Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research
      Moz Pro

      Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research

      Try it free!
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Access 20 years of data with flexible pricing
      Moz API

      Access 20 years of data with flexible pricing

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. International SEO
    4. Hreflang for bilingual website in the same region/location

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Hreflang for bilingual website in the same region/location

    International SEO
    4
    16
    2928
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • ennovators
      ennovators last edited by

      Hi everyone,

      got a quick question concerning the hreflang tag.

      I have a website with 2 different language versions targeting to the same region(Reason: The area is bilingual however not everyone speaks the other language fluently)

      Question:
      Can I use hreflang in that case like:

      Many thanks in advance

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • DmitriiK
        DmitriiK @ennovators last edited by

        Sure, I did this: http://bfy.tw/2hTu

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • ennovators
          ennovators @DmitriiK last edited by

          Hi Dmitrii,

          can you perhaps tell me the source, where you found the supported annotations above. Many Thanks

          DmitriiK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • gfiorelli1
            gfiorelli1 @ennovators last edited by

            My answer is the correct. See what I replied above to Dmitrii

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • gfiorelli1
              gfiorelli1 @DirkC last edited by

              Lol! You're right. I was indeed thinking about Belgium and not Netherlands 🙂

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • gfiorelli1
                gfiorelli1 @DmitriiK last edited by

                It's a cultural thing. I'm that province of Italy people talk or Italian or German, so if you want to target both with your multilingual site you must tell it to Google with hreflang, even if it is not listed in the ISO chart.

                you do the same for targeting Spanish speaking people in the usa, for instance.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • DirkC
                  DirkC @gfiorelli1 last edited by

                  Gianluca - I guess this time it's my turn:  As far as I know they only have one official language in the Netherlands (Dutch) - I guess you refer to Belgium (3 official languages Dutch/French/German).

                  It's a common error to make this mistake - but the difference is easy to spot: Belgium is qualified for Euro '16 - unlike the Netherlands 🙂

                  gfiorelli1 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • ennovators
                    ennovators @gfiorelli1 last edited by

                    Hi Gianluca,

                    Thank you for your reply. In fact I'm refering to that exact region. The difference to your CH examples are though, that in Switzerland, the 3 language regions are not the exact same "location".

                    In my case they are though so I got a bit confused.

                    So basically Im not saying, a specific region in Switzerland speaks French, another German and another Italian, but I say the exact same location/region speaks German and Italian.

                    gfiorelli1 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • DmitriiK
                      DmitriiK @gfiorelli1 last edited by

                      Well, I do see the ones you mentioned on that list, but not it-it or de-it.

                      gfiorelli1 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • gfiorelli1
                        gfiorelli1 @DmitriiK last edited by

                        Yes, it exists (it is Alto Agide/South Tirol), and it's the same case of Netherlands (fr-NL and de-NL) or Switzerland (it-CH, fr-CH and de-CH)

                        DmitriiK ennovators DirkC 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • gfiorelli1
                          gfiorelli1 last edited by

                          Yes, you can.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • DmitriiK
                            DmitriiK @ennovators last edited by

                            Interesting. Google search doesn't return anything on this locale.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • ennovators
                              ennovators @DmitriiK last edited by

                              yes, sure about that

                              DmitriiK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • DmitriiK
                                DmitriiK @ennovators last edited by

                                Are you sure that locale exists?

                                ennovators gfiorelli1 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • ennovators
                                  ennovators @DmitriiK last edited by

                                  Hi Dmitrii,

                                  many thanks for your reply. Great list, unfortunately I can't find my case. Though I think this list is not complete. E.x. I miss the the french speaking part in Italy for example,...

                                  Helpful anyway though.

                                  DmitriiK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • DmitriiK
                                    DmitriiK last edited by

                                    Hi there.

                                    I found this list of all available locales, if locales you're trying to do are in this list, then go ahead, otherwise it won't work.

                                    P.S. List might be old and updated by now, but i don't think so.

                                    • af-ZA
                                    • am-ET
                                    • ar-AE
                                    • ar-BH
                                    • ar-DZ
                                    • ar-EG
                                    • ar-IQ
                                    • ar-JO
                                    • ar-KW
                                    • ar-LB
                                    • ar-LY
                                    • ar-MA
                                    • arn-CL
                                    • ar-OM
                                    • ar-QA
                                    • ar-SA
                                    • ar-SY
                                    • ar-TN
                                    • ar-YE
                                    • as-IN
                                    • az-Cyrl-AZ
                                    • az-Latn-AZ
                                    • ba-RU
                                    • be-BY
                                    • bg-BG
                                    • bn-BD
                                    • bn-IN
                                    • bo-CN
                                    • br-FR
                                    • bs-Cyrl-BA
                                    • bs-Latn-BA
                                    • ca-ES
                                    • co-FR
                                    • cs-CZ
                                    • cy-GB
                                    • da-DK
                                    • de-AT
                                    • de-CH
                                    • de-DE
                                    • de-LI
                                    • de-LU
                                    • dsb-DE
                                    • dv-MV
                                    • el-GR
                                    • en-029
                                    • en-AU
                                    • en-BZ
                                    • en-CA
                                    • en-GB
                                    • en-IE
                                    • en-IN
                                    • en-JM
                                    • en-MY
                                    • en-NZ
                                    • en-PH
                                    • en-SG
                                    • en-TT
                                    • en-US
                                    • en-ZA
                                    • en-ZW
                                    • es-AR
                                    • es-BO
                                    • es-CL
                                    • es-CO
                                    • es-CR
                                    • es-DO
                                    • es-EC
                                    • es-ES
                                    • es-GT
                                    • es-HN
                                    • es-MX
                                    • es-NI
                                    • es-PA
                                    • es-PE
                                    • es-PR
                                    • es-PY
                                    • es-SV
                                    • es-US
                                    • es-UY
                                    • es-VE
                                    • et-EE
                                    • eu-ES
                                    • fa-IR
                                    • fi-FI
                                    • fil-PH
                                    • fo-FO
                                    • fr-BE
                                    • fr-CA
                                    • fr-CH
                                    • fr-FR
                                    • fr-LU
                                    • fr-MC
                                    • fy-NL
                                    • ga-IE
                                    • gd-GB
                                    • gl-ES
                                    • gsw-FR
                                    • gu-IN
                                    • ha-Latn-NG
                                    • he-IL
                                    • hi-IN
                                    • hr-BA
                                    • hr-HR
                                    • hsb-DE
                                    • hu-HU
                                    • hy-AM
                                    • id-ID
                                    • ig-NG
                                    • ii-CN
                                    • is-IS
                                    • it-CH
                                    • it-IT
                                    • iu-Cans-CA
                                    • iu-Latn-CA
                                    • ja-JP
                                    • ka-GE
                                    • kk-KZ
                                    • kl-GL
                                    • km-KH
                                    • kn-IN
                                    • kok-IN
                                    • ko-KR
                                    • ky-KG
                                    • lb-LU
                                    • lo-LA
                                    • lt-LT
                                    • lv-LV
                                    • mi-NZ
                                    • mk-MK
                                    • ml-IN
                                    • mn-MN
                                    • mn-Mong-CN
                                    • moh-CA
                                    • mr-IN
                                    • ms-BN
                                    • ms-MY
                                    • mt-MT
                                    • nb-NO
                                    • ne-NP
                                    • nl-BE
                                    • nl-NL
                                    • nn-NO
                                    • nso-ZA
                                    • oc-FR
                                    • or-IN
                                    • pa-IN
                                    • pl-PL
                                    • prs-AF
                                    • ps-AF
                                    • pt-BR
                                    • pt-PT
                                    • qut-GT
                                    • quz-BO
                                    • quz-EC
                                    • quz-PE
                                    • rm-CH
                                    • ro-RO
                                    • ru-RU
                                    • rw-RW
                                    • sah-RU
                                    • sa-IN
                                    • se-FI
                                    • se-NO
                                    • se-SE
                                    • si-LK
                                    • sk-SK
                                    • sl-SI
                                    • sma-NO
                                    • sma-SE
                                    • smj-NO
                                    • smj-SE
                                    • smn-FI
                                    • sms-FI
                                    • sq-AL
                                    • sr-Cyrl-BA
                                    • sr-Cyrl-CS
                                    • sr-Cyrl-ME
                                    • sr-Cyrl-RS
                                    • sr-Latn-BA
                                    • sr-Latn-CS
                                    • sr-Latn-ME
                                    • sr-Latn-RS
                                    • sv-FI
                                    • sv-SE
                                    • sw-KE
                                    • syr-SY
                                    • ta-IN
                                    • te-IN
                                    • tg-Cyrl-TJ
                                    • th-TH
                                    • tk-TM
                                    • tn-ZA
                                    • tr-TR
                                    • tt-RU
                                    • tzm-Latn-DZ
                                    • ug-CN
                                    • uk-UA
                                    • ur-PK
                                    • uz-Cyrl-UZ
                                    • uz-Latn-UZ
                                    • vi-VN
                                    • wo-SN
                                    • xh-ZA
                                    • yo-NG
                                    • zh-CN
                                    • zh-HK
                                    • zh-MO
                                    • zh-SG
                                    • zh-TW
                                    • zu-ZA
                                    ennovators 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                    • 1 / 1
                                    • First post
                                      Last post

                                    Got a burning SEO question?

                                    Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                                    Start my free trial


                                    Browse Questions

                                    Explore more categories

                                    • Moz Tools

                                      Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                                    • SEO Tactics

                                      Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                                    • Community

                                      Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                                    • Digital Marketing

                                      Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                                    • Research & Trends

                                      Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                                    • Support

                                      Connect on product support and feature requests.

                                    • See all categories

                                    Related Questions

                                    • JCN-SBWD

                                      How do you optimise a website for European traffic?

                                      I have a design portfolio website here https://www.nicholsoncreative.com/ which uses a .com but is currently configured through the Search Console to appear in results for Google.co.uk. I am going to be restructuring the website and optimisation and I want to bring in more traffic/enquiries/business from around Europe. As there's no Google.eu, and as Google also serves results based on the searchers geographic location it would seem difficult to structure and optimise content so that results can be found across all of Europe. I assume simply switching to a .eu domain extension for my own website wouldn't solve the problem? I also assume that creating content in different languages would be a logical (if time consuming) option? Are there any other tried and trusted techniques that can be used to target traffic throughout Europe? I'd appreciate any advice.

                                      International SEO | | JCN-SBWD
                                      0
                                    • alexcbrands

                                      International SEO Question: Using hreflang tags across two different TLDs.

                                      Hi! My UK based company just recently made the decision to let the US market operate their ecommerce business independently. Initially, both markets were operating off the same domain using sub-directories (i.e: www.brandname.com/en-us/ , www.brandname.com/en-gb/ ) Now that the US team have broken away from the domain - they are now using www.brandnameUSA.com while the UK continues to use www.brandname.com/en-gb/. The content is similar across both domains - however, the new US website has been able to consolidate several product variations onto single product pages where the UK website is using individual product pages for each variation. We have placed a geo-filter on the main domain which is 301 redirecting North American traffic looking for www.brandname.com to www.brandnameUSA.com However, since the domain change has taken place, product pages from the original domain are now indexing alongside the new US websites product pages in US search results. The UK website wants to be the default destination for all international traffic. My question is - how do we correctly setup hrlang tags across two separate TLDs and how do we handle a situation where multiple product pages on the "default" domain have been consolidated into one product page on the new USA domain? This is how we are currently handling it: "en-us" href="https://www.BRANDNAMEUSA.com/All-Variations" /> href="https://www.BRANDNAMEUSA.com/All-Variations" />

                                      International SEO | | alexcbrands
                                      0
                                    • Ben.JD

                                      If I redirect based on IP will Google still crawl my international sites if I implement Hreflang

                                      We are setting up several international sites. Ideally, we wouldn't set up any redirects, but if we have to (for merchandising reasons etc) I'd like to assess what the next best option would be. A secondary option could be that we implement the redirects based on IP. However, Google then wouldn't be able to access the content for all the international sites (we're setting up 6 in total) and would only index the .com site. I'm wondering whether the Hreflang annotations would still allow Google to find the International sites? If not, that's a lot of content we are not fully benefiting from. Another option could be that we treat the Googlebot user agent differently, but this would probably be considered as cloaking by the G-Man. If there are any other options, please let me know.

                                      International SEO | | Ben.JD
                                      0
                                    • Fisken

                                      Two versions of a website with different languages - Best way to do it?

                                      I'm working on a website for a Swedish artist and her page is in Swedish, everything is in Swedish on the site, even though it's not a lot of text on the site. We would like to have the site in English too, or another version of the site in English on a separate domain, what's the best way to proceed from here? The domain name is a .se (swedish domain), would it be better to create a another domain and host the english version of the site on a .com domain? Or will we bump into problems with duplicate content if we create a replica of the swedish site in english. We're using wordpress and I know that there's translation plugins out there, is that a good option? I'm a bit clueless on how to proceed and would love some help or guidance here.

                                      International SEO | | Fisken
                                      0
                                    • seoec

                                      Showing different content according to different geo-locations on same URL

                                      We would like our website to show different content according to different Geo-locations (but in the same language).  For example, if www.mywebsite.com is accessed from the US, it would show text (in English) appealing to North Americans, but, if accessed from Japan, it would show text (also in English) that appeals more to Japanese people. In the Middle East, we would like the website to show different images than those shown in the US and Asia. Our main concern is that we would like to keep the same URL. How will Google index these pages? Will it index the www.mywebsite.com (Japan version) in its Asia archives and the www.mywebsite.com (US version) in its North American archives? Will Google penalise us for showing different content across Geo-locations on the same URL? What if a URL is meant to show content only in Japan? Are there any other issues that we should be looking out for? Kindest Regards L.B.

                                      International SEO | | seoec
                                      0
                                    • MartijnHoving82

                                      Upper case or/and lower case in rel="alternate" hreflang

                                      Hi Mozzers, I have a question about the rel="alternate" hreflang tag, with an example. When I use two subfolders for two different countries/languages, for instance www.domain.com/nl-nl/ and www.domain.com/nl-en/ (for the English version) and I want to use the rel="alternate" hreflang tag, do I need to follow the ISO standards concerning Uppercase country code and Lowercase language code (en-NL)? Or is it okay to use the Lowercase country and language code (en-nl), since we also use this in the URL of the Subfolder. What does Google prefer? Thanks in advance.

                                      International SEO | | MartijnHoving82
                                      0
                                    • journeybeyondtravel

                                      Does Keyword and Location Matter?

                                      Hi Everyone, I'm always learning, but here's a question. I would like to know if keyword and location truly matter. For example, I've been trying to rank my website for a LONG time for a UK English term. My site is hosted in the US. My site has great content and internal and external links using the keyword. I cannot seem to climb the SERPs although my "American" keywords do fine and I see results. If anyone wants to take a look, that would be great. My website is JourneyBeyondTravel.com and I wish to rank for "Morocco Holidays" (I am at about #20 currently). I am also having trouble with "Morocco travel" although I have continuously ranked well for "Morocco tours" and "trips." Along this same line, I've been doing some quality guest posting and blogging. I've used longer phrase-type keywords (3-5 words) in the article text that have keyword terms in them. Should keywords be varied like this? How long until I see results? And, should I look for blogs in different countries to keep things balanced (such as blogging on .co.uk sites so that I can get link juice for UK keywords). Thanks again! Thomas

                                      International SEO | | journeybeyondtravel
                                      0
                                    • theLotter

                                      Redirecting users based on location

                                      My site is available in EN, DE, SW, SP, FR, IT, CH and JP. However, the EN sites ranks much better than the other languages, and even when searching in another language the EN homepage is normally the result that appears. Would it be worthwhile to automatically redirect users to the site in the same language they are searching in or country they are searching from? If so, how do I go about this? Thanks!

                                      International SEO | | theLotter
                                      0

                                    Get started with Moz Pro!

                                    Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                                    Start my free trial
                                    Products
                                    • Moz Pro
                                    • Moz Local
                                    • Moz API
                                    • Moz Data
                                    • STAT
                                    • Product Updates
                                    Moz Solutions
                                    • SMB Solutions
                                    • Agency Solutions
                                    • Enterprise Solutions
                                    • Digital Marketers
                                    Free SEO Tools
                                    • Domain Authority Checker
                                    • Link Explorer
                                    • Keyword Explorer
                                    • Competitive Research
                                    • Brand Authority Checker
                                    • Local Citation Checker
                                    • MozBar Extension
                                    • MozCast
                                    Resources
                                    • Blog
                                    • SEO Learning Center
                                    • Help Hub
                                    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                                    • How-to Guides
                                    • Moz Academy
                                    • API Docs
                                    About Moz
                                    • About
                                    • Team
                                    • Careers
                                    • Contact
                                    Why Moz
                                    • Case Studies
                                    • Testimonials
                                    Get Involved
                                    • Become an Affiliate
                                    • MozCon
                                    • Webinars
                                    • Practical Marketer Series
                                    • MozPod
                                    Connect with us

                                    Contact the Help team

                                    Join our newsletter
                                    Moz logo
                                    © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                                    • Accessibility
                                    • Terms of Use
                                    • Privacy

                                    Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.