How to Prevent Duplicate Content with hreflang Tags

Planning to take your business to international audiences? You must have a well-executed international seo checklist with hreflang tags being a part of it. This is because even though you are getting newer business opportunities in terms of customers, it presents a challenge: duplicate content. More specifically, presenting the same content in other languages. This is where the hreflang duplicate content tag helps you by signalling search engines about these language and regional variations. 

This ensures they serve the correct version of your content to the right users and avoid duplicate content penalties. Let’s understand what hreflang tag is, when to use it, and how to implement it to provide a positive user experience. 

What is the hreflang tag?

This specific HTML attribute specifies multiple versions of webpage content existing on a website. If you are planning to target international markets and have multilingual pages on your site, this tag helps search engines display the correct webpage to users based on their language preferences and location.

Whenever there are multiple regional versions of the same content, the hreflang tag signals search engines that the content isn’t duplicate. This effectively minimizes the risk of being penalized. Almost every search engine uses hreflang tags to figure out which version of a webpage to show users. An example of the hreflang tag is something like this, shown below:

<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”x” href=”https://example.com/alternate-page” />

As we can see, an hreflang tag has mainly three parts, which are as follows:

• link rel=”alternate”: This is where you add the alternative version of your webpage and tell search engines about that.
• href=”URL” is the alternate page you are referencing.
• hreflang=”x” specifies the page’s language and country code.

Why Duplicate Content Is a Concern for SEO?

When search engines encounter multiple URLs with identical content, they don’t know which one of them is the main version and hence, classify them all as duplicate content. Unless the main URL is specified, this leads to various problems such as lower rankings, wastage of crawl budget, poor user experience, etc.

When it comes to international SEO, duplicate content can occur when you translate the existing content into another language. Despite the language difference, the core content will remain the same. It can also happen when there is identical content in different regional variations of the same language.

For example, a product page for both the US and UK audiences might have largely identical content, despite minor spelling or currency differences. Implementing hreflang duplicate content tags effectively eliminates the issues mentioned above, as it explicitly informs search engines of the correct versions of the webpage that must be shown according to their language and location.

When to use hreflang

Various scenarios require using the hreflang tag, particularly if you are having a multilingual website. Let’s discuss them below:

Same webpage content for all languages

A scenario when to use hreflang is when content is the same across different languages; using the tags specifies which version is appropriate for the specific region. E.g. A common web page content for English & French audiences.

Regional variations of the same language content

Even when content is in the same language but has regional differences, hreflang tags can specify which version should appear for specific audiences.

Advantages of hreflang tag

Now that you know when to use hreflang, what about the advantages it offers for SEO in the long term? Let’s decode some of them below:

Prevents duplicate content issues

Without hreflang tags, search engines might mistakenly view multiple versions of content in the same language as duplicate content. Using these tags clarifies that each page targets a different audience, preventing these issues, making it one of the best hreflang SEO benefits.

Improve SEO performance

One of the important hreflang SEO benefits is that it helps search engines serve the correct version of your website to users based on their language and geographical region. This translates to increased international SEO performance.

Enhanced Click-Through Rates

Since the alternative webpage contents are shown to users tailored to their location and language, they are more likely to click and interact with them. This results in higher click-through rates, making it one of the top advantages of hreflang tag.

Hreflang Rules You Must Follow

When learning how to create a hreflang tag, remember to use the correct language and country codes. These must follow the ISO 639-1 and ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 standards to ensure the tag is valid. Not including the right code makes search engines ignore the pages, and the correct version won’t be shown to users. With that said, there are certain hreflang rules that you must follow at all costs if you plan to use them for your SEO purposes.

X-default tag: Recommended yet optional

Even though Google recommends using it, you don’t have to do it except in certain instances. So, what is its importance?

The x-default tag tells search engines which page to show users when no other language-specific versions are available. The syntax for adding the x-default tag to the hreflang is shown below:

<link rel=”alternate” href=”https://example.com/” hreflang=”x-default” />

Hreflang tags should work both ways

In case you didn’t know, hreflang tags are bidirectional, and the concept is best explained with the image below.

When adding an hreflang tag for your site’s English version linking to the Italian version, an hreflang tag must be added in the Italian version pointing back to the English version. This linking explains that search engines acknowledge the relationship between the pages and have control over them.

Self-referencing is a good practice

According to Google, a multilingual website with the hreflang tag implemented must list the main language and all other language versions. This essentially means that every webpage should have a self-referential hreflang tag.

How to implement hreflang

You can implement the hreflang tag in three different ways. Which one you choose should depend on the content type and website size.

Using HTML tags

If you’re new and wondering how to implement hreflang for your site, having considerable language and regional webpage variations, the HTML header is the way to go. You must add <link> elements within the <head> of the webpage’s HTML code. To understand it clearly, consider you have a website targeting English speakers in the USA & Canada, the following code must be added to every relevant page. 

<link rel=”alternate” href=”https://example.com/en-US/” hreflang=”en-US” /> 

<link rel=”alternate” href=”https://example.com/en-CA/” hreflang=”en-CA” /> 

<link rel=”alternate” href=”https://example.com/” hreflang=”x-default” />

This method is comparatively easier, but can be time-consuming and prone to errors for larger websites.

Leveraging HTTP headers

This approach is suited for non-HTML content on a site and is added in the HTTPS header of the file. Compared to the previous one, this one’s complex, but ensures the correct content version is shown.

XML sitemap

Implementing hreflang tags through XML sitemaps is worth the effort. This is particularly true with larger websites with global multilingual seo, as it helps consolidate the information in a centralised location.

Hreflang best practices for setting up multilingual websites

The hreflang duplicate content process isn’t complete without explaining the best practices. Some of them are listed below:

Utilise accurate language & region codes

We had discussed the importance of choosing the right country and language code combination when implementing the hreflang duplicate content tag. Failure to do that can mislead search engines into not displaying the intended web page content to users.

Check indexation status for hreflang pages

If you are adding hreflang tags in your webpages, they must be indexed by search engines. If the pages are prevented from being indexed, search engines will ignore the hreflang tag, and it won’t be displayed in search results.

Incorporate the x-default tag

Including the x-default tag is one of the hreflang best practices to consider. This is because it specifies a default page to be shown if there are no language or region-specific webpages available for the user. Brands that target users across multiple countries find this practice useful.

Winding Up

As we wind up, you must have understood how to prevent duplicate content with hreflang tag implementation. Hreflang is an important tool in SEO that helps search engines deliver region-specific webpage content to the right target audience. Before deciding when to use hreflang, make sure to follow the rules and the best practices to maximise the tool’s effectiveness and to avoid implementation errors. To learn more about what is hreflang tag, and how it can benefit your SEO efforts, connect with GTECH Information Technology, your trusted international seo agency in Dubai, UAE.