Correct Hreflang & Canonical Tags for Multi-Regional Website English Language Only having URL Parameters

[spjain81]

Dear friends, We have a multi-regional website in English language only having the country selector on the top of each page and it adds countrycode parameters on each url. Website is built in Magento 1.8 and having 1 store with multiple store views. There is no default store set in Magento as I discussed with developer. Content is same for all the countries and only currency is changed. In navigation there are urls without url parameters but when we change store from any page it add parameters in the url for same page hence there are total 7 URLs. 6 URLs for each page (with country parameters) and 1 master url (without parameters) and making content duplicity. We have implemented hreflang tags on each page with url parameters but for canonical we have implemented master page url as per navigation without url parameters Example on this page. I think this is correct for master page but we should use URL parameters in canonical tags for each counry url too and there should be only 1 canonical tag on each country page url. Currently all the country urls are having master page canoncial tag as per the example. Please correct me if I am wrong and **in this case what has to be done for master page? **as google is indexing the pages without parameters too. We are also using GEOIP redirection for each store with country IP detection and for rest of the countries which are not listed on the website we are redirecting to USA store. Earlier it was 301 but we changed it to 302. Hreflang tags are showing errors in SEMRush due to redirection but in GWT it's OK for some pages it's showing no return tags only. Should I use **x-default tags for hreflang and country selector only on home page like this or should I remove the redirection? **However some of the website like this using redirection but header check tool doesn't show the redirection for this and for our website it shows 302 redirection. Sorry for the long post but looking for your support, please.

[effectdigital]

This is a long and detailed query so I think, it will be best to annotate your question with my responses:

"Dear friends, We have a multi-regional website in English language only having the country selector on the top of each page and it adds countrycode parameters on each url. Website is built in Magento 1.8 and having 1 store with multiple store views." - it is probably better to go with a folder-structure based regional deployment as Google doesn't tend to weight parameter URLs very strongly at all, unless there are link / citation signals which prove the child page version (parameter based) is more popular than the parent (in which case, they can shuffle around)

"There is no default store set in Magento as I discussed with developer. Content is same for all the countries and only currency is changed. In navigation there are urls without url parameters but when we change store from any page it add parameters in the url for same page hence there are total 7 URLs." -this sounds incredibly complicated. It sounds like at some point, someone will leave or forget how things work and you will be in a big mess

"6 URLs for each page (with country parameters) and 1 master url (without parameters) and making content duplicity." - yes I can see how that would be a problem. Also you said there was no default URL, but now says there is a master URL. Surely master is default? This may need more explaining for myself or others to help your properly. By the way, something very important here - if you're just planning to use hreflangs on their own and change pricing, very often Google won't consider that a good enough effort to give you an international footprint. Google think, hmm if you really have identified these new audiences across the world, even if they speak the same language - they are different people with a different culture. Should your content really be EXACTLY the same? No. If you do bother to do different content for different audiences (even if they speak the same language) which is tailored to their cultural nuances - you will probably get more international rankings. If you don't and you're just doing the cheapest fastest thing, you have no value proposition for Google and thus don't expect to win big (or even at all)

"We have implemented hreflang tags on each page with url parameters but for canonical we have implemented master page url as per navigation without url parameters Example on this page." - just so you know, a canonical tag acts almost like no-index tags. It says to Google: I am not the main version of this page, so please never index me. Instead index this canonical URL I am linking to instead. As such, with your current implementation, all of your regional URLs will be taken out of Google's index unless popularity signals contradict your canonical tags (in which case they may be overridden). Think about it. With hreflangs you are telling Google: go over here and index my other language version. So Google goes over to another page, but that page says: Google I am not canonical, why are you even here? Go to the canonical master only don't look at me. So you are really confusing Google by telling them to index pages with Hreflangs, then telling them not to with canonical tags

"I think this is correct for master page but we should use URL parameters in canonical tags for each counry url too and there should be only 1 canonical tag on each country page url. Currently all the country urls are having master page canoncial tag as per the example. Please correct me if I am wrong and in this case what has to be done for master page? as google is indexing the pages without parameters too." - with your current implementation, Google should (most of the time, this is not absolute) only be indexing the master pages and not indexing any of the regional pages. The regional pages all tell Google that they are not canonical and not good for indexing, by using the canonical tags you are telling Google to only index the master. I would personally remove all canonical tags from all regionally appended parameter URLs. If you have parameters firing for other reasons (e.g: changing tabbed content, moving a carousel, UTM campaign tracking) then those should be trimmed out of Google's index using canonical tags. That being said; for your regional parameter URLs, it's a different story. You want your regional pages to rank - right? So don't tell Google they are non-canonical, by putting canonical tags on them pointing to the master. In-fact I might even put some of them in a Sitemap.XML and feed them to Google. I would only do this, where the regional modifier is the ONLY parameter in the URL. If there are others, I might still use canonical tags - but for just the regional modifier on its own, they should be stripped of canonical tags (if you want them to rank ever)

"We are also using GEOIP redirection for each store with country IP detection and for rest of the countries which are not listed on the website we are redirecting to USA store. Earlier it was 301 but we changed it to 302. Hreflang tags are showing errors in SEMRush due to redirection but in GWT it's OK for some pages it's showing no return tags only. Should I use x-default tags for hreflang and country selector only on home page like this or should I remove the redirection? However some of the website like this using redirection but header check tool doesn't show the redirection for this and for our website it shows 302 redirection. Sorry for the long post but looking for your support, please." - Support is here! Two main things. Firstly code 303 might be more appropriate than codes 302 or 301. I would not bother with X-Default unless you really know what you are doing, since you are already in one Hell of a mess I would not touch that yet. Fix the basics, wait for the dust to settle! Finally, all you need to do for Google is to exempt Google's user-agent of "googlebot" from your regional redirects. That way they don't get bounced around, but users still do