Category: International Issues
Ask questions and hear more about international search trends and issues.
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Google is still indexing with https,i removed ssl for my website
Hi Matt, I resubmitted, but still the same.
| knextweb8190 -
Moving my site to one domain name .com from 3
Hi Justin Tom raises a lot of great points here - if you are doing well for the areas you are targeting, let the good times roll and keep doing what you're doing, you're in a great position! Keep it up! Did you take advantage of the country targeting for each site and hreflang tags / language tags that were mentioned in previous Q+As of yours? Congrats on your hardwork so far! Good luck!
| PatrickDelehanty0 -
Google Webmaster showing error for [hreflang='x-default']
Hi Not sure what you mean with Google Parameters - but normally the hreflang should be reciprocal: (https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en) Missing confirmation links: If page A links to page B, page B must link back to page A. If this is not the case for all pages that use hreflang annotations, those annotations may be ignored or not interpreted correctly In your case page https://www.sitegeek.com/a2hosting?grank=open is linking to https://fr.sitegeek.com/a2hosting - but https://fr.sitegeek.com/a2hosting is not linking back to https://www.sitegeek.com/a2hosting?grank=open but to https://www.sitegeek.com/a2hosting. You could try to add a canonical url to https://www.sitegeek.com/a2hosting?grank=open pointing to https://www.sitegeek.com/a2hosting and combine the canonical with the hreflang. Normally this should be possible according to Google - but I couldn't find an example of an implementation. Try the canonical & test it here: http://flang.dejanseo.com.au/ Hope this helps, Dirk
| DirkC0 -
Is it OK to change language by user IP?
Hi I would not do it. Main Google bot is using a California IP address - so depending on the languages you are targeting you risk that the bot is only crawling one version of the site. There are bots that use foreign IP addresses - but they don't guarantee that these bots crawl 100% of your site. Apart from that, it can be annoying for your visitors if you get it wrong. Check also this article on international SEO https://moz.com/blog/5-dos-and-donts-of-international-seo Better to allow the user to make the choice of language on first visit and store the preference in a cookie. Set hreflang to indicate the alternative versions in other languages. Here is a tool that helps you to generate the Hreflang tags: http://moz.com/blog/using-the-correct-hreflang-tag-a-new-generator-tool and here you can test if the implementation was correct flang.dejanseo.com.au Hope this helps, Dirk
| DirkC0 -
Are my hreflang and canonical link tags set correctly?
You did not realy ask a question... so no resonses. But we are 6 months ahead. so you must have tested it!? What did you find? Did it work?
| Stramark0 -
Deleting Blog posts
Hi Bob - no worries at all! I will definitely be asking more SEO guestions! But thanks for your response once again
| edward-may0 -
How to handle different content on same domain internationally?
Dirk - thanks for posting the link to the personalization software and SEO question - I was trying to find that to give you credit - great information!
| PatrickDelehanty0 -
New gTLDs
That is a good point. The US not really having a country domain means that we have end up with a different perspective. It will be worthwhile trying to see how some of these new domains work soon. Some will be really useful for email. Sending to joe@nike will be much easier if your company can afford to fork out for their domain. Has anyone heard if companies are testing these new domains? Hopefully we will get some more thoughts on this.
| LupoNorth0 -
Backlinks issue
Hi Justin, It depends a bit on where these links are & on how your site is build. In general - if these links are in the navigation, footer, ...etc (elements which are called on each page) - you probably only need to change them once and then it is ok for the full site. If these links are inside articles, you will probably have to update them manually. It sometimes is possible to do something like 'find/replace' - so you could replace (as example) all references from zenory.com to zenory.co.nz (for the NZ version) - but again it depends a bit on the platform. Check with the one who has build your website - changing links manually can be a very annoying & time consuming job (depending on the number of links that need to be changed). A programmer can sometimes find a solution to automate part of it. rgds, Dirk
| DirkC0 -
Setting up I.P Filter Google Analytics - I.p ending with 0/24
Here's how I do it. I use a custom filter and filter IPs by range PART ONE - Generate RegEx for IP Range Go to this RegEx range tool: http://www.analyticsmarket.com/freetools/ipregex Enter your IP address in "First IP, but change the "D block" to your start range Enter your IP address into "Last IP", but change the "D block" to your end range Click generate, and here's what you get for your first location: ^174.177.179.([0-9]|1[0-9]|2[0-5])$ PART TWO - Create The Filter Go to create a new filter in Analytics Give it a name Select Custom For field choose "IP Address" Paste your RegEx in "Filter Pattern Save
| evolvingSEO0 -
Best practice for Spanish version of English website?
Hi Eva, your case is quite similar to the Belgium one described in a answer here above. Said that I did not see anyone pointing you to some important thing that you're maybe forgetting to do. Your site is a .com, a generic domain name. Generic domain names target the world by default, and that is why you have a lot of visit from Mexico for your Spanish version of the site. Therefore, what I'd suggest you to do this check: Go to Google Webmaster Tools; Go to: Search Traffic > International Targeting Click on the "Country" tab Control if the site is targeting the USA. If not, target users in United States. Doing that, you are telling Google that your site is meant for users in the United States and not in others countries, so it won't have that much visibility in regional Googles like google.com.mx. Then, as suggested by others here, implement the hreflang annotations (read the resources linked in the other answers). In the specific case of the home pages (yes, both: English version and Spanish version), the annotation will be these: These hreflang are telling Google: This URL must be presented to all people using Spanish in the USA; This other URL must be presented to all people using English in the USA.
| gfiorelli10 -
Human Translation versus Google Translate for Ecommerce Products
But beware some translation services based on automated systems that generate content 'almost duplicated', no matter the cost of the company that is hired, but the quality of the result and that these translations incorporating 'an extra' more human.
| fmorenop0 -
2 Top level domains - not ranking?
Hi Rick Thanks for your response! According to WMT and Moz I have added the CcTLDs and Hreflang tags correctly and set up geo targeting seems to be fine. Just can't seem to find out why the .com and com.au isn't ranking or showing any sign of being in the top 50 for a long tail keyword yet? I launched in Nov 2014 and we rank reasonably well for the NZ search, but it seems the .com doesn't appear to show anything. I'm mindful I had submitted the same sitemap for the co.nz to thecom.au and also the com and wondering if that had any effect. We are in the middle of a site re-design so I wasn't going to submit the new sitemaps until the new design had been updated to the live environment.
| edward-may0 -
Opening Up Webmaster Tools Geo-Targeting to Everyone Instead of US
That's what I'm hoping for since I still see them there. Thanks for your input.
| SylviaH0 -
Can you target the same site with multiple country HREFlang entries?
Nope, not needed, unless you are changing the language. Now, if you wanted to do one big site and then offer certain pages that are the same except for "translation" - and it's a local dialect translation, then yes, HREFLANG would be used in that situation. So you could use HREFLANG rather than a canonical between the kinda duplicated pages if they are changed only in dialect translation. But since there is different content per country, you would still need that geo-targeted section for the content that is different. domain.com/congo/about-congo-office (I don't know the country code for Congo) - No hreflang, will be geo-targeted with the subfolder. domain.com/congo/similar-product-page - If just translated to the local Congo English dialect, use HREFLANG with all similarly "translated" pages. If not changed at all, use canonical to the original page. If changed overall to target the Congo market, no canonical or HREFLANG needed.
| katemorris0 -
Multiple Domains
Hi Chris, Thanks for the question. It's tough to give an answer without more detail but it really depends on what you're trying to achieve and includes considering things such as: Your target market - are you only looking to target the UK or multiple countries? Is this likely to change in the future? What resources do you have to manage multiple websites from a technical perspective? Do you have resources to create unique content for example? What resources do you have to market multiple websites? Separate websites will each need good marketing in order to succeed. Re Google Plus (and other social accounts) do you have the resources to manage multiple accounts? The key thing is the first one and is important to get right from the start. Having multiple websites to target different areas can work fine, but you need to be able to put the right amount of time and effort into each one to make it a success. If you don't have many resources, you may be better off going for a .com domain and having a subfolder to target the UK. I hope that helps a bit! Paddy
| Paddy_Moogan0 -
Soft Launch App with Country Targeting To Match?
Thank you Kristina. This is extremely helpful! Your detailed response is greatly appreciated! Tina
| eTinaRose0 -
Country subfolders showing as sitelinks in Google, country targeting for home page no longer working
With HREFLANG tags, you are sending weird signals. I would recommend ensuring that /ie/ is claimed in Google WMT and targeted to Ireland. The content in the subfolder needs to be specific to your Ireland market, meaning it needs to have different content. It doesn't have to be completely different, but different. Otherwise, it looks like duplicate content and the SEs are going to pick the stronger of the two. Right now, you are telling them that the only difference in the content is that /ie/ is in Irish English, and /gb/ is in British English. It's not different enough to warrant showing the other content over your main homepage as that is stronger. Does that all make sense? I would remove the HRELFANGs, ensure the right targeting is in place and that the content is different per country to target those countries.
| katemorris0 -
Link juice on sub domains
Usually the redirects Roberthseo describes are 302. For instance, I am redirected with the 302 to http://blackpen.tv/language/en/, because I am in Spain when accessing to blackpen.tv. That means that if somebody from Paris is linking to blackpen.tv and not to the paris.blackpen.tv subdomain, no link equity is passed because of the 302, even though it is also true that Google (aka: Matt Cutts) told once that in some special occasions (i.e.: when it is clear that a 302 stands for a 301), we can 302 treated as 301 (but, sincerely I don't think this is the case). So, the best is always to have backlinks pointing to the exact location.
| gfiorelli10 -
How To Rank A UK Website On Google.com (US)
That's the answer I was hoping for, thanks Tom!
| Webpresence0