A website in multiple languages opens the door to a much larger audience. But Google does have to understand which pages are translations of each other, and which version to show to which searcher. Get that wrong and a German visitor lands on your Dutch page, or your own language versions start competing with each other in the search results.
What is hreflang?
Hreflang is a small piece of code in the head of a page that says: "this page also exists in English, and here's where it lives". Google uses that information to send someone searching in English to the English version. There's also an x-default: the version shown when none of the languages fit.
How it works in Obelisk
In Obelisk you link the language versions of a page with a shared translation key. Based on that, Obelisk automatically adds the hreflang tags and the x-default to the page, and each language gets its own sitemap. No code required. The header, footer and language switcher follow the page's language too. More background in multilingual.
Tip: ask the assistant "Create an English version of this page and link it to the Dutch one". Translation and linking are then done correctly in one go.
What to watch for
- Translate the metadata too. An English page with a Dutch SEO title or meta description performs poorly in English searches.
- Translate the URL. /en/features/ works better for English searchers than /en/mogelijkheden/.
- Always link both sides. A language version without a link is just a standalone page to Google.
- Research keywords per language. A literal translation isn't always what people in that country actually type.
A concrete example
A holiday park in Limburg has a Dutch and a German site. Without linking, Google sometimes shows a searcher in Cologne the Dutch page, which is closed again immediately. With linked language versions and a German title like "Ferienpark in Südlimburg mit Hallenbad", that same searcher lands on a page in their own language, with a much better chance of a booking.
Common mistakes
Never proofreading machine-translated text, translating only the homepage and leaving the rest in Dutch, or automatically redirecting visitors based on their browser language without letting them switch themselves. That last one can even stop Google from ever seeing your other language versions. Start with your most important pages instead, translate them fully including metadata, and expand step by step. Make sure the translated pages also link to each other.
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