Hreflang : mixing with/without country code for same language

[AlexisH]

Hello,

I would like to display 3 different english versions of my website : 1 for UK, 1 for CA and 1 for other english users.

It would look like this for a page:

. (english content with £ prices)

<link rel="alternate" href="https: xxx.com="" en-ca" hreflang="en-CA">(english content with $CA prices)</link rel="alternate" href="https:>

<link rel="alternate" href="https: xxx.com="" en="" " hreflang="en">(english content without currency)</link rel="alternate" href="https:>

I wonder if I can mix this hreflang without country code with hreflangs with country code for the 2 other specific versions... or if the hreflang without country code version will appear whatever the country, even if i specified it .

In other terms, is  hreflang="en" > hreflang="en-CA" + hreflang="en-GB" if tagged together on a same page?

Thank you

[Nigel_Carr]

Hi Alexis

If the third one is the default then you need a default hreflang tag.

https://moz.com/learn/seo/hreflang-tag

So the last one would have this tag pointing to it:

More on Google here:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en

It will then become the default site for all people not in England or Canada. Google will not see any of them as duplicate content.

Regards

Nigel

[katemorris]

Actually, the x-default is meant to be for a page that allows users to select a country/language combination.

Alexis, in theory, what you are proposing should work. However, it is not always perfect. There is so much that goes into how Google serves content to each user. You might not see it working perfectly every time, but you can use the non-country with two country-specific hreflang tags together.

In fact, the country coded hreflang tags were meant to be dialect-specific. So a site could have US English content and UK English content, but also more general English content for the rest of the English speaking people.

In fact, it sounds like if the only thing changing is the currency, you might try geo-targeting subfolders. You can do hreflang in addition to that, but geotargeting is what is meant to be used here.

1. Content for CA: https://www.domain.com/ca/content
2. Content for GB: https://www.domain.com/gb/content
3. General Content: https://www.domain.com/content

Claim the subfolders in Google Search Console as different properties and then target each one to those countries in the International Targeting area.

Then add hreflang the way you mentioned with those URLs. However, this setup won't work if you are doing things with another language mixed in. If you are planning on that, let me know.

[Nigel_Carr]

Surely the x-default is, as the tag suggests, a default where no country or language is targeted? So if someone resided in an untargeted country and the site happened to rank it would be that one that came up.

Someone in the UK (which contained a UK target tag) would not go to default first, as you suggest, and then select their own country & language. That's misleading.

I agree that the subfolders would be used to target each country but you would still need both country and language. With Canada you may wish to target en and fr as both are relevant and each would reside in a different sub-folder.

The language is essential imho.

Regards Nigel

[katemorris]

The x-default is just what the link you provided says it is:

From Google: The reserved value hreflang="x-default" is used when no other language/region matches the user's browser setting. This value is optional, but recommended, as a way for you to control the page when no languages match. A good use is to target your site's homepage where there is a clickable map that enables the user to select their country.

If you use it for just one language, the issue comes when you have more than one language. The setup for x-default is for when there is no language detected, not that a general, non-regional language is detected.

[Nigel_Carr]

I think you are taking that rather too literally.

For example, as I said the .com could be the one targeted with an hreflang="x-default. A person in the UK would, by definition be served with the .com/uk version.

You wouldn't put a hreflang="x-default on the /uk homepage.

Regards

Nigel