Hreflang Tagging
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Our new SEO person has asked me to make changes that I cannot see possible. Is this something you are working on in the plugin? It looks like the Hreflang tags are generated by the Language code and not the Locale (WordPress Locale for the language (for example: en_US). You will need to install the .mo file for this language.) The Language code actual creates the URL for the translation, so it is used in context. If I changed the Local, then Polylang will not recognize the already installed MO files in WordPress, so I cannot change that for the language and the Locale is not what makes the URL. So, is there anything I can do for his recommendations below?
Recommend hreflang tags:
<link rel=”alternate” href=”https://mysite.com” hreflang=”en-us” />
<link rel=”alternate” href=”https://mysite.com/uk/” hreflang=”en-gb” />
<link rel=”alternate” href=”https://mysite.com/fr/” hreflang=”fr-fr” />
<link rel=”alternate” href=”https://mysite.com/de/” hreflang=”de-de” />Comments from our new SEO person:
1. Currently our hreflang tags are targeting a language only. For example, the German website is signaling to Google that it is the preferred version of the website for all German speakers. While this isn’t a terrible thing, by updating the tag to indicate both language and country we are sending a stronger message to Google that the website is specifically targeting Germany. It is still possible that German speaking users in Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, etc. could see our site (hreflang is a signal not a directive), but if we localize other aspects of your content and site (e.g. showcasing a local address and phone number), we’ll be more likely to reach the right audience.
It’s not a huge concern a this time, but in the future this would also give us the ability to distinguish between content created for specific localized languages e.g. French Canadian, Brazilian Portuguese, etc.
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