3 Tips for International Websites

MARLIN SPLITT: First things first,
make sure the attributes are valid.
Use valid language country code variations,
and then make sure that all variations link to each other.
Last but not least, make sure to also include
a self-referential link.
For example, this German page references itself along
with the English and Japanese versions.
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If your website is relevant to people in different countries,
you want to make sure Google Search knows
about the different versions of your site.
So let's look at three things you
should keep in mind for that.
All right, tip number one is to think about the right way
to set up your site for internationalization.
The most common and recommended way is to deal with
international sites is to either use local top-level domains like
[? .de ?] or [? .it ?] or so on.
Or use subdomains or subdirectories.
Each of these come with their own pros and cons, so
make sure to pick carefully and pick whatever works
best for your specific case.
Tip number two, use hreflang.
Hreflang helps Google and other search engines
to link the different versions of a page
for different countries and make sure we show
the right one to searchers.
Hreflang can be implemented via HTML tags, HTTP headers,
or in an XML sitemap.
There are a few things about hreflang
that you need to pay attention to-- most importantly,
these three things.
First things first, make sure the attributes are valid.
Use valid language country code variations,
and then make sure that all variations link to each other.
Last but not least, make sure to also include
a self-referential link.
For example, this German page references itself along
with the English and Japanese versions.
Last but not least, let users know about these versions
and link to them.
Do not automatically assume or forcefully redirect your users
to a specific version.
By linking to different language or country versions,
you give users a choice and help Googlebot
and others discover these versions as well.
And, psst, here's a free bonus tip, but don't tell the others.
My secret bonus tip--
don't overdo it with internationalization.
Pick the locales and countries that really matter to you
and you're willing to support properly.
Instead of lackluster translated pages,
make sure you have content that is
useful to the different audiences in the countries
you care about.
And make sure they have a great experience on each
of your language variations.
If you want to learn more about this,
check out our documentation on this topic as well.
Please leave us a comment if you want more technical content
on Google Search Central and what topics
we should cover in the future.
Thanks for watching this video and see you soon.
Do it.
Just do it.
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