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        4. Hreflang for bilingual website in the same region/location

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        Hreflang for bilingual website in the same region/location

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        • 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
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