For businesses aiming to expand their digital presence across borders, translating their website’s content into different languages is never enough.
Thriving in the international markets actually requires a strategic technical setup to ensure each audience finds the right content. Your website must be optimized for not just local search results, but also for languages and geographical intent.
This is where the role of International SEO and hreflang tags kicks in!
International SEO, or search engine optimization, and hreflang tags are two of the most useful tools when it comes to making search engines serve the correct version of your content to users based on their language and location. However, handling these tools and using them effectively is not as easy as it seems.
Leveraging international SEO and hreflang tags demands a level of expertise and precision that only SEO service experts can consistently deliver.
In this blog, we will dive into how the top SEO agency in India seamlessly manages multilingual and multinational websites using hreflang tags and international SEO strategies, delivering exceptional results from the international markets.
Understanding International SEO
International SEO, or search engine optimization, refers to the process of optimizing your website to increase its visibility in search results across different countries and languages. It is a way to tell the search engines which countries, languages, and geographic regions across borders you are targeting for your business.
International SEO is a broad term and includes various aspects that require strategic actions. The best SEO service providers in India employ effective measures to address both multilingual and multiregional aspects of international search, making your website easily discoverable by search engines in other countries.
How SEO Service Experts Approach International SEO
International SEO is not just about translating your website’s content into different languages; rather, it is an extensive practice that requires continuous efforts, time, and resources. It is the reason why businesses turn to a professional SEO company in India when they plan to expand their reach to international markets.
With their expertise and profound knowledge, SEO expert services follow a strategic approach to international SEO that includes the following steps:
Market Research and Geo-Targeting
SEO experts begin with understanding where your audience is located and what languages they speak. They conduct in-depth market research to identify high-potential markets and analyze search demand by language and region.
Technical Infrastructure Setup
The best SEO agency in India focuses on implementing proper URL structures and optimizing hosting setup and content delivery network for your website. They ensure that your website can seamlessly handle geographic traffic distribution.
Content Localization
As mentioned earlier, content translation is not enough for international SEO. Instead, SEO experts optimize content for localized tone, cultural references, geographical dialects, and even images to resonate with specific audiences.
Hreflang Mapping and Implementation
Experts from the best SEO service in India implement hreflang across your website strategically and create a complete hreflang map. They test your website across different environments to ensure search engines correctly index every version.
Region-Specific Link Building
To improve domain authority and improve website ranking in each target country, SEO experts build region-specific backlinks. They get links from local, authoritative websites in the target market to your website effectively.
What are Hreflang Tags?
At the core of International SEO lies the hreflang tag, a small snippet of HTML code that tells search engines which language and geographical region a particular page is targeting. These tags are embedded in a website’s HTML or HTTP headers, structured in a clear and consistent way that is easy to understand.
The implementation of hreflang tags in a website’s code is a complex process and Improper implementation can lead to serious indexing problems. That’s why most businesses often turn to the best SEO company in India to handle the technical aspects of implementing hreflang tags for international SEO.
The Role of Hreflang Tags in International SEO
Hreflang tags play a crucial role in the success of an international SEO strategy. SEO agencies consider that hreflang tags are more than just technical markup, they are a strategic signal that shapes the entire international SEO approach for businesses and their websites.
Some notable ways in which hreflang tags play an important role in international SEO are as follows:
Preventing Duplicate Content Issues
Hreflang tags prevent search engines from considering identical or similar pages across different regions as duplicate content by indicating that they are for different audiences. This prevents search engines from penalising you for duplicate content.
Boosting Ranking
One of the primary advantages of hreflang tags is that they help ensure the correct page ranks in local search results. These tags make your content more likely to appear in region-specific search results, increasing your visibility.
Enhancing User Experience
Hreflang tags serve the correct content version based on the user’s language and location, creating a seamless experience from the first click. When users land on the right page immediately, they’re more likely to engage and convert.
Complex Regional Targeting
For businesses with audiences in multiple countries sharing a language, hreflang tags offer a precise way to target content. These tags combine both language and region codes, enabling you to serve nuanced content to each audience.
Better Performance Insights
With hreflang tags directing traffic accurately, you get more precise and clear data from different countries and languages in Google Analytics. This clearer data allows you to track SEO performance and get valuable insights for future optimization.
How SEO Service Experts Implement Hreflang Tags
Implementing hreflang tags requires a strategic approach and expertise in technical SEO, both carried by the best SEO agency in India. Experts at OMR Digital employ the best practices to implement hreflang tags consistently and error-free, ensuring they work effectively and deliver desired results.
Here are some common ways using which SEO service experts implement hreflang tags in a website:
HTML Tags
The use of basic HTML tags is the simplest and fastest way to implement hreflang, especially in small to medium websites. HTML tags allow you to put multiple URLs into the same tag for different language versions of the same page.
HTTP Header
Since not every page contains HTML, such as PDFs, Hreflang is implemented in the HTTP header of the page to specify the language used in different versions of it. However, this method requires advanced server-side configuration.
XML Sitemaps
Implementing hreflang tags in XML sitemaps is considered the most complicated method. However, it is perfect for large websites. Hreflang tags are embedded within sitemaps in this method, keeping page headers clean and allowing better scalability.
Hreflang with Canonical Tags
Canonical tags point to the preferred version of a page, while hreflang specifies regional variants. While this method proves effective, using canonical and hreflang together requires precision to avoid mixed signals.
Final Thoughts
Leveraging international SEO is no longer optional, it is a necessity for businesses aiming to grow globally. Whether you’re running an e-commerce platform, a SaaS product website, or a content-heavy blog, proper hreflang implementation and region-focused international SEO are the keys to success.
By partnering with the best SEO company for small business, you not only get technical expertise but also strategic guidance tailored to each international market you aim to target. With precise hreflang tags, localized content, and robust infrastructure setup, your business can thrive in diverse regions and languages across borders.