Hi guys, quick question on Geo targeting. I have a client that has a single .com domain, in English. However they target all over the world. They dont want to use country specific domains etc. Am I right in thinking implementing hreflang tags on the site can help signal to Google the countries they are targeting?

Violet Lamb: **even though there is only one version of the site

Cooper Watson: It more than likely wont hurt anything, if the markup is accurate.

Killian Joseph: Accuracy is paramount. It all has to fit together. Im fairly sure I remember John Mueller saying that if you get one language wrong, the rest will be ignored.

Cooper Watson: Google (probably): Hey, look, English. That was hard.

Charlie Pittman: Killian Joseph: are you sure it cancels out the whole set? In my understanding, Google just ignores the part of set where the mistake is.

Mason Kelley: Charlie Pittman: do you fully rely on Google algorithms or the advise of Google employees. Doing that you may have a bad outcome. Because I do not fully rely on them, and hat is why I am happy in business.

Killian Joseph: Charlie Pittman: Mate, I am old and my memory is not as sharp as Id like it to be. Thats why I said, Im fairly sure I remember. Im happy to accept that your understanding is accurate.

Charlie Pittman: Killian Joseph: No worries mate. The topic of hreflang seems to be fairly simple, yet many people get it wrong: according to some sources, its the top of the mistake list.

Charlie Pittman: Mason Kelley: Yes, thats where I usually start. I know, some of the more experienced colleagues have advised against doing so, but I know the cases when people ignored the Google advice and that caused a disaster. At the same time, some of the most prominent names in the SEO community follow what John Muellern has to say in the Hangouts session. By the way, Im glad youre happy in business.

Nadia Hopkins: Speaking of John Mueller, this from recent Webmasters Hangout, Make Same Language, Different Country Page Versions Unique to Avoid Being Folded TogetherInternational sites with different country versions with the same language can be problematic if Go…See more

Charlie Pittman: True Nadia Hopkins:. We had the same problem. For example, a title would be from an Austrian site whereas a description came from a German site.

Nadia Hopkins: Regionalized languages EN-gb, EN-au, EN-us can set up pages as targets for indexation in those corresponding Googles. But the content on the page had better warrant it, e.g. vernacular, spelling, currency, payment methods. Otherwise, it’s complex and may provide little benefit.

Violet Lamb: Thanks guys. Its a bit of a tricky one. The client doesnt want the hassle of multiple domains, and they definitely wont create separate languages. So Im working with a single English language. www.domain.com trying to target 20 countries! 😣. My original idea was put in the various hreflang tags such as en-gb en-us etc and hope Google pics up the scent. Haha. Am I crazy trying to this hack?

Domain Name Registration and Web Hosting | Domain.com
domain.com

Samara Yates: Hreflang doesnt work like that. It will be ignored.

Violet Lamb: Any tips youd recommend for this scenario. Obviously a few backlinks from targeted countries would help. What about CDNs? Or any other recommendations?

Mason Kelley: I do not recommend for your case any hreflang because that is not the way it works anyway. And be very careful playing with that feature. It can burn bad.Do you write US English or UK English or AU English? Then the language you use, is the right one.

Mason Kelley: Violet Lamb: local citations and social media (targeting audience of those countries) is a very effective strategy. At least it works with all my customers. And dont avoid good nofollow links. They do have value for different factors, just not for PageRank.

Remi Grant: If you are focusing on Australia create a directory in server as www.website.com/au & copy the site to that directory. Then create a webmasters for it and change the targeted country.

Website.com
website.com

Charlie Pittman: You wont see any benefits from using hreflang tags this way. They are used to signal Google what kind of content should be served to what audience.

Mason Kelley: How can you add hreflang if each country does not have an own domain, or sub-domain, or directory? About the language if you have a site only in English, ask yourself: Do you write US English or UK English or AU English. Then the language you use, is the right one.

Violet Lamb: Thanks everyone. Thanks frustrating thing is the obvious solutions are not possible. Ill try out the local citations and push them for more of social presence. 👍

Dallas Cunningham: If you want to matter in a country then drive traffic from that country.

Mason Kelley: If you prefer an advise from John Mueller from Google.Webmaster Question: hreflang tag, is this something of an SEO requirement for us to implement or not necessary at the moment? Let’s say we are just targeting US only.Johns Mueller Answer: Hreflang is definitely not requried. If you just have one version of your content, it doesn’t do anything anyway. Use it if you see the wrong country/language version ranking, otherwise you probably don’t need it.I still stick to my previous comments.

Noah Guerrero: Here: Schema.org

serviceArea – schema.org
schema.org