Best Practices Archives

March 13, 2024

Finding Your Project Champion

This is the second article digging deeper into comments I received on a LinkedIn post about using a phased approach to implement hreflang. In the post, I recounted a conversation with a prospect who was stopping his hreflang project because it was too complex. I suggested not stopping forward momentum […]

December 8, 2023

5 Reasons Your Hreflang Is Probably Broken

I had the opportunity to listen to Dan Taylor of the Salt Agency present his hreflang error research he had initially published on Search Engine Land at the International Search Summit in Barcelona. He indicated that 31% of the international websites he reviewed had hreflang errors. Based on Hreflang Builder’s […]

October 31, 2023

Hreflang Demystified Course

We have partnered with International Webmastery to create a series of courses related to hreflang implementation. The first of the series is Hreflang Demystified. It has been over 10 years since Google introduced hreflang elements, and it continues to be one of the most challenging and hated SEO techniques. The […]

September 13, 2023

Hreflang X-Default – How to Use X-Default Effectively

BY BILL HUNT Last Updated: September 5, 2023 The hreflang X-default option creates a lot of confusion on how and when to use it. This guide will explain its purpose and provide several scenarios for using it effectively. When used as developed, it can effectively reduce cross-market cannibalization. What is […]

September 13, 2023

How to Measure Hreflang Success

The best way to measure the success of your Hreflang deployment is to evaluate it against the reason(s) you deployed it in the first place. The most common reason to deploy hreflang is to correct an incorrectly ranking market site from another market. For example, a search in Canada returns […]

March 30, 2023

Shopify Hreflang Challenges

In the past week, we have had a few former Hreflang Builder subscribers reach out to ask if we can take a look at the hreflang tags that their agency had implemented for them. Their SEO agencies argued that Google preferred tags (not true), and as the Shopify system natively […]

February 23, 2023

Hreflang Rules & Guidelines

There are a few fundamental rules for implementing hreflang elements. When you have errors with hreflang, or it does not seem to work, ensure your hreflang is implemented correctly. In most cases, one of these rules has been violated or misunderstood, which causes the problem. Rule #1 – Hreflang Pairs […]

February 23, 2023

Hreflang Methods of Implementation

You can use three methods to deploy HREFLang elements for your site. Google’s hreflang documentation states the three methods are equivalent to each other, and websites should implement the most convenient method for your websites. This post presents an overview of each method and each technique’s pros and cons. Ultimately, […]