Pages in languages other than English are indexed by Google as English

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Tagged: SEO

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September 21, 2019 at 8:31 am #509511

Alexander Krutov
Expired Member

Post count: 652

Good afternoon!
The site https://verni.com.ua has the basic language English and 2 additional languages – Russian and Ukrainian. Content is published by the author in Russian or Ukrainian. I duplicate the listing in the other languages of the site, but do not do the translation of the author’s message.

Google sees pages with text in Russian or Ukrainian as an English-language site.

In the beginning, when I opened the site for indexing by search engines, I included redirecting the user based on the language of his browser, but it was a few days. Then I turned off this mode.

Please advise me if you can change the site settings so that users in Ukraine and Russia can find the pages of the site /uk/ or /ru/.

September 21, 2019 at 8:32 am #509512

Alexander Krutov
Expired Member

Post count: 652

This reply has been marked as private.

September 21, 2019 at 1:54 pm #509530

Guust
Moderator

Post count: 29970

I am guessing that Google is treating the other language pages as duplicates because they offer little extra content.
I’ll get Paolo to have a look at your question too just in case he has anything to add.
Thanks

September 21, 2019 at 5:46 pm #509546

Alexander Krutov
Expired Member

Post count: 652

What does “offer little extra content” mean?

September 21, 2019 at 6:05 pm #509548

Guust
Moderator

Post count: 29970

If the pages are not totally translated, then there is little difference between the pages …
For example what is the difference in content between
https://verni.com.ua/losses/ukraine/ternopil-oblast/ternopil-1/backpack-loss/rjukzak-quechua-arpenaz/
https://verni.com.ua/ru/losses/ukraine/ternopolskaja-oblast/ternopol/backpack-loss-ru/rjukzak-quechua-arpenaz/
https://verni.com.ua/uk/losses/ukraine/ternopilska-oblast/ternopil/backpack-loss-uk/rjukzak-quechua-arpenaz/

Only about 5-10% is different, so Google only indexes the main one.
But let’s wait for Paolo’s comments too, this is not my expertise.

September 23, 2019 at 8:43 pm #509848

Paolo
Site Admin

Post count: 31206

Only about 5-10% is different, so Google only indexes the main one.

He is correct…

September 23, 2019 at 9:00 pm #509851

Alexander Krutov
Expired Member

Post count: 652

Paolo, good afternoon! Thank you for your answer.

It’s sudden and it changes my plan. I will no longer duplicate the listings in Russian and Ukrainian in the English part of the site. I will see how the new listings will be indexed.

September 23, 2019 at 9:08 pm #509855
Paolo
Site Admin

Post count: 31206
Let us know the results.

Remember that Google can see what language that page is meant to be:

at the top of each page you have this:
```
< html lang="en-US" class="no-js" >
```
or this
```
< html lang="ru-RU" class="no-js" >
```
or this
```
< html lang="uk-UA" class="no-js" >
```
September 23, 2019 at 9:11 pm #509856

Alexander Krutov
Expired Member

Post count: 652

Is there something missing from your answer?

September 23, 2019 at 9:14 pm #509857

Paolo
Site Admin

Post count: 31206

yes, please see now. Sorry about that, I forgot to wrap HTML in code tags.

September 25, 2019 at 4:49 pm #510215

Alexander Krutov
Expired Member

Post count: 652

So I don’t have to do anything extra? I just don’t need to duplicate untranslated listings in English?

September 25, 2019 at 5:25 pm #510231

Paolo
Site Admin

Post count: 31206

I’m not 100% sure what you are trying to do to be honest. But if you don’t have the actual translation, you should not duplicate them…

Thanks
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