June 27, 2023

The Challenge of Aspirational hreflang Settings

Companies launch market-specific websites to target a specific market and sometimes Google may not understand their full intentions. They localize and personalize the content to better engage with those local consumers. Typically this market customization includes language, currency, content, lead forms, and performance KPIs for traffic and conversions.  All of […]
June 15, 2023

Hreflang and Market Website Misalignment

Multiple clients and prospects have asked when Google will get smart and present their business correctly.  They often demand to speak to someone in charge to emphasize the problems Google is causing for their business. I asked them to explain the shortcomings, and it came down to Google not presenting […]
September 28, 2022

Understanding Cross-Market SERP Cannibalization

 Some Marketers are happy to have any page ranking well in the search results and often do not consider the negative implications when non-market sites rank higher than the local market in the SERPS.   We call this Cross-Market SERP Cannibalization. SERP cannibalization occurs when a market-specific page ranks or outranks […]
September 13, 2022

GSC International Targeting Tool Depreciation

Earlier this week, Google announced on Twitter they were finally sunsetting their International Targeting tool and hreflang reports.  If you go to the Legacy Tools & Reports and click on International Targeting, you will see the headline noting depreciation on September 22, 2022.  There is a link to a similar […]
December 31, 2018

Are IT and SEO’s Killing your Global Business?

In the past few months, we have had a couple of clients that were successfully using HREFLang Builder migrate to internal solutions that resulted in significant errors and negative impact on the business.   We took a deeper look at why these migrations were necessary and then why these internal solutions […]
October 13, 2018

Complexities of HREFLang Implementation – Source File Issues

The first step of developing and deploying HREFLang Elements for your site is understanding and gathering your source files.  The purpose of this article is to outline some of the challenges we see with building the lists of URL’s and suggestions for overcoming them. Challenge 1 – XML Site Maps […]
May 1, 2018

Reducing Language Errors in Google Webmaster Tools

[Originally Posted September 9, 2015 and updated May 1 2018] If you received a notification from Google that you have language errors on your site you can correct them by identifying the source of the problem. In this screen capture below, it indicates Google found 30,100 referneces to pages mapped […]
April 7, 2018

Who Should Manage Hreflang?

For any multinational company, the HREFLang element is a potent tool to ensure that the correct page is represented in the local market versions of search engines.  While we have demonstrated the immense value of the HREFLang, it is not taken seriously or given the attention and respect it deserves.  […]