Setting SEO region for site language versions

Setting SEO region for site language versions


SEO region is a recommendation for search engines (like Google) to display pages in a particular language in a specific region for those users who speak that language. If you have created a multilingual site, if necessary, you can specify the SEO region for each site's language version. For example, if you have a language version in the German language, you can select for search engines which region this language version belongs to, e.g., to the "Austria" region. This way, search engines will try to display the German language version's pages for German-speaking visitors in Austria.

Note: This is a feature for advanced users.
Important: After selecting the SEO region, the pages' URLs (links) in the current language version will also be changed. For instance, if page links in German started with https://exmaple.com/de/, then after selecting the SEO region "Austria", all links in this language version will start with https://example.com/de-at/, where -at indicates that the SEO region is Austria. In this case, redirects from old URLs to new ones will not be made automatically. Previous URLs will be unavailable.
Note: If you set the SEO region for the main language version of your site, its page links will not change. For the main language version, the SEO region is specified only in the page's code, and the the main language version's pages' links always start simply with a domain without a language and region identifier after it: https://exmaple.com/.

Setting SEO region

You can select one SEO region for each language version of your site. By default, the region is set to International, meaning that search engines will not consider the site's recommendation of SEO region. If you expect users from different countries to visit a specific language version your the site, you can leave the "International" region. It depends on your website promotion strategy. If you are unsure whether you need to specify the SEO region, you can also leave the "International" region.


To set a specific SEO region, follow these steps:


1. Open site settings and go to the Multilingual site section. If you haven't added language versions to your site yet, you can do it using this guide.


2. Click on the three dots next to the language version for which you want to specify the SEO region and choose the SEO region option:

3. In a new window, click on the drop-down list with the words International to select the region you need. You can start typing the country's name to find it in the list. After selecting the desired region, click the Save button:
Important: If you specify an SEO region for any language version (except for the main one), all links of pages in this language version will be changed (the URL's part after the site root will be changed; the region identifier will be added in addition to the language identifier). In this case, redirects from old URLs to new ones will not be made automatically; the pages will become inaccessible by previous URLs.

4.  Publish your site for the changes to take effect.


Done! Now, links of pages in this language version include both language and region identifiers (e.g., https://exmaple.com/de-at/, where de is the German language and -at is the Austria region), which will also be displayed in the pages' code in the hreflang attributes, if you use them.


Note: The SEO region will also affect the hreflang attributes (the region identifier will also be added, just like in the URL).
Tip: If you want to add 302 redirects from old URLs to new ones, you can do it by using this guide. If you're going to add 301 redirects, you can open any tables editor (e.g., Google Sheets) and create a table with 2 columns: from and to which URL you need to add redirects. Then send this table to us at support@SiteCliq.com, indicating which site is in question. After that, our support team will add the redirects you need. However, as a security measure, please send this table from your email address, which was used when registering on SiteCliq.



    • Related Articles

    • Setting the hreflang Attribute for Pages

      The hreflang attribute helps search engines (such as Google) to find other language versions of the current page on a multilingual site. Thus, a search engine understands that several pages are alternative and are written in different languages. It ...

    • SEO Basics

      What is SEO? SEO is a complex of actions you undertake to promote the site in the search engines. The result of the SEO mainly depends on the time and efforts invested, and it's never actually over. However, with the help of the tools available at ...

    • Setting Redirects

      The redirects may be used when you want to send traffic from any outdated URLs on your site to the new page. This option automatically sends site visitors to a different URL than the one they originally typed into their browser or selected from a ...

    • Site Indexing

      The search engines look for the information to a query in their index of sites, not the actual sites. Thus, getting into the index is super important for your SEO optimization. Google uses software known as web crawlers that look at web-pages and ...

    • Adding Your Site to the Google Search Console

      Add your site to Google Search Console (GSC) to be able to track its performance in search, request site indexation and manage different site URLs. Important: the feature of site indexing works only for Pro sites. Adding your site to the Google ...