Google has reportedly told the EU it won’t add fact-checking to search results or YouTube videos, nor will it use fact-checks to influence rankings or remove content.
This decision defies new EU rules aimed at tackling disinformation.
Google Says No to EU’s Disinformation Code
In a letter to Renate Nikolay of the European Commission, Google’s global affairs president, Kent Walker, said fact-checking “isn’t appropriate or effective” for Google’s services.
The EU’s updated Disinformation Code, part of the Digital Services Act (DSA), would require platforms to include fact-checks alongside search results and YouTube videos and to bake them into their ranking systems.
Walker argued Google’s current moderation tools—like SynthID watermarking and AI disclosures on YouTube—are already effective.
He pointed to last year’s elections as proof Google can manage misinformation without fact-checking.
Google also confirmed it plans to fully exit all fact-checking commitments in the EU’s voluntary Disinformation Code before it becomes mandatory under the DSA.
Context: Major Elections Ahead
This refusal from Google comes ahead of several key European elections, including:
Germany’s Federal Election (Feb. 23)
Romania’s Presidential Election (May 4)
Poland’s Presidential Election (May 18)
Czech Republic’s Parliamentary Elections (Sept.)
Norway’s Parliamentary Elections (Sept. 8)
These elections will likely test how well tech platforms handle misinformation without stricter rules.
Tech Giants Backing Away from Fact-Checking
Google’s decision follows a larger trend in the industry.
Last week, Meta announced it would end its fact-checking program on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads and shift to a crowdsourced model like X’s (formerly Twitter) Community Notes.
Elon Musk has drastically reduced moderation efforts on X since buying the platform in 2022.
What It Means
As platforms like Google and Meta move away from active fact-checking, concerns are growing about how misinformation will spread—especially during elections.
While tech companies say transparency tools and user-driven features are enough, critics argue they’re not doing enough to combat disinformation.
Google’s pushback signals a growing divide between regulators and platforms over how to manage harmful content.
Expanding and growing in new international markets is a challenge for many businesses around the world.
Often, significant effort and resources are dedicated to international strategies, whether through PPC campaigns, social media, or SEO. But do we analyze the results of these actions effectively?
By using GA4’s features effectively, businesses can analyze actionable insights to refine their approach and better connect with their audiences.
Relevant Metrics And Dimensions For Analyzing International SEO On GA4
To better understand user behavior and interactions when implementing international SEO strategies with GA4, it’s important to be familiar with a series of metrics and dimensions provided by this Google tool:
Continent: Provides an overview of the performance of users across continents.
Continent ID: Offers the UN M49 ID associated with the continent from which user activity originated.
Subcontinent: Offers more detailed analysis within each continent. For example, South America.
Subcontinent ID: Shows the UN M49 ID associated with the subcontinent from which user activity originates.
Country: Shows from which user activity originated. This is the most used dimension for comparing the performance of each market in different countries.
Country ID: Displays the ISO 3166 ID associated with the country from which user activity originated.
Region: This is the geographic region from which user activity originated. It is used to understand user behavior in particular areas within a country.
Region ID: An ID for the geographic region from which user activity originates.
City: Shows the city or town from which user activity originates.
City ID: An ID associated with the city from which user activity originated.
Language: Indicates the language of a user’s browser or device. This is a key metric for developing multilingual content strategies.
Language code: Represents the language setting of a user’s browser or device, displayed in ISO 639 format (e.g., en-us for U.S. English or en-gb for UK English).
All of these metrics and dimensions will help us properly analyze our international SEO strategies, in combination with other relevant metrics, to better understand our campaigns.
Key Reports For International SEO Strategies On GA4
Geographic Filtering On The Acquisition And Engagement Reports
Filtering reports by geographic dimensions, such as country or region, enables a detailed analysis of user behavior.
This segmentation is especially useful for identifying high-performing regions and optimizing strategies for areas with lower performance.
GA4 allows you to filter geographic dimensions depending on what you want to analyze:
Acquisition Report: This report shows how users from different regions discover and arrive at your site. Filtering by geographic dimensions, such as country, region, or city, enables the analysis of traffic across key markets.
Screenshot from GA4, December 2024
Source: Demo Google Merchandise Store, December 2024
Engagement Report: On the other side, this report reveals how users interact with your site. Metrics, such as average engagement time per session and engaged sessions, offer a deeper understanding of how your content performs. By applying geographic filters, you can analyze content performance across different regions.
Source: tiodenadal.online, December 2024
User Demographic Details Reports
These reports provide detailed insights into your audience by combining geographic data with attributes such as age, gender, and interests.
This information helps you understand who your users are within specific regions, making it easier to identify the most relevant demographic groups in various areas and adjust your content and strategies to better align with their needs and preferences.
Image from author, December 2024
Image from author, December 2024
Search Console Integration On GA4
GA4’s integration with Google Search Console is very useful for analyzing international SEO strategies.
Reports, such as Queries and Google Organic Search Traffic, provide insights into search terms and the organic performance of URLs, which can be filtered by specific countries.
This data helps refine content optimization to better target local search behaviors.
Screenshot from Google Search Console, December 2024
Leverage Events And Parameters
In GA4, events capture specific user interactions on your site, such as clicks, form submissions, or downloads, while parameters provide additional details about these actions, like location, language, or device type. Together, they offer a clear view of how users engage with your content.
We can leverage them in order to analyze international SEO strategies:
Enhanced Measurement Events: Enabling enhanced measurement in GA4 allows you to automatically track key actions, such as scroll depth, clicks on region-specific links, or interactions with videos targeted at specific countries. These pre-configured events simplify the process of analyzing international user behavior, offering useful insights without the need for complex tracking setups.
Custom Events: Additionally, you can create custom events to track interactions specific to your international audience. For example, monitor clicks on country-specific CTAs, downloads of localized content, or searches performed using region-specific keywords on your site’s internal search function.
Screenshot from GA4, December 2024
Explanation: For example, filtering by country allows us to analyze the most popular search terms users use on a site’s internal search feature. By filtering by country or other relevant dimensions, this data can help design more effective content strategies and even restructure the site architecture to better align with the needs of specific regions.
Custom Parameters: Parameters let you gather information about user behavior that is important for improving international SEO strategies. For example:
Capture user language preferences using the language parameter.
Track interactions with content variations, such as videos or forms, designed for specific markets.
By using custom parameters, we can obtain relevant information that will be useful to further analyze strategies.
GA4’s audience creation tools allow companies to create highly segmented groups of users based on geographic and behavioral attributes. For instance:
Geographic Audiences: Create audiences based on location, such as country, region, or city.
Behavioral Audiences by Location: We can build relevant audiences when combining these geographic audiences with other specific characteristics that we want to study – for example, users who purchased, those who interact with localized CTA, or more engaged users. These groups can be used to identify trends in specific regions.
Screenshot from GA4, an example of an audience called ‘Users in San Francisco’
Advanced Analysis Into User Behavior With Explorations
The Explorations reports in GA4 provide deeper insights into user behavior. These reports allow you to understand how user behavior changes by region and adjust the user experience accordingly:
Path Exploration Reports: This report maps user journeys across your site. By analyzing paths in specific regions, you can identify unique opportunities to improve user experiences for international audiences.
Source: Path Exploration Report U.S. Users, December 2024
User Cohort Analysis: Tracks how users from different countries engage with your site over time. This helps identify patterns like retention, drop-offs, or the long-term success of localized strategies.
Source: Cohort Analysis report U.S. Users, December 2024
Segment Overlap: Compares multiple audiences and highlights where they overlap. For international SEO, this report is particularly useful for identifying shared behaviors or interests between users from different or similar regions.
Source: Segment Overlap Report U.S. + California users, December 2024
Best Practices For GA4 Configuration In International SEO
In order to do all of this analysis, it is very important to have GA4 Configuration properly set up:
Define your international SEO objectives: Start by identifying what you want to achieve. Whether it’s increasing traffic from specific regions, boosting engagement on localized content, or improving conversions in targeted countries, setting clear goals helps align your GA4 setup with the data that matters most.
Set up geographic dimensions properly: Review that key dimensions like country, language, and city are configured accurately in your reports.
Leverage custom events: Design custom events to track region-specific interactions, such as downloads of localized guides or clicks on international shipping information.
Utilize enhanced measurement: Activate enhanced measurement features to capture relevant interactions automatically, such as outbound clicks to region-specific pages.
Integrate Search Console: Link GA4 data with Google Search Console to analyze target market organic search performance.
Create audiences: Group users based on location, language, or interactions, such as those who engage with multilingual content or region-specific goals. Use these audiences to analyze trends and international user behavior and interactions with your site.
Expanding into international markets is a complex but potentially rewarding challenge for companies.
By effectively leveraging GA4’s features, such as geo-filtering, events, metrics, and audience-building tools, companies can obtain powerful insights to better analyze user behavior and optimize their SEO strategies.
Many businesses create global websites hoping to replicate the success from online business in their home country in other countries.
Some companies see the return on investment put into creating multiple websites, and some companies struggle to grow their business in foreign countries.
Creating effective global websites requires attention to several essential factors to ensure they resonate with local audiences.
In this article, we learn from successful global businesses such as IKEA, McDonald’s and KFC and apply that to global website best practices.
Language And Cultural Product Adaptation
It is essential to understand and implement locally unique customer interests and preferences. In many cases, global websites are created by translating/localizing the main site multiple times.
IKEA
IKEA is known for its giant warehouse-style buildings. In the U.S. and most countries, people drive to IKEA prepared to purchase large items that can only be transported by car.
In Japan, while most people own a car, they don’t drive on a daily basis. Having cavernous warehouse stores was limiting their business potential in Japan.
In order to increase business in Japan, IKEA pivoted to tap into people shopping on foot in the bigger cities. It opened a much smaller footprint in the middle of Harajuku in 2020.
In the city center shop, people can purchase 1,000 items, which they can easily carry out, as well as place orders for larger items through a kiosk for delivery.
Based on this initial test, it also opened additional shops in the high-traffic areas of Shibuya and Shinjuku. These shops not only increased the sale of items in the stores but also enabled easy access to an additional 9,400 items available online.
Image from IKEA Japan, November 2024
While this is a physical store example, the idea of understanding the customers’ needs and putting it into practice can be applied equally to their online business as well.
Because IKEA has tailored many of its products specifically for the Japanese market, where home sizes are generally smaller, space-saving is a priority.
On its Japanese website, it emphasizes compact, multifunctional furniture that fits Japanese urban apartments, with suggestions for optimizing smaller living spaces.
McDonald’s And KFC
Similarly, both McDonald’s and KFC’s websites are localized by pushing locally popular items in each country, as shown below.
By creating special menu items that cater to local Japanese culinary preferences, McDonald’s conveys a sense of cultural sensitivity, making the brand feel more “local” rather than foreign.
Screenshot from KFC Japan website, November 2024
Screenshot from KFC USA website, November 2024
During the holiday season, the KFC Japan website prominently displays its Christmas offerings, featuring family meal packages and seasonal items.
The site encourages early reservations, as these special holiday meals are extremely popular.
Screenshot from McDonald’s Japan website, November 2024
Screenshot from McDonald’s USA website, November 2024
By understanding the local audience, you will know which products to promote and when to promote them on the site.
By promoting special web offers around local holidays and cultural events, such as Christmas in Japan or Ramadan in the Middle East, KFC and McDonald’s position themselves as a brand that celebrates local traditions. These market-specific adjustments will generate greater conversions/sales.
In many markets like Japan and India, locals tend to use mobile devices to access content.
Ensuring your website and apps are mobile-friendly with a user-friendly experience, including fast load times, simplified interfaces, and intuitive navigation that appeal to a preference for efficiency and speed.
This makes it easy for users to quickly locate nearby stores, order online, and access promotions.
Best Practices For Adapting Your Website To Global Audiences
Translate All Content
Website translation and localization projects require significant resources and budget. It is understandable that some websites are not 100% localized.
I used to sympathize with those sites, especially the ones owned by small businesses. However, with the AI advancements in localization, there is no excuse. You should translate the entire site, including user-generated content.
More than just translation, the type and depth of content reflect an understanding of local shopping preferences.
In Japan, customers highly value detailed product descriptions and customer reviews, which must be in Japanese.
This level of localized and market-specific detail aligns with the Japanese tendency to do extensive research before making a purchase.
Optimize The Website With Localized Colors, Images, And Videos
From language and product selection to seasonal promotions, adapting your site’s content to reflect local tastes and practices helps establish a sense of authenticity and resonance with users.
All too often, local markets only have the text translated, leaving the website design and media content the same across the sites.
Needless to say, the site feels much more relatable when they see images and videos that they feel familiar with. To the audience in some countries, the color scheme could unfavorably change the site’s impression.
IKEA Japan localizes the site using faces that look like those in the local market.
Screenshot from IKEA Japan website, November 2024
With free and inexpensive AI image design tools, the cost is no longer an excuse not to optimize the images.
You can also run the website through Google’s Vision API to review your images and assist in localizing alternate image text. More importantly, you can use the safe search function to flag sensitive content, as well as any colors or situational elements that might become a problem in the market.
Make It Easier For Users To Convert
It goes without saying that you need to build trust by ensuring secure transactions, reliable delivery, and buyer protections on par with local ecommerce sites.
You must integrate with local payment platforms and methods to enable your brand to become a part of the local digital landscape, making it easier for users to interact and transact.
Ensure all forms – especially those involved in engagement or conversion flow (registration, contact, order, etc.) – are adapted to the local market.
As these are your most important pages, you want to ensure that you remove any ambiguity and friction as they move through the conversion process.
Regardless of how people land on the website, organic, ads, or direct traffic – if the forms are not well-tuned for the local audience – they may abandon the form and will not convert for you, even when they want your services or products.
For example, if you take orders from foreign countries but the form is formatted for the U.S. (or wherever your HQ is), requiring information or a format not recognized by the local market, customers may be unable to complete the form.
Make your forms and checkout pages flexible enough to accept different digits and styles for phone numbers, postal codes, and addresses; ensure you don’t require a U.S. state name.
Typically, Japanese addresses are quite lengthy, combining both numbers and characters. If your form has a maximum character limit that is too short for the market, they may not be able to complete it.
If you have a multinational website, display a specific target country name at the top of the “country” selection of the form.
In addition to form localization, there are other critical website functions that should be considered.
For example, a variety of login methods and payment options are used worldwide.
In the U.S., in addition to email/ID login, many websites offer social media logins, such as LinkedIn and Facebook, as well as Google and Microsoft logins.
While it works fine in many countries, in some countries, such as China, your standard options may not be as popular or even available.
Conclusion: Building A Cohesive Global Presence
Creating a successful multinational website is a strategic investment that requires careful planning and continuous adaptation.
By focusing first and foremost on the local users’ experience, including localization and local adaptations coupled with geo-targeting, SEO, technical infrastructure, compliance, and analytics, executives can develop a website that aligns with local expectations while reinforcing a consistent brand identity.
As your global website evolves, keep listening to your audience and monitoring performance to better understand consumer behavior and adapt to the unique demands of each market to maintain a competitive edge.
The digital landscape constantly changes, and proactive adjustments will keep your brand competitive in the diverse global market.
Google Search’s market share in the UK weakened this year, with user reach dropping to 83% from 86%, according to Ofcom’s Online Nation report.
This decline comes as concerns grow over AI-powered search results, with only 18% of users confident in their accuracy.
The Rise & Fall of AI Search Adoption
Microsoft’s Bing gained popularity after adding ChatGPT in February 2023, peaking at 46% reach in the UK in April.
By May 2024, it settled at 39%, still above pre-AI levels.
This suggests the initial excitement about AI search tools is fading, and users are now more cautious with AI-generated results.
Trust Gap Emerges
Despite the widespread adoption of AI search features, trust remains a concern:
Only 18% of UK users believe AI search results are reliable
Younger users (ages 16-24) show marginally higher trust at 21%
A third of users express neutral confidence in AI-generated results
Men show higher confidence in AI search results than women
Demographics & Device Usage
The report reveals variations in search behavior across age groups and devices:
Google maintains 83% reach across smartphones, tablets, and computers
Google maintains 49% daily active users
Bing sees 39% reach, primarily driven by desktop users
Alternative search engines like DuckDuckGo show modest growth (3% reach)
Bing shows stronger performance among older users (43% of 65+ vs. 36% of 25-34-year-olds)
Mobile search dominates, with Google capturing 84% of mobile searches
Desktop usage remains stronger for traditional search engines like Bing and Yahoo
69% of UK online adults visit at least one search engine daily.
What This Means
As we approach 2025, search is changing with AI integration, but user trust remains essential.
Key points for search marketers and content creators include:
Many users still prefer traditional search methods despite the rise of AI.
Trust issues create both challenges and opportunities for content improvement.
Different age groups affect how people accept and use AI in search.
A successful strategy blends AI tools with established methods.
View AI search as an added layer rather than a replacement for current practices.
Focus on quality content and reliable information, optimizing for AI wisely where it adds value.
Methodology
The Online Nation 2024 report combines two main data sources:
Online Experiences Tracker:
7,280 UK internet users aged 13-84
Fielded May-June 2024 via YouGov panel
Standard demographic weighting applied
Ipsos iris Panel Data:
Passive tracking of 10,700 UK adults
Monitors actual device usage across mobile, tablet, and desktop
Continuous measurement through May 2024
Covers in-home and out-of-home usage
Worth noting: Some year-over-year comparisons, particularly around time spent metrics, may be affected by methodology updates. Apple News tracking began in October 2023, which impacts certain platform comparisons.
The data focuses on UK users, so global markets may show different patterns. All population estimates have standard margins of error.
Google is beginning a test that will change hotel search results for users in Germany, Belgium, and Estonia.
This test will remove features like the map and hotel listings, replacing them with regular blue links to hotel websites and comparison sites.
The experiment will only affect users in these three countries, whether searching locally or internationally.
It won’t impact users outside these countries or when searching for a specific hotel.
Compliance With The Digital Markets Act (DMA)
Google is testing these changes to follow new rules in Europe called the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
In the past year, Google has made over 20 updates. These updates include new sections and formats to make comparison sites for flights, hotels, and shopping more visible.
The results of these changes have been mixed.
Major travel aggregators and comparison sites have gained visibility. However, other businesses, like airlines, hotel operators, and small retailers, have seen a drop in free direct booking clicks by as much as 30%.
Purpose Of The Test
Google will run this test in Germany, Belgium, and Estonia to see how proposed changes affect user experience and website traffic.
Google is hesitant about this decision. The company maintains that reverting to a “ten blue links” format would disadvantage both users and businesses.
Gary Illyes, Analyst at Google, emphasized that the test is temporary and websites need not take any action during the experimental period.
Looking Ahead
The results of this test results could influence future decisions about how search engines operate in Europe and potentially shape regulations worldwide.
Google says normal search functionality will resume after the test concludes, although the timing of the conclusion is unclear.
A critical vulnerability was discovered in the WPML WordPress plugin, affecting over a million installations. The vulnerability allows an authenticated attacker to perform remote code execution, potentially leading to a total site takeover. It is listed as rated 9.9 out of 10 by the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) organization.
WPML Plugin Vulnerability
The plugin vulnerability is due to a lack of a security check called sanitization, a process for filtering user input data to protect against the upload of malicious files. Lack of sanitization in this input makes the plugin vulnerable to a Remote Code Execution.
The vulnerability exists within a function of a shortcode for creating a custom language switcher. The function renders the content from the shortcode into a plugin template but without sanitizing the data, making it vulnerable to code injection.
The vulnerability affects all versions of the WPML WordPress plugin up to and including 4.6.12.
Timeline Of Vulnerability
Wordfence discovered the vulnerability in late June and promptly notified the publishers of WPML which remained unresponsive for about a month and a half, confirming response on August 1, 2024.
Users of the paid version of Wordfence received protection eight days after discovery of the vulnerability, the free users of Wordfence received protection on July 27th.
Users of the WPML plugin who did not use either version of Wordfence did not receive protection from WPML until August 20th, when the publishers finally issued a patch in version 4.6.13.
Plugin Users Urged To Update
Wordfence urges all users of the WPML plugin to make sure they are using the latest version of the plugin, WPML 4.6.13.
They wrote:
“We urge users to update their sites with the latest patched version of WPML, version 4.6.13 at the time of this writing, as soon as possible.”
Running and maintaining global websites is not an easy task.
The good news is there are new AI tool solutions available that ease some of the work that goes into website management as well as assisting with SEO efforts.
AI technology is advancing rapidly and has been adopted into different work streams and all areas of marketing.
However, AI is not perfect and still needs refinements and human interaction. But that should not stop us from exploring and testing it out.
Here are ways you can benefit from AI to make your work with global websites more efficient and productive in areas including content, SEO, research, and management.
Global Website Content
Creating relevant content and publishing it on multiple websites in different languages requires plenty of resources. This is one of the big challenges and unavoidable tasks with global websites.
Content Translation and Localization
In the past, I always advised against using machine translation to translate original content to other languages. I hadn’t found any translation tools that produced satisfactory quality output, especially for Asian languages.
I’ve been testing different AI-powered translation tools lately and found their quality to be much improved. However, it is still not the same quality as the work of skilled human translators.
My suggestion is to use the AI tools as “go-between” solutions. Because this is one area where a lack of resources (both manpower and budget) holds the entire project back, I think it’s worth a try.
Text Translation And Localization
Let the AI tools handle the initial translation work. It still needs to be edited by humans, especially if the content covers specific industry knowledge, but at least it is in the correct language.
Before you deploy it site-wide, create the prompt based on several tests.
Prioritize the content (by type, category, dates, etc.) for human editing.
Duplicate Content
Use AI to check for duplicate content in the CMS. You can then decide whether to keep or kill reported content.
Having duplicate content is not necessarily a negative issue. Many global websites have content in the same language but each targeting a different country.
In this case, AI tools can help quickly localize the content for each target country by changing the spelling, currency, measurements, addresses, etc.
Image ALT Text Creation And Translation
The image ALT tag has been overlooked for many years. Many websites don’t use it.
Even if the main site uses it, the regional sites don’t have translated text in ALT tags. There are multiple solutions available now with AI tools baked into the image file management systems.
Some use Google’s Vision API to identify the key elements of an image and create appropriate text for the image to be auto-localized.
User Generated Content (UGC) Translation:
Because of the nature of the UGC, it is a huge challenge to translate the content as it is created.
The machine translation with an AI-powered review process is perhaps the best option out there.
Content Creation
Having content that is designed for the target audience in a specific country/region is one of the keys to a successful business.
You sometimes see a small company beat a large corporation in the online realm because a small business has an advantage in its deeper understanding of its local audience.
With the AI-assisted research project, you could quickly identify content gaps and content that satisfies the local audience’s needs.
Content Topic And Opportunity Research
AI tools can help shorten your local audience research process. It can identify the locally unique search demand and different types of information people look for in different countries or regions.
The research may also be used to identify the content gap between your site and competitor sites and give you an idea for locally unique FAQ content. You may also learn that unpopular items on the main site could perform much better in another country.
Other Ways To Improve Content
Localized Images
Images on websites support the understanding of products, corporate messages, and more. You may want to replace some images with more acceptable ones in some countries.
For example, create images with Asian models for websites targeting Asian countries.
Video Transcription And Translation
Transcribing the videos and translating them are other items I often see on the to-do list, but they are always pushed down on the priority list.
International SEO
In addition to content-related work, AI tools can support other international SEO action items.
From the technical SEO standpoint, AI tools can help in many areas, including the below:
Hreflang tag URL mapping review.
Tags and codes auto-generation review – language tag, title tag, meta description, canonical tag, etc.
Schema markup review.
Finding broken or unnecessary codes.
Depending on the size of the websites, these tasks could take many resource hours, especially for multinational and multilingual sites. With the help of AI tools, you can focus on improving the sites rather than finding them.
You can also let the AI tool analyze site crawl reports to find patterns in broken links and broken redirects and even suggest where to set redirects based on relevance and other technical SEO issues across the sites.
Data Analysis And Global Website Management
If you manage global websites or international SEO work, you know how important it is to have the same data points, KPIs, report templates, and best practice guidelines across countries.
Strengthen the governance of your global website management with AI tools.
Example Tasks
Add visualization of data in the performance reports.
Competitors analysis in each country and language.
Research local regulations.
Create visualization of task process and guidelines.
Audience analysis to create local personas.
Conclusion
We should embrace technologies such as AI tools to make our work more efficient and cost-effective. However, remember that AI tools are supporting tools and should not completely replace the work of humans.
As mentioned previously, AI tools are not perfect, and you should not let them auto-run. It is important to test the quality of their output prior to deployment.
Because of its dynamic learning capability, you want to test and improve prompts, requirements, etc., especially at the beginning.
Human reviews should be part of the process, and the settings should be updated or modified as needed.
In the latest episode of Google’s “Search Off The Record” podcast, a member of the Search Relations team suggested that Google may be moving towards automatically detecting language versions of web pages, potentially reducing the need for manual hreflang annotations.
Google’s Stance On Automatic Language Detection
Gary Illyes, a Google analyst, believes that search engines should rely less on annotations like hreflang and more on automatically learned signals.
Illyes stated during the podcast:
“Ultimately, I would want less and less annotations, site annotations, and more automatically learned things.”
He argued that this approach is more reliable than the current system of manual annotations.
Illyes elaborated on the existing capabilities of Google’s systems:
“Almost ten years ago, we could already do that, and this was what, almost ten years ago.”
Illyes emphasized the potential for improvement in this area:
“If, almost ten years ago, we could already do that quite reliably, then why would we not be able to do it now.”
The Current State Of Hreflang Implementation
The discussion also touched on the current state of hreflang implementation.
According to data cited in the podcast, only about 9% of websites currently use hreflang annotations on their home pages.
Stay tuned for any official updates from Google on this topic.
What This Means For You
This potential shift in Google’s language detection and targeting approach could have significant implications for website owners and SEO professionals.
It could reduce the technical burden of implementing hreflang annotations, particularly for large websites with multiple language versions.
The top takeaways from this discussion include the following:
It’s advisable to continue following Google’s current guidelines on implementing hreflang annotations.
Ensure that your multilingual content is high-quality and accurately translated. This will likely remain crucial regardless of how Google detects language versions.
While no immediate changes are planned, be ready to adapt your SEO strategy if Google moves towards more automatic language detection.
If you’re planning a new multilingual site or restructuring an existing one, consider a clear and logical structure that makes language versions obvious, as this may help with automatic detection.
Remember, while automation may increase, having a solid understanding of international SEO principles will remain valuable for optimizing your global web presence.
In a recent episode of Google’s Search Off The Record podcast, Gary Illyes, a Google’s Search Relations team member, addressed concerns about incorrect hreflang implementation and its potential impact on SEO.
Specifically, he addressed scenarios where a page might be incorrectly labeled as one language while containing content in another.
Illyes stated:
“As far as I remember, I worked on the parsing implementation plus the promotion implementation of hreflang, and back then, it didn’t cause problems.”
However, he also noted that his direct experience with this was from around 2016, adding the following:
“That’s a few years back… since then, we changed so many things that I would have to check whether it causes problems.”
Language Demotion & Country Promotion
Providing further context, Illyes explained Google’s approach to language and country relevance:
“When I spelled out LDCP, I said the language demotion country promotion. So, for example, if someone is searching in German and your page is in English, then you would get a negative demotion in the search results.”
This suggests that while incorrect hreflang implementation might not directly cause problems, the actual language of the content still plays a vital role in search relevance.
Exceptions To Language Matching
Interestingly, Illyes pointed out that there are exceptions to strict language matching:
“It’s less relevant to the query to the person unless you are searching for something like ‘how do you spell banana’… Because then it doesn’t really matter… well no it does… it still matters but… because you’re searching for something in English, so we would think okay you want some page that explains how to spell banana in English, not German.”
While Google’s systems appear to be somewhat forgiving of hreflang errors, the actual language of the content remains a key factor in search relevance.
Here are the top takeaways:
While incorrect hreflang implementation may not directly penalize your site, it’s still best practice to ensure your annotations accurately reflect your content.
The actual language of your content appears to be more important than hreflang annotations for search relevance.
For specific queries, like spelling or language-learning topics, Google may be more flexible in presenting content in various languages.
As Illyes noted, Google’s systems have changed over time. Continue to monitor official Google documentation and announcements for the most up-to-date best practices in international SEO.
E-E-A-T is a mix of factors that help Google determine if the content is relevant and helpful for users in order to prioritize it in their search results.
However, there is still one very important area to cover within the E-E-A-T family: Trust. Although it is the last one we approached, it is certainly not the least important. Quite the contrary.
As Google’s search quality rater guidelines indicate, Trust, which considers the extent to which the page is accurate, honest, safe, and reliable, is the most important member at the center of E-E-A-T.
No matter how experienced, expert, or authoritative a website is, if it is untrustworthy, it will have low E-E-A-T.
Image from Google’s search quality rater guidelines, May 2024
Showing trust is incredibly relevant for “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) topics. These are the ones that can have a significant impact on an individual’s or society’s health, finances, safety, security, knowledge, or well-being.
But what happens when we want to create international strategies? How can we leverage E-E-A-T to boost our international expansion and especially show that we are honest and reliable to users from all around the world?
Let’s discover some detailed actions that can be implemented to achieve these international results.
How To Show Trust To Users From All Around The World
Accessibility And Usability
One of the first steps in trying to sell a product or service internationally is to ensure that users in each region can properly access the site.
This means the website must be fast, secure, display correctly, and be usable for them. It should allow users to easily search for relevant information and purchase the product or service.
International Brand Name
Beyond making the site accessible, it is also highly recommended that consumers can find the brand easily.
Whenever possible, it is advisable to have an “international” brand or domain name that is easy to remember, spell, and look for online for users from any country worldwide, even though they don’t speak the local language.
Localization: The Key Element To Show Trust
Localization is fundamental to demonstrating to users from different regions around the world that your site is reliable and trustworthy. Each country, language, or region has its singularities.
We cannot try to sell our product with the same message and strategies to users from all target markets, as we won’t transmit enough confidence for them to see that we are the most expert, experienced, and authoritative website in our sector.
For this, when we want to sell internationally, it is very important to:
Analyze the languages spoken in each region to evaluate how and if it is a priority to include them on the website.
Transcribe, not just translate. The knowledge users have about our products or services may differ in each region. Therefore, it is key to adapt the message to each market.
Make sure that the language is displayed by default when users search for it from their location. That’s why it is very important a proper translation, and also an hreflang configuration on the site.
Understand the local buying habits of the product or service in the region and the cultural customs with its use.
Study how users search for products or services to define the best type of content to create: text, videos (e.g., tutorials or how-to’s), images (e.g., demonstrating and teaching the product’s use).
For example, when we look for the keywords “Tió de Nadal” or “Caga Tió” – which have the same meaning – a local Christmas tradition celebrated in Catalonia, Spain, the results and the type of message we have to create are for local users.
Surely, this type of search will have an informational purpose, but it can also be transactional since the tradition is already well-known in the country.
Screenshot from search for [tio de nadal], Google, May 2024
On the other hand, if we search for the same in the United States, the keyword will have a more informational aim since users are not so used to the tradition, and with this type of search, what they want to discover is more information about this custom, before seeing transactional results.
So, the type of content will be more descriptive.
Screenshot from search for [caga tio], Google, May 2024
For all these reasons, it is essential to geolocate content in each region in order to transmit sufficient confidence to potential customers.
Transmit That You Are The Safest Site
One of the main factors that can make selling on an international scale difficult is failing to demonstrate that the website is sufficiently secure.
We must remember that when a user buys one of our products, they will not be able to make physical claims regarding legal aspects, reimbursements, etc. Therefore, it is essential to accurately and properly communicate all aspects related to payment methods and shipping so users know that we are a reliable, safe, and trustworthy site.
To achieve this, it is highly recommended to:
Include the currency of each country on the product page.
Incorporate the most common payment methods used in each country. Whether it is by credit card, Bizum, or PayPal, we should include not only the payment methods we are accustomed to but also those familiar to users in the target region.
Detail the shipping system. From delivery time to return conditions, shipping company, and tracking code, we must provide all necessary information to instill confidence in a person who may live thousands of miles from where the products are located.
Screenshot from author, May 2024
Tell Who You Are With A Detailed “About Us” Page
For companies with a local focus, explaining who they are is very important. When selling on an international scale, it becomes essential.
We have to consider that the user who wants to buy our product or service may not have any prior knowledge of the business, the product we sell, or who we are.
That’s why we need to create a highly detailed “About Us” page, including information such as:
Company location and origins, with images or videos.
The manufacturing process and product creation details.
Detailed information about the team members, including links to other platforms, if possible, such as social networks.
Demonstrate knowledge of the subject matter through awards, certifications, quality seals, etc.
Include ratings and opinions from third parties.
Screenshot from author, May 2024
Reliable Customer Service
Finally, to encourage users to purchase a product or service on an international website, it is essential to demonstrate that there is reliable customer service.
We need to communicate that there are real people behind the website.
To show reliable customer service on a site, some actions we can take include:
Include a FAQ page with a focus on international questions, such as those regarding international shipping.
Provide direct and human contact options. Whether via chat, WhatsApp, phone, or email, offering users the opportunity to get their questions or doubts answered quickly by a human representative will help build confidence.
Include your location. Link it with Google My Business, complete with a detailed profile including images and information.
Display reviews of your customer service on your site so users can see the experiences of others.
Screenshot from author, May 2024
Link To Other Platforms And Sites
Finally, another action we can implement to build trust with users from around the world is to show them that we have profiles on other social networks and demonstrate how others talk about us.
To do this, we can:
Create and link to other social network profiles.
Get mentions from local influencers or sector leaders.
Get featured on local relevant websites.
Get listed on relevant directories in our sector.
Screenshot from YouTube, May 2024
Leverage Trust To Boost International Strategies
Trust is very important for YMYL topics.
However, we shouldn’t forget how important it is in other sectors or sites, such as for when we want to sell internationally.
Showing that a site is accurate, honest, safe, and reliable is also a key element in building trust with users worldwide – along with showcasing that we have experience, authority, and expertise related to our sector, products, and service.
