In a recent episode of Google’s Search Off The Record podcast, Gary Illyes, a member of Google’s search relations team, discussed concerns about improper hreflang implementation and its potential impact on SEO.
Hreflang errors: less of a problem than expected?
During the discussion, Illyes was asked about the consequences of a mismatch between hreflang annotations and the actual page content.
Specifically, we discussed scenarios where a page can be mislabeled as one language even though it contains content in another language.
Illies said:
“As I recall, I was working on implementing parsing and promoting hreflang, but the problem didn’t occur to me at the time.”
However, he noted that his first-hand experience of this was around 2016, adding:
“That was a few years ago… We’ve changed a lot of things since then, so we had to see if that would cause any issues.”
Language demotion and country promotion
Providing further context, Ileesh explained Google’s approach to language and country relevance.
“When I wrote LDCP I meant language demotion, country promotion. So, for example, if someone is searching in German and the page is in English, they will see a negative demotion in the search results.”
This suggests that while incorrect hreflang implementation may not directly cause problems, the actual language of the content still plays an important role in search relevance.
Language Matching Exceptions
Interestingly, Illyes pointed out that there are exceptions to the strict language match.
“If they’re not searching for something like, ‘How do you spell banana?’ then the query is less relevant to them, because in that case it’s not as important. Well, it is, but it’s still important. But because they’re searching for something in English, we decide that they want a page that explains how to spell banana in English, not in German.”
What this means for you
Understanding how Google handles hreflang and language mismatches can help you develop an international SEO strategy.
While Google’s system appears to be somewhat tolerant of hreflang errors, the actual language of your content is still a key factor in search relevance.
The main points are:
- While incorrect hreflang implementation will not directly penalize your site, it is best practice to ensure that your annotations accurately reflect your content.
- When it comes to search relevance, the actual language of the content seems to be more important than hreflang annotations.
- For certain queries, such as spelling or language learning topics, Google may be more flexible in showing content in different languages.
As Illyes pointed out, Google’s systems change over time, so continue to monitor Google’s official documentation and announcements for the latest international SEO best practices.
Listen to the full podcast episode below:
Featured Image: Longfin Media/Shutterstock
