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How Can Screaming Frog SEO Spider Identify and Remedy Hreflang Tag Issues for Multinational and Multilingual Websites?

Summary

Screaming Frog SEO Spider is an effective tool for identifying and fixing hreflang tag issues on multinational and multilingual websites. By crawling websites and analyzing hreflang attributes, it helps ensure proper language targeting and location-based content delivery, enhancing international SEO strategies. Below is a detailed guide on using Screaming Frog SEO Spider for hreflang optimization.

Introduction to Hreflang Tags

The hreflang attribute is an essential HTML tag used by websites to specify the language and regional targeting for different versions of web pages. Proper implementation of hreflang tags ensures that search engines like Google serve the correct language or regional URL to users based on their location and language settings. Incorrect or missing hreflang tags can lead to poor user experience and reduced visibility in international search results.

Using Screaming Frog SEO Spider to Identify Hreflang Issues

Hreflang Validation

Screaming Frog SEO Spider can crawl your website to check for hreflang implementation and validate the attributes. It checks if the hreflang values correspond to the correct ISO 639-1 language codes and optional ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 country codes. The tool flags any incorrect codes or mismatches that may lead to improper indexing.

Checking for Missing Hreflang Tags

During a website crawl, Screaming Frog identifies pages that lack hreflang tags. These pages may not be correctly targeted to the intended audience, leading to visibility issues in specific regions. The tool helps pinpoint these pages so you can add the necessary hreflang attributes.

Identifying Return Tag Errors

For hreflang tags to work correctly, each page specified in hreflang attributes must have a reciprocal link back to the original page. Screaming Frog checks for such return tags to ensure that they exist and are correct. This process helps eliminate one of the common errors that affect hreflang functionality.

Analyzing Multiple Hreflang Values

Websites targeting multiple languages or regions may have complex hreflang setups. Screaming Frog helps in visualizing and analyzing multiple hreflang values to ensure there are no conflicts or duplications, which could confuse search engines and affect SEO.

Remedying Hreflang Tag Issues

Correcting Invalid Hreflang Codes

After identifying incorrect hreflang codes, you can update them to match the correct language and country codes. Use ISO 639-1 for language codes and ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 for country codes to ensure compliance with search engine requirements [Google Search Central, 2023].

For missing return tags, ensure that each page's hreflang points back to the original language version of the page to complete the loop. This requires updating the hreflang attributes to include all necessary reciprocal entries [Moz, 2023].

Resolving Missing Tags

Add hreflang tags to pages where they are missing to improve language targeting. Ensure that these tags are included in either the HTTP header, the HTML head, or the XML sitemap [Google Search Console Help, 2023].

Utilizing XML Sitemaps

Consider using XML sitemaps to declare hreflang attributes for large websites with multiple language versions. This method is particularly useful when adding hreflang tags to the website's HTML is not feasible [Google Developers, 2023].

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