CODEWITHSUNDEEP
internationalizationseositemapgoogle-search-console
Giovanni Drago
Giovanni Drago

Reputation: 11

How to implement hreflang annotation for a x-default page which dynamically detect user language

I have a multi-language website (http://isbooth.com) with games in HTML5.

For each game, the site include:

example:

Following Google guidelines, I implemented hreflangs in a sitemap.xml and submitted to Google. The default pages are annotated with the hreflang="x-default", the other with their own language (Note that I don't need any localization, but only languages' management)

The Google Webmaster Tool tells that the sitemap is correct, and there is no issue with indexing.

The problem is that in the International Targeting section (GWT / Search Traffic) GWT shows the error "Sitemap provided URLs and alternate URLs in 'x-default' that do not have return tags."

In my understanding, my use of hreflang is correct and I can't figure how to get read of this error; in addition I have the suspicion that this error has some impact on site authority and Serp effectiveness.

You can see my sitemap at http://isbooth.com/Sitemap.xml

Note that if someone browse a default page with an english set browser, gets a page that is identical to the /en page, similarly for other languages: the default page is always identical to the one language specific page with the same language used by the browser

Also, I want to avoid to redirect default to /en

Any help is welcome !

Thanks

Giovanni

Upvotes: 1

Views: 897

Answers (1)

maskie
maskie

Reputation: 456

I'm afraid you can only use "x-default" in the rel="alternate". I have not found the documentation from Google that supports the use of "x-default" in the sitemap.xml

You could use moz.com's hreflang generator to make sure you are generator the right tags

Also, the language segmentation is based on results in the country's google page and not the browser's language settings. So if your browser is set in English and you are searching "isbooth.com sudoku" from Google Canada's in French, you will get your french page, and you will get your english page in English if Google.ca is in english.

Upvotes: 0

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