish (Modern) |
| es-AR | Spanish, Argentina |
| es-BO | Spanish, Bolivia |
| es-CL | Spanish, Chile |
| es-CO | Spanish, Colombia |
| es-CR | Spanish, Costa Rica |
| es-DO | Spanish, Dominican Republic |
| es-EC | Spanish, Ecuador |
| es-SV | Spanish, El Salvador |
| es-GT | Spanish, Guatemala |
| es-HN | Spanish, Honduras |
| es-419 | Spanish, Latin America |
| es-MX | Spanish, Mexico |
| es-NI | Spanish, Nicaragua |
| es-PA | Spanish, Panama |
| es-PY | Spanish, Paraguay |
| es-PE | Spanish, Peru |
| es-PR | Spanish, Puerto Rico |
| es-US | Spanish, United States |
| es-UY | Spanish, Uruguay |
| es-VE | Spanish, Venezuela |
| su | Sundanese |
| sw | Swahili |
| sw-KE | Swahili, Kenya |
| sw-TZ | Swahili, Tanzania |
| ss | Swati |
| sv-SE | Swedish |
| sv-FI | Swedish, Finland |
| syc | Syriac |
| tl | Tagalog |
| ty | Tahitian |
| tg | Tajik |
| tzl | Talossan |
| ta | Tamil |
| tt-RU | Tatar |
| te | Telugu |
| kdh | Tem (Kotokoli) |
| th | Thai |
| bo-BT | Tibetan |
| ti | Tigrinya |
| ts | Tsonga |
| tn | Tswana |
| tr | Turkish |
| tr-CY | Turkish, Cyprus |
| tk | Turkmen |
| uk | Ukrainian |
| hsb-DE | Upper Sorbian |
| ur-IN | Urdu (India) |
| ur-PK | Urdu (Pakistan) |
| ug | Uyghur |
| uz | Uzbek |
| val-ES | Valencian |
| ve | Venda |
| vec | Venetian |
| vi | Vietnamese |
| wa | Walloon |
| cy | Welsh |
| wo | Wolof |
| xh | Xhosa |
| yi | Yiddish |
| yo | Yoruba |
| zea | Zeelandic |
| zu | Zulu |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How do I add hreflang tags?
There are serval methods of adding Hreflang tag in the website.
- Using WordPress Plugin.
- Add hreflang tag to <head>.
- Add hreflang to XML sitemap.
Do I need hreflang tags?
If your website has an audience across the world or you want to target a particular geographic location then hreflang tags can benefit your website and digital marketing efforts.
How important is hreflang for SEO?
Hreflang tag can boost your SEO globally. The hreflang tag guarantees that the search result is provided in the native or chosen language rather than a different one, which is definitely an important aspect for SEOs.
How do I find my hreflang tag?
Search for any hreflang tag checker tool on Google, insert your website’s URL, and choose which search engine you want your hreflang tags to be detected by. After that, click “Test URL”.
