Alternate Hreflang Tags

Do you want to reach a larger market with your Magento webshop by targeting multiple language areas/regions? Then it is wise to add hreflang tags to your website.

Google can use hreflang tags to see which country and/or region your webpage is intended for. That way, Google can show the correct version of your webpage in the search results based on the user's location and language settings.

Using hreflang tags increases the user-friendliness for your visitors. Via Google they arrive at the web page that is intended for their language/region. This simultaneously increases the conversion and turnover of your webshop.

The Hreflang Tags extension for Magento 2 is a turnkey solution to easily add hreflang tags to your Magento webshop.

The advantage of hreflang tags

In 2011, Google introduced the hreflang tag as a technical solution for websites containing similar content in different languages ​​and/or targeting different regions. The hreflang tag is a piece of code in the source of the page that specifies the language and/or region for that particular page in combination with the alternative URLs that are available.

Thanks to the hreflang tag, Google can redirect visitors via the search results to the correct web page for their language and/or region.

The Hreflang Tags extension for Magento 2 automatically adds the appropriate hreflang tags to the web page if multiple language and/or region specific versions are available. This extension improves your user-friendliness and SEO strategy, without the need for manual coding.

Example

You have a Magento webshop that focuses on 3 different markets: the Netherlands, Flanders and the international market. You have set up 3 subdomains for this. You sell product A on these 3 subdomains, where the product page varies per region/language:

• https://nl.mymagentostore.com/product-A: a Dutch product page aimed at users in the Netherlands
• https://be.mymagentostore.com/product-A: a Dutch-language product page aimed at Dutch-speaking users in Belgiumë (Flanders)
• https://en.mymagentostore.com/product-A: an English product page aimed at the international market

The Hreflang Tags extension for Magento 2 automatically adds the following hreflang tags to each of the 3 product pages:

<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”nl-nl” href=”https://nl.mymagentostore.com/product-A” />

<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”nl-be” href=”https://be.mymagentostore.com/product-A” />

<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”en” href=”https://en.mymagentostore.com/product-A” />

Google sees these hreflang tags and understands that product A is offered on 3 different product pages for 3 different markets. Based on the user's location and language settings, Google can now direct the user to the correct web page in the search results.

Using hreflang tags

Want to reach multiple markets in different languages? Then you will have to translate the web pages of your webshop into those languages.

But even if you want to reach multiple markets where people speak the same language, it can be wise to adapt the content to the specific region of the user.

That way you can offer different content that is region-specific on points such as:

• Shipping costs
• Currency
• Local VAT
• Texts (other content/spelling)

For example, if your webshop focuses on the Dutch and English market, you could create different web pages that target different regions with the following hreflang tags:

• “nl-nl” for the Netherlands
• “nl-be” for Belgiumë (Flanders)
• “EN-us” for the United States
• “EN-gb” for the United Kingdom
• “EN” for English speaking users outside US/UK

Hreflang tags for CMS pages

The Hreflang Tags extension and Magento can recognize the different URLs of the products and categories. But CMS pages are not linked to each other within Magento.

For CMS pages, we have made it possible to categorize and link them together as an alternative language page.

For example, three store views with three different contact pages can be created and linked together:

• [storeview] mymagentostore.nl - identifier: contact-contact
• [storeview] mymagentostore.com - identifier: contact-us
• [storeview] mymagentostore.de - identifier: contact

By categorizing these store views, the correct hreflang tags are automatically added to each web page.