![Page 1: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
#pubcon
You’re Going To Screw Up Internationalization
Presented by:Patrick Stox @patrickstox
Technical SEO - IBM
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#pubcon
You’ve Got This Right?
![Page 3: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
#pubcon
Can Anyone Answer This?
Does Bing use the “content-language” meta tag?
<meta http-equiv="content-language" content="en-us">
![Page 4: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
#pubcon
The Tag Is Non-Conforming
The last reference was in 2011:https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/2011/03/01/how-to-tell-bing-your-websites-country-and-language
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#pubcon
Okay Cool, But Do They Use It?
![Page 6: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
#pubcon
How Many Sites Use Hreflang Tags?
![Page 7: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
#pubcon
Lots Of Common HREFLANG Issues
SEMrush did a study of 20,000 websites:https://www.semrush.com/blog/the-most-common-hreflang-mistakes-infographic/
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#pubcon
![Page 9: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
#pubcon
Is this wrong?
![Page 10: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
#pubcon
No Errors In GSC With Underscores
Looks like Google lets it slide, although standards and best practices say to use “–” instead of “_”https://twitter.com/dsottimano/status/867315538057474049
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#pubcon
![Page 12: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
#pubcon
Is This Wrong?
![Page 13: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
#pubcon
You Don’t Need Self-Referencing Hreflang Tags
Is it essential to have self-referencing hreflang tags?
John Mueller: No.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjbaDP-P7PA&t=24m39s
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#pubcon
![Page 15: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
#pubcon
Is This Wrong?
![Page 16: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
#pubcon
You Don’t Have To Use Absolute URLs
https://twitter.com/JohnMu/status/702080129804189696
![Page 17: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
#pubcon
Is This Wrong?
Questionable
![Page 18: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
#pubcon
Even Tools Get Things Wrong
X-default can be used for auto-redirecting, serving dynamic content, or as a language selector page.
![Page 19: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
#pubcon
Even Tools Get Things Wrong
X-default can be used for auto-redirecting, serving dynamic content, or as a language selector page.
Example 1: https://technicalseo.com/seo-tools/hreflang/ marks a redirected x-default page as incorrect, but it’s the tool that’s wrong.
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#pubcon
Even Tools Get Things Wrong
X-default can be used for auto-redirecting, serving dynamic content, or as a language selector page.
Example 2: Screaming Frog says that there are no return links on any x-default that’s auto-redirected. Of course there aren’t, it’s redirected, but it’s the tool that’s wrong.
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#pubcon
No One Believes You
When a tool says it’s wrong and you say it’s not.
![Page 22: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
#pubcon
Things Get Even More Fun
• Millions of pages• Multiple CMS’s• Multiple Infrastructures• Redirects
![Page 23: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
#pubcon
Wasn’t It Hard Enough?
![Page 24: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
#pubcon
All On One Page
Googlebot crawls from the US, putting all versions of content on one page just means they only see one version.
![Page 25: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
#pubcon
Redirecting Users With Some Logic
Geo-IP, cookies, whatever is also bad. This pretty much means Google sees only one version again, even if you have more.
![Page 26: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
#pubcon
Redirecting Users With Some Logic
Geo-IP, cookies, whatever is also bad. This pretty much means Google sees only one version again, even if you have more.
If you see the wrong language in your titles or meta descriptions, it’s probably this.
![Page 27: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
#pubcon
Check Your Stack
Encoding characters in URLs with UTF-8 is fine with Google, but there may be a point of failure in your tech stack where it is not supported.
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#pubcon
Page Serves From A Different URL Than How It’s Indexed
Sometimes pages are offloaded with a 302 and a canonical set to the original URL to keep it indexed. You need the indexed version in your tags.
![Page 29: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
#pubcon
Page Serves From A Different URL Than How It’s Indexed
If anyone still uses an m. it looks like you will need to point the hreflang tags on the m. to the desktop version for the upcoming mobile-first index, maybe?
![Page 30: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
#pubcon
Tags In Multiple Places?
• HTTP Header• <head>• Sitemap
![Page 31: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
#pubcon
Tags In Multiple Places? Where?
• From CMS?• From server?• Injected with JS?• Coming from theme?
![Page 32: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
#pubcon
<head> Break
http://ohgm.co.uk/hreflang-tags-not-respected-how-to-solve/They moved hreflang tags above some JS because Google wasn’t inspecting them, but why did that work?
![Page 33: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
#pubcon
<head> Break
http://ohgm.co.uk/hreflang-tags-not-respected-how-to-solve/They didn’t inspect the DOM. If they did, they’d likely see that the JS broke the <head> section early and the hreflang tags were being treated as if they were in the <body>.
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#pubcon
<head> Break
http://ohgm.co.uk/hreflang-tags-not-respected-how-to-solve/You can’t have hreflang tags in the body because they could be used for hijacking.
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#pubcon
Duplicate Pages Are The Worst
For hreflang to work, A has to reference B and B has to reference A. If 2 pages are duplicates, Google can fold them together and only one will be indexed.
![Page 36: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/36.jpg)
#pubcon
Duplicate Pages Are The WorstHow can you have A>B and B>A if Google thinks A=C and A isn’t indexed?https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/webmasters/ezMvrlRWuDk/6XWuM1fIDgAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=83&v=isW-Ke-AJJUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isW-Ke-AJJU&t=27m15s
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#pubcon
It Can Take Months For Google To Crawl All Versions
![Page 38: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/38.jpg)
#pubcon
Everyone Wants A Quick Fix
No one wants to hear it’s fixed, but now you have to wait. If the wrong version shows, it’s not fixed in their minds.
“Can’t you call someone at Google?”“Can’t we pay someone to fix this?”
![Page 39: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/39.jpg)
#pubcon
Advice:
![Page 40: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/40.jpg)
#pubcon
Check Everything Repeatedly
![Page 41: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/41.jpg)
#pubcon
Expect Things To Break
![Page 42: Pubcon Vegas 2017 You're Going To Screw Up International SEO - Patrick Stox](https://reader034.vdocuments.mx/reader034/viewer/2022052117/5a64aba97f8b9a57568b5001/html5/thumbnails/42.jpg)
#pubcon
You’ll Never Get It Right Manually
Automate tags – middleware connecting systemsAutomated testing
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#pubcon
@patrickstox