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luni, 14 aprilie 2014

Getting hreflang Right: Examples and Insights for International SEO

Posted: 13 Apr 2014 05:14 PM PDT

Most of us will remember the days in SEO where geotargeting was nearly impossible, and we all crawled to the shining example of Apple.com as our means of showcasing what the correct search display behaviour should be. Well, most of us weren't Apple, and it was extremely difficult to determine how to structure your site to make it work for international search. Hreflang has been a blessing to the SEO industry, even though it's had a bit of a troubled past.

There's been much confusion as to how hreflang annotations should work, what is the correct display behaviour, and if the implementation requires additional configuration such as the canonical tag or WMT targeting.

This isn't a beginner- or even intermediate-level post, so if you don't have a solid feel for hreflang already, I'd recommend reading through Google's documentation before diving in.

In today's post we're going to cover the following:

How to check international SERPs the right way
What should hreflang do and not do
Examples of hreflang behaviour
Important tools for the serious international SEO
Tips from my many screw-ups, and successes

Section 1: How to check international SERPs the right way

I've said this once, and I'll say it again: Know your Google search parameters better than your mother. Half the time we think something isn't working, we don't actually know how to check. Shy of having an IP in every country from which you want to check Google results, here is the next best thing:

For example, if want to mimic a Spanish user in the US:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=es&gl=us&pws=0&q=seo

Or if I want to impersonate an Australian user:
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&gl=au&pws=0&q=seo

If you want a full list of language/country codes that Google uses, please visit the Google CCTLDs language and reference sheet. If you want the Google docs version go here, or if you want a tool to do this for you, check out Isearchfrom.

Section 2: What should hreflang do and not do

hreflang will not:

Replace geo-ranking factors: Just because you rank #1 in the US for "blue widgets" does not mean that your UK "blue widgets page" will rank #1 in the UK.
Fix duplicate content issues: If you have duplicate copies of your pages targeting the same keywords, it does not mean that the right country version will rank because of hreflang. The same rules apply to general SEO; when there are exact or nearly exact duplicates, Google will choose which page to rank. Typically, we see the version with more authority ranking (authority can be determined loosely by #links, TBPR, DA, PA, etc.).

You might be wondering about duplicate content and Panda, which is a valid concern. I personally haven't seen or heard of any site with international duplicate content being affected by Panda updates. The sites I have analyzed always had some sort of international SEO configuration, however, whether it was WMT targeting or hreflang annotations.

Hreflang will:

Help the right country/language version of your cross-annotated pages appear in the correct versions of *google.*

Section 3: Examples of hreflang behaviour

Case 1: CNN.com

Configuration:

<head> hreflang, 302 redirect on homepage, and subdomain configuration

Sample of hreflang annotations:

<link href="http://www.cnn.com" hreflang="en-us" rel="alternate" title="CNN" type="text/html"/>

<link href="http://mexico.cnn.com" hreflang="es" rel="alternate" title="CNN Mexico" type="text/html"/>

What should happen according to the targeting?

Cnn.com is seen in EN-US and any Spanish queries should display Mexico.cnn.com

What actually happens?

Take a look at the US results for yourself.

Take a look at the Mexican results for yourself.

Let's try to explain this behaviour:

Cnn.com actually 302's to edition.cnn.com; this is regular SEO behaviour that causes the origin page URL to display in search resuls and the content comes from the redirect.
Mexico.cnn.com is not the right answer for "es" (Spanish language) IMO, because it's the Mexican version and should be annotated as "mx-es" ;)
Since cnnespanol.cnn.com exists and seems to have worldwide news, I would use this as the "ES" version.
Cross hreflang annotations are missing, so the whole thing isn't going to work anyways ......

Case 2: play.google.com

Configuration:

<head> hreflang, language/country variations and duplicate content

Sample of hreflang annotations:

*FYI - I've shortened this for simplicity

x-default - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com....

en_GB - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com....

en - href https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com....

What should happen according to the targeting?

X-default for non annotated versions, GB page should display in Google.co.uk

What actually happens?

Take a look at the results for yourself

Take a look at the UK results for yourself

Let's try to explain this behaviour:

One thing you may not notice is that the EN, X default, and GB version are almost entirely duplicate (around 99%). Which one should the algorithm choose? This is a good example of hreflang not handling dupe content.
The GB version doesn't display in UK search results, and the rankings are not the same (US ranking is higher than UK on average). The hreflang annotation is using the underscore rather than the standard hyphen (EN_GB versus EN-GB)
They use a self-referencing canonical, which, contrary to some beliefs, has absolutely no effect on the targeting

Case 3: Musicradar.com

Configuration:

<head> hreflang, subdomain & cctld, country targeting and x-default

Sample of hreflang annotations:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-gb" href="http://www.musicradar.com/" />

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="http://www.musicradar.com/" />

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-us" href="http://www.musicradar.com/us/" />

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr-fr" href="http://www.musicradar.com/fr/" />

What should happen according to the targeting?

en.softonic.com should appear for all "en" queries and softonic.it for all "it" queries

What actually happens?

See the Canadian results for yourself

See the American results for yourself

See the French results for yourself

Let's try to explain this behaviour:

Perfect example of perfect implementation - you guys & gals working with Musicradar are pretty great. You get the honorary #likeaboss vote from me :)
One thing to notice is that they double list the EN-GB page also as the X-default
The English sitelink in the French results is pretty weird, but I think this is the perfect situation to escalate to Google as their implementation is correct as far as I can tell.

Case 4: Ridgid.com

Configuration:

XML sitemaps hreflang, subfolders, rel canonical and dupe content

Sample of hreflang annotations:

<loc>https://www.ridgid.com/</loc>

<xhtml:linkhreflang="en-US" href="https://www.ridgid.com/" rel="alternate"/>

<xhtml:link hreflang="en-CA" href="https://www.ridgid.com/ca/en" rel="alternate"/>

<xhtml:link hreflang="en-PH" href="https://www.ridgid.com/ph/en" rel="alternate" />

What should happen according to the targeting?

Ridgid.com should appear in the US, ridgid.com/ca/en should appear for Canadian - English queries (google.ca) and ridgid.com/ph/en should appear in Google Philippines for English queries.

What actually happens?

Check out the Canadian results for yourself

Check out the Philippines results for yourself

Let's try to explain this behaviour:

All 3 homepages are almost exactly identical, hence duplicate content
The Canadian version contains <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.ridgid.com/" /> - that means it's being canonicalized to the main US version
The Philippines version does not contain a canonical tag
Google is choosing which is the right duplicate version to show, unless there is a canonical instruction

Section 4: Tools for the serious International SEO

Essentials:

Reliable rank tracker that can localize: Advanced Web Ranking, Moz, etc...
Crawler that can validate hreflang annotations in XML sitemaps or within <head>: The only tool on the market that can do this, and does it very well, is Deepcrawl.

Other nice-to-haves:

Your own method of "gathering" international search results on scale. You should probably go with proxies.
Your own method of parsing XML sitemaps and cross checking (even if you use something like Deepcrawl, you'll need to double check).
Obvious, but worth a reminder: Google webmaster tools, Analytics, access to server logs so you can understand Google's crawl behaviour.

Section 5: Tips from many screw-ups and successes

Use either the <head> implementation or XML sitemaps, not both. It can technically work, but trust me, you'll probably screw something up - just stick to one or the other.
If you don't cross annotate, it won't work. Plain and simple, use Aleyda's tool to help you.
Google says you should self-reference hreflang, but I also see it working without (check out en.softonic.com). If you want to play safe, self reference; we don't know what Google will change in the future.
Try to eliminate the need for duplicate content, but if you must, it's okay to use canonical + hreflang as long as you know what you're doing. Check out this cool isolated test which is still relevant. Remember, mo' dupes, mo' problems.
Hreflang needs time to work properly. At a bare minimum, Google needs to crawl both cross annotations for the switch to happen. Help yourself by pinging sitemaps, but be aware of at least a 2-day lag.
You can double-annotate a URL when using X-default, in case you were afraid to. Don't worry, it's cool.
Make sure you're actually having a problem before you go ranting on webmaster forums. Double check what you're seeing and ask other people to check as well. Check your Google parameters and personalized results!
You can 302 your homepage when you're using a country redirect strategy. Yes, I know it's crazy, yes, a little bird told me and I throughly tested this and didn't see a loss. There's 2 sites I know of using this, so check them out: The Guardian & Red Bull.

Closing, burning question: You might be asking yourself, how the heck did he find so many examples? Or maybe not, but I'm going to tell you anyway.

My secret sauce is Nerdydata.com, and if you didn't know about this beautiful site, I hope that Nerdydata.com gives me a free t-shirt or something for telling you.

I find most SEOs who know about the tool are using it for useless stuff like meta tags (this is my own opinion), but what it really should be used for is reverse engineering things like hreflang and schema.org to find working examples. For example, a footprint you might use is hreflang="en-us" and you'll find a tonne of examples.

Here's a few to get you started:

marketo.com	asos.com	99designs.com	sistrix.com
mozilla.org	agoda.com	emirates.com	trivago.com
salesforce.com	techradar.com	symantec.com	rentalcars.com
softonic.com	aufeminin.com	alfemminile.com	moo.com
istockphoto.com	ea.com	freelotto.com	softonic.it
americanexpress.com	zara.com	xero.com	trustpilot.com
viadeo.com	marriott.com	gofeminin.de	here.com
hotels.com	enfemenino.com	ringcentral.com	mailjet.com

That's it folks, hopefully you've learned a thing or two. Good luck in your international adventures and feel free to say hi on Twitter. :)

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Seth's Blog : Trust and attention, the endless dance

Trust and attention, the endless dance

The two scarce elements of our economy are trust and attention.

Trust is scarce because it's not a simple instinct and it's incredibly fragile, disappearing often in the face of greed, shortcuts or ignorance.

And attention is scarce because it doesn't scale. We can't do more than one thing at a time, and the number of organizations and ideas that are competing for our attention grows daily.

The dance happens because often, it seems as though we need to trade trust in exchange for attention. We have to rely on gimmicks, or overpromise and hype in order to get people to, "look at me!" And of course, the dance happens because once attention is attained, asking for trust merely slows things down. The most viral ideas ask for nothing more than a click from your mouse, a share, more attention gained.

And so we find trusted brands and individuals rarely on the top of the attention list. And those that pay the price to grab some momentary attention almost always do it at the cost of trust.

• Email to a friend •

duminică, 13 aprilie 2014

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

French Protest Against Austerity and Prime Minister Valls
Ukraine Announces Full-Scale Army Operation on Pro-Russian Militants in Seized Buildings; Verge of Civil War; Russia Calls for Emergency UN Meeting
State Department Cannot Account for Billions of Contracts; It Can Account for $400,000 for Camel Statue in Pakistan

French Protest Against Austerity and Prime Minister Valls

Posted: 13 Apr 2014 08:32 PM PDT

The French have taken their crusade against austerity to the streets. Organizers say 100,000 hit the streets, government officials say 25,000.

The truth is likely to be somewhere in the middle, but as noted numerous times recently, prime minister Manuel Valls is in the spotlight, and not in a good way.

Via translation from Les Echos: Left Take Protest in the Streets Against Austerity.

Several thousand people demonstrated on Saturday against austerity and the economic plan of the government in the first step of the "Left Opposition" held since the defeat of PS in municipal elections and the arrival of prime minister Manuel Valls.

Holding placards "Let's send Vallser austerity" or "Holland's enough," the protesters marched between Republique and Nation to the call of the Left Front, the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA), several union federations and associations .

They were 25,000 to manifest according to the prefecture of police, 100,000 according to organizers.

The leaders of the Left Front, Pierre Laurent and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, were present at the head of the procession alongside the Greek leader of the leftist SYRIZA and candidate of the European left to the President of the European Commission, Alexis Tsipras.

"This is a message sent to the government," said Jean-Luc Mélenchon, co-chairman of the Left Party, press. "There is a left in this country and it is not acceptable for Hollande to apply a right wing economic policy. "

"The message is clear, Manuel Valls begins with a first event, and this is important because it means that there is a new political sequence that opens," said his side Olivier Besancenot, the NPA, to the press.

"This is the first manifestation of the left opposition to the government," he said.

Manuel Valls has faced a sling of opposition from the left who claim Hollande's shift in its policy as too rightist.

The left requests Hollande abandon the Covenant of responsibility that provides relief loads of companies in exchange for hiring. This iconic economic measure of François Hollande is seen by its critics as a blank check to the employers.

According to a BVA poll published Saturday by Le Parisien-Aujourd'hui en France, 60% of French people doubt the ability of Manuel Valls to reduce unemployment and 56% think he will not be effective to "allow social justice. "

The European elections are on May 25. This march against austerity is an opportunity for the left to the left to make its voice heard.

After participating in a disorganized municipal elections in late March, the PCF and PG jointly launched the campaign Friday evening for polling.

"The European elections will confirm the political verdict is that people are fed up with the right wing policies of François Hollande," said Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

What amazing irony. The French are fed up with the "right wing" policies of one of the biggest socialists on the planet.

The French have a right to be upset, at themselves of course. They elected Hollande, and the socialists are on the verge of running France into the ground.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Ukraine Announces Full-Scale Army Operation on Pro-Russian Militants in Seized Buildings; Verge of Civil War; Russia Calls for Emergency UN Meeting

Posted: 13 Apr 2014 01:15 PM PDT

In what some call "crunch time" others a worst case scenario, Ukraine Announces Full-Scale Army Operation on Pro-Russian Militants in Seized Buildings.

Ukraine's president says a full-scale operation involving the army will be launched in the east after pro-Russian militants seized government buildings.

Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said he would not allow a repetition of what happened in Crimea which was annexed by Russia last month.

His live televised address from parliament came after pro-Russian forces targeted half a dozen cities.

An urgent meeting of the UN Security Council will be held in New York.

The meeting, at 20:00 New York time (midnight GMT), was called for by Moscow, which has strongly criticised Kiev's plan to use its armed forces in eastern Ukraine.

Responding to Mr Turchynov's address, a Russian foreign ministry spokesman said the plan to use the armed forces was "criminal" and caused "particular indignation".

Ukraine was, the spokesman said, "waging war against its own people".

Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen's statement on Sunday drew parallels with some aspects of last month's seizure of Crimea.

He said the "reappearance of men with specialised Russian weapons and identical uniforms without insignia, as previously worn by Russian troops during Russia's illegal and illegitimate seizure of Crimea, is a grave development".

On Saturday, armed men took over police stations and official buildings in Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Druzhkivka.

Similar accounts emerged of armed men dressed in camouflage arriving in buses in Sloviansk and Kramatorsk and storming the police stations.

BBC reporters in Sloviansk said the gunmen were well-organised and quickly established control throughout the town. Checkpoints had been set up on the main roads into the town.

Troubled Areas

Crunch Time

Bloomberg reports 'Crunch Time' for U.S., EU as Pro-Russians Battle Ukraine Forces

U.S. and European leaders trying to stop the further destabilization of Ukraine have reached "crunch time" as pro-Russian separatists and security forces shoot at each other in the town of Slovyansk, analysts said.

Envoys from Ukraine, Russia, the U.S. and European Union are due to sit down in Geneva on April 17 to look for ways to end the crisis touched off by Russia's takeover of Ukraine's Crimean region last month. Agreement may have become a more distant prospect today as camouflaged gunmen fired on government forces near Slovyansk, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) from the Russian frontier in eastern Ukraine. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk described the situation as a "worst-case scenario."

"This is crunch time for the West's response to Russia's attempts to assert its influence over eastern Ukraine," said Nicholas Spiro, founder of Spiro Sovereign Strategy. "This is supposed to be the trigger for more meaningful economic and trade sanctions against Russia. We're now going to see the extent to which the West is unified in its willingness to face down Russia."

Russia Calls for Emergency UN Meeting

In response to the violence and threats of further violence Russia Seeks UN Meeting.

Russia called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council tonight after Ukrainian security forces battled pro-Russian gunmen in the eastern town of Slovyansk.

The Security Council session was scheduled for 8 p.m. in New York as the U.S. and Russia's allies traded accusations over who was behind the violence.

Camouflaged gunmen fired on units deployed by the government in Kiev in an anti-terror operation near Slovyansk, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) from the Russian frontier, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said today on Facebook. One serviceman was killed and five were wounded, with an unknown number of dead on the separatist side, he said.

'Worst-Case Scenario'

"Over the past few hours we've witnessed the worst-case scenario playing out in Ukraine," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who has advocated a strong response to Russia, said in an interview with Radio Zet in Warsaw.

One person was killed and nine were wounded in Slovyansk, news service Interfax reported, citing Donetsk regional Governor Serhiy Taruta. It didn't give details on who the casualties were.

Russian state-run Rossiya 24 TV said Ukrainian pro-Russian "self-defense" forces led by an Afghan War veteran had spread across Slovyansk and troops allied to the government in Kiev arrived in armored personnel carriers and by helicopter.

Verge of Civil War

Unfortunately, evidence suggests Ukraine is on the verge of a civil war.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

State Department Cannot Account for Billions of Contracts; It Can Account for $400,000 for Camel Statue in Pakistan

Posted: 13 Apr 2014 11:35 AM PDT

The state department cannot account for $6 billion in paid bills. The contracts are missing. Did the contracts even exit? If not the money was stolen.

The US State Department is unable to explain how it spent billions of dollars worth of contract funds in areas throughout the world, according to a newly unveiled report by the department's internal watchdog.

The Office of Inspector General explained in a March 20 "management alert" to department leaders that approximately $6 billion has gone unaccounted for over the past six years. The note said the number of missing documents "exposes the department to significant financial risk" and is a dangerous lack of oversight.

"It creates conditions conducive to fraud, as corrupt individuals may attempt to conceal evidence of illicit behavior by omitting key documents from the contract file," the inspector general wrote. "It impairs the ability of the Department to take effective and timely action to protect is interests and, in turn, those of taxpayers."

State Department to spend $400,000 for Camel Statue in Pakistan

Meanwhile some of the things the state department is wasting taxpayer dollars on is simply absurd.

For example, please note that the State Department will Spend $400,000 for Camel Statue in Pakistan.

The State Department plans to spend $400,000 in taxpayer dollars to purchase a camel statue for the new American embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan.

The sculpture by artist John Baldessari depicts a fiberglass camel staring into the eye of an oversized needle in play on a passage from the New Testament about the difficulty the wealthy have in entering heaven, BuzzFeed reported.

According to a procurement document, the 500-pound, fiberglass, aluminum, stainless-steel, acrylic and painted "Camel Contemplating a Needle" will be displayed at the new embassy compound in Islamabad, which is estimated to be fully completed by 2016.

"This artist's product is uniquely qualified," the document says. "Public art which will be presented in the new embassy should reflect the values of a predominantly Islamist country."

The department came under scrutiny in December after commissioning a $1 million sculpture to be installed at new building at the American embassy in London in 2017. The purchase was defended as a "good use" of the agency's resources.

Camel Contemplating Needle

The State Department says $400,000 for that statue is a "bargain". I suggest the statue is clearly a waste of taxpayer money.

Can someone even tell me how a Christian biblical reference reflects values of a predominantly Islamist country? If it doesn't, people in Pakistan will object, and the statue will be taken down.

Even if the statue does reflect Islamist values, should the state department be promoting Islam or any other religion?

Is the statue even religiously accurate?

There are some interesting answers in a discussion on the Camel and the Eye of the Needle on the Guardian.

Some suggest it's possible there is a mistranslation of similar sounding words, one meaning camel, the other rope. More likely the "needle" refers to a narrow gate in the walls of Jerusalem.

One person commented ...

The "Eye of the Needle" was indeed a narrow gateway into Jerusalem. Since camels were heavily loaded with goods and riders, they would need to be un-loaded in order to pass through. Therefore, the analogy is that a rich man would have to similarly unload his material possessions in order to enter heaven.

Walls of Jerusalem

Here is an image of walking through security at the Needle Gate of the Wall of Old Jerusalem.

Religious debate aside, we waste money on absurd things.

Of course with trillions of dollars sloshing around, perhaps we should be grateful that only $6 billion in contracts is missing.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

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Seth's Blog : The right moment

The right moment

You might be waiting for things to settle down. For the kids to be old enough, for work to calm down, for the economy to recover, for the weather to cooperate, for your bad back to let up just a little...

The thing is, people who make a difference never wait for just the right time. They know that it will never arrive.

Instead, they make their ruckus when they are short of sleep, out of money, hungry, in the middle of a domestic mess and during a blizzard. Whenever.

As long as whenever is now.

• Email to a friend •

luni, 14 aprilie 2014

Section 1: How to check international SERPs the right way

Section 2: What should hreflang do and not do

hreflang will not:

Hreflang will:

Section 3: Examples of hreflang behaviour

Case 1: CNN.com

Configuration:

Sample of hreflang annotations:

What should happen according to the targeting?

What actually happens?

Let's try to explain this behaviour:

Case 2: play.google.com

Configuration:

Sample of hreflang annotations:

What should happen according to the targeting?

What actually happens?

Let's try to explain this behaviour:

Case 3: Musicradar.com

Configuration:

Sample of hreflang annotations:

What should happen according to the targeting?

What actually happens?

Let's try to explain this behaviour:

Case 4: Ridgid.com

Configuration:

Sample of hreflang annotations:

What should happen according to the targeting?

What actually happens?

Let's try to explain this behaviour:

Section 4: Tools for the serious International SEO

Section 5: Tips from many screw-ups and successes

Closing, burning question: You might be asking yourself, how the heck did he find so many examples? Or maybe not, but I'm going to tell you anyway.

duminică, 13 aprilie 2014

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