Great community. Great ideas.

Welcome to SEOChat, a community dedicated to helping beginners and professionals alike in improving their Search Engine Optimization knowledge.  Sign up today to gain access to the combined insight of tens of thousands of members.

Join NowFor Free!

Thread: Multi-region and multi-language website using hreflang loosing rankings

Results 1 to 6 of 6
Share This Thread →
  1. Nov 29th, 2012, 12:06 PM #1
    gizzyweb
    gizzyweb is offline Registered User SEO Chat Explorer (0 - 99 posts)
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Posts
    3
    Rep Power
    0

    Multi-region and multi-language website using hreflang loosing rankings

    I have built a multi-region and multi-language CMS all using the same domain name. The client requested that they could set a custom price for each country.

    The way I have built this so:
    Languages:
    http://www.equi-trek.com - English
    http://de.equi-trek.com - German
    http://fr.equi-trek.com - French

    Regions
    http://www.equi-trek.com/uk - UK
    http://de.equi-trek.com/de - German
    http://fr.equi-trek.com/fr - French

    This even allows countries which have more than 1 language. E.g Belgium could be either
    http://de.equi-trek.com/be - German language
    http://fr.equi-trek.com/be - French language

    I have also added the ability so that if you visit a non region URL e.g: http://www.equi-trek.com/horse-trailers/trail-treka-m
    This will display a popup window where the user can select their region.

    If you look in the <head> I have the hreflang for each of the languages. Also added this into the XML sitemap here: http://www.equi-trek.com/sitemap/xml

    Even though the website have been live now for over 3 months, google has still not correctly ranked the language/regional searches.

    Do I need to do anything extra or am I doing this correct?

    Is there anything specific I need to set in the Webmaster Tools?

    Code:
    <link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="http://www.equi-trek.com/uk" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-AT" href="http://www.equi-trek.com/at" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-DE" href="http://www.equi-trek.com/de" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="de-GB" href="http://de.equi-trek.com/uk" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="http://de.equi-trek.com/de" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="de-DE" href="http://de.equi-trek.com/de" />
    Last edited by gizzyweb; Nov 29th, 2012 at 12:21 PM.
    Give Rep
  2. Nov 29th, 2012, 12:31 PM #2
    PhilipSEO's Avatar
    PhilipSEO
    PhilipSEO is offline Search Benefit SEO Chat Good Citizen (1000 - 1499 posts)
    Send a message via Skype™ to PhilipSEO
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Massachusetts, USA
    Posts
    1,209
    Rep Power
    886
    Quote Originally Posted by gizzyweb
    Even though the website have been live now for over 3 months, google has still not correctly ranked the language/regional searches.
    What do you mean? How would Google rank you "correctly"?

    I have painted my car this precise color, and I have got these tinted windows. How come the Engine is not reading this correctly? How come it won't start?

    Your post seems to make as much sense!

    For starters, you could tell us what rankings you expect to have in these languages, and why you expect to have those rankings? What have you done to have them?

    P.S. Another relevant question: how do you know what your rankings are in those regions and languages, how do you measure them?
    Last edited by PhilipSEO; Nov 29th, 2012 at 12:39 PM. Reason: PS added

    SEO Consultancy
    Free SEO Tips on Twitter
    Give Rep
  3. Nov 29th, 2012, 12:38 PM #3
    gizzyweb
    gizzyweb is offline Registered User SEO Chat Explorer (0 - 99 posts)
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Posts
    3
    Rep Power
    0
    Quote Originally Posted by PhilipSEO
    What do you mean? How would Google rank you "correctly"?

    I have painted my car this precise color, and I have got these tinted windows. How come the Engine is not reading this correctly? How come it won't start?

    Your post seems to make as much sense!

    P.S. Another relevant question: how do you know what your rankings are in those regions and languages, how do you measure them?
    Lol yeah I should of just wrote;
    1. It's loosing rankings since the hreflang
    2. I would of thought that the local search would display the correct region website. E.g I use the (google .fr) I would of thought it would display the french language/region of the website

    I know only code and what I have picked up about writing search engine friendly code. I am definitely no SEO expert so have no idea how to measure it apart from look at the results in Google Analytics.
    Last edited by gizzyweb; Nov 29th, 2012 at 12:41 PM.
    Give Rep
  4. Nov 29th, 2012, 12:41 PM #4
    PhilipSEO's Avatar
    PhilipSEO
    PhilipSEO is offline Search Benefit SEO Chat Good Citizen (1000 - 1499 posts)
    Send a message via Skype™ to PhilipSEO
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Massachusetts, USA
    Posts
    1,209
    Rep Power
    886
    On a quick look, I see no content on your main pages. Google only ranks content, it doesn't rank no content! So there you have your answer. Put relevant content on those pages, target the right keywords, and you will rank! Other languages are hugely less competitive compared to English.

    P.S. Welcome to the forum! You've come to the right place to ask SEO questions. Stick around, we're by far the best free SEO consultancy on the Web.
    Last edited by PhilipSEO; Nov 29th, 2012 at 12:45 PM.
    Give Rep
  5. Nov 29th, 2012, 12:47 PM #5
    PhilipSEO's Avatar
    PhilipSEO
    PhilipSEO is offline Search Benefit SEO Chat Good Citizen (1000 - 1499 posts)
    Send a message via Skype™ to PhilipSEO
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Massachusetts, USA
    Posts
    1,209
    Rep Power
    886
    Quote Originally Posted by PhilipSEO
    On a quick look, I see no content on your main pages. Google only ranks content, it doesn't rank no content! So there you have your answer. Put relevant content on those pages, target the right keywords, and you will rank! Other languages are hugely less competitive compared to English.

    P.S. Welcome to the forum! You've come to the right place to ask SEO questions. Stick around, we're by far the best free SEO consultancy on the Web.
    P.P.S. For easy tracking of rankings in the various Googles I recommend RankTracker.
    Give Rep
  6. Nov 29th, 2012, 02:37 PM #6
    gizzyweb
    gizzyweb is offline Registered User SEO Chat Explorer (0 - 99 posts)
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Posts
    3
    Rep Power
    0
    Brilliant thanks for your help
    Give Rep
Share This Thread →
« Previous Thread | Next Thread »

Become Part of This Conversation

Join NowFor Free!

SEO Chat Advertisers and Affiliates