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The preferred version has been verified by adding an HTML tag in the Shopify theme (this is how I usually verify too). But I don't have access to the same search console account...

• can I generate a new HTML tag to verify the other three variants (ie. is it OK to use two different HTML tags)?
• or should I create a new HTML tag to verify ALL 4 variants (ie. is there any negative side to replacing the orginal HTML tag)?

Thanks William,

That's always been my approach too, but the dev is adamant that if they redirect all variants to the preferred version there is no need to verify them all.

My question is: should I believe what this dev is saying?

I've been going on the assumption that when verifying a website in search console, it's always good to register and verify all variants of the site URL:

• http
• https
• www
• non-www

However, if you create redirects to the preferred URL, is it really necessary to register/virfy of the other three? If so, why?

Yeah, that's the next step. The robots.txt file is blank!

I have a client who has created a number of login pages for their clients (eg. clientA.domain.com, clientB.domain.com). They are all password protected.

Just wondering if this has any impact on SEO, good or bad?

In fact, what the client really wants is this...

... any user in the UK who:

1. clicks on a link from social media (which goes to domainname.com)
2. searches google for domainname.com
3. types in the URL domainname.com

... ALWAYS be redirected to "domainname.co.uk" so they only see what the client sells direct from the UK. This sounds to me way beyond just hreflang. This sounds like it might need some kind of redirection based on IP?

OK, thanks Gianluca.

So how would you specify hreflang so that...?

• domain.co.uk is visible in UK SERPs
• domain.com is visible in all other SERPs

Thank you Gianluca. I will certainly checkout that deck.

But (groan)... classic SEO experience here. One expert says 'black' then next says 'what'. Who are we to believe?

Thanks Joe.

Found this link - by far the best I have read on geo-targeting:

http://www.seochat.com/c/a/google-optimization-help/geo-targeting-techniques-in-google-for-seo/

I have a client with a Shopify site. It is a clone of the 'main' website which is a .co.uk domain.

Client wants to use .com.au for Australia and New Zealand. All are English language.

How should we structure hreflang tags?

Or is there a better way to target the .com.au website at Australia/New Zealand?

The client was given this advice to use a 'hidden' page for 'other search terms'.

So sounds like they were thinking in terms of a gateway page.

I just had a client say they were advised by a friend to use 'a bunch of unlisted (hidden) pages'.

Isn't this seriously black hat?

I know these are intended for specifying different language/regional versions of one site, but can they be used to specify just ONE country (eg. "en-au")?

Or does it only work to specify an ALTERNATIVE to another language/region variation?

Hi Logan,

I've read the MOZ guide but it doesn't answer one question and I cannot find an answer anywhere else...

Can hreflang tags be used to specify just ONE country (eg. "en-au"), or does it only work as an alternative to another language/region variation?

To target:

• Australia
• All other countries

I'm proposing to use a combination of ccTLDs along with hreflang tags.

The developer is also keen to use IP forcing as well - just to be sure!

Anybody spot any potential issues or conflicts here?

Thanks Roman.

The site is run on Shopify, so no access to htaccess file.

The devs were looking at forcing one site or the other based on IP address. That sounds fine to me, but how does it stop Google indexing and ranking the two domains (domain.com and otherdomain.com) side by side in the same SERPs?

Thanks Logan.

The 'all other countries' is the problem here. The client wants one domain for Australia, then another for 'all other countries'. The products are the same, the language is the same. the only difference is the currency.

And even though the Australian domain was specified in search console, it still appears alongside the other domain in Google searches for other countries.

Here's the scenario... Client has two domain names:

• domain.com - targeting one country (Australia)
• otherdomain.com - targeting all other countries

Both have identical products, but different currencies (AU$ and US$).

The problem (as most of you will know) is that without using a sub-domain or country-code top-level domains, Google has no idea which domain should be served for which domain. Furthermore, because the root domain is different, Google doesn't see any connection between the two - other than the fact they have identical products!

My recommendation to the client is to change to:

• domain.com to domain.com.au
• otherdomain.com to domain.com

Arguably, we could leave the second one alone. But I think it's better for the brand to use the same root domain for each.

Obviously this means both will need to be redirected. Since NONE of the pages within the sites will change, do we need to redirect every page, or just the root domain?

Any other risks or concerns we should know about?

Thanks Lydia. I will expand on the internal links. I'm assuming:

1. Links from within body copy (eg. product descriptions) is better than any kind of nav link?
2. Anchor text needs to be mixed up and not all 'exact match' text?

Thx

Thanks James. Yes, I'm beginning to wonder of it has been over-optimized.

There are no external backlinks, but there are a few internal links and I noticed they use 'exact match' anchor text. The same keyword is used in the URL, title, meta desc and H1. So maybe over- optimization is the issue?