Multilingual websites allow you to target people based on their language preferences.
But will using different languages affect your organic search rankings?
Read on to find out if there is any connection between language and improved Google rankings.
Disclaimer: Language is a ranking factor
If you want to reach people who speak English, your content should be written in English.
However, the same English content may not rank well in a market dominated by Chinese, Arabic, or Spanish.
Companies that want to reach customers who speak different languages in a specific country/region can do so by creating content in multiple languages.
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So it seems logical that language plays a role in how Google ranks pages, right?
You can use the following methods to tell search engines their target language and country/region.
The first option is to use the hreflang attribute, which tells the search engine the target language and country of the page.
The second option is to use the content language meta tag, which tells the search engine the target language and country of the page.
In these two examples, hreflang and meta tags tell search engines that the page is for English speakers in the UK.
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You can use the top-level domain name of a specific country, for example https://domain.it/ For the Italian website. This tells search engines that the entire site is aimed at Italians.
In addition, you can use subdirectories to separate content by language and country.An example is found below https://domain.com/en-us/, This will be aimed at people who speak English in the United States.
Evidence of language as a ranking factor
Google provides in-depth advice on how to manage multi-regional and multi-language sites in the Google Search Center Advanced search engine optimization part. It explains how to use the HTML tags, meta tags, and URL structure discussed above to tell Google different language versions.
In addition, Google’s Their explanation How the search algorithm works. It states:
“Search settings are also an important indicator of which results you may find useful, such as whether you have set your preferred language or selected SafeSearch (a tool that helps filter out explicit results).”
If searchers set English as their preferred language and Canada as their location, websites that target English-speaking Canadians using the following methods will be more likely to surpass websites that do not have any language or country regulations:
- https://domain.ca/en/
- https://domain.com/en-ca/
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Google also recommends the use of canonical tags in certain situations.
“If you provide similar or duplicate content on different URLs in the same language as part of a multi-regional site (for example, if example.de/ and example.com/de/ both display similar German content), you should choose preferred Version, and use the rel=”canonical” element and hreflang tag to ensure that the correct language or regional URL is provided to searchers.”
In Google’s advanced SEO document on merging duplicate URLs, they continue to discuss how canonical tags and language work together.
“Different language versions of a page are considered duplicates only when the main content is in the same language (that is, if only the header, footer, and other non-critical text are translated, but the main text remains the same, then the page Is considered a duplicate).”
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Based on their standardized precautions, they recommend that you:
“Specify the canonical page when using the hreflang tag. Specify the canonical page in the same language, or if the canonical page does not exist in the same language, specify the best alternative language.”
Language as a ranking factor: our judgment
Language is discussed on Google’s page on how search algorithms work. You can also find the language under the advanced SEO documentation in the Google Search Center.
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Therefore, although Google has not officially confirmed that it is a ranking factor, the language and country/region settings do affect the search visibility of users who specify a specific language and location.
Therefore, we believe that language is an almost confirmed Google ranking factor.
Featured image: Paulo Bobita/SearchEngineJournal
