How Do You Manage Schema Markup For Multilingual Content?

Story Based Question

You’re managing a global online store that sells electronics across multiple countries. Your site has multiple language versions, such as English for the US, Spanish for Spain, and German for Germany. You know that schema markup helps search engines understand your content better, and you want to use it for your product pages. But, since you have multiple languages for the same products, you’re unsure how to handle schema markup for these different language versions. How can you effectively manage schema markup for multilingual content?

Exact Answer

To manage schema markup for multilingual content, use the @language attribute for each language version, implement it on individual language pages, and include the correct hreflang tags to point to the language or regional version of the page.

Explanation

When you have multilingual content on your website, it’s essential to ensure that search engines understand not only the content of the page but also its language and region. Schema markup plays a key role in enhancing your visibility in search results by providing additional structured data for search engines to process.

Here’s how you can manage schema markup across different language versions:

1. Use Language-Specific Schema Markup

For each language version of a page, you need to adjust the schema markup accordingly. The markup should reflect the language of the content on that particular page. Google’s structured data guidelines recommend that you specify the language of the schema using the @language attribute.

• Why This Matters: When you implement schema markup on a multilingual page, it tells search engines that this version of the content is specifically tailored for users speaking that language.
  • Action: On a Spanish page for your product (say, a smartphone), you’d mark up your product using Spanish language-specific schema:
    
    {
    “@context”: “https://schema.org”,
    “@type”: “Product”,
    “name”: “Smartphone de última generación”,
    “description”: “Un teléfono inteligente con características avanzadas.”,
    “sku”: “12345”,
    “offers”: {
    “@type”: “Offer”,
    “priceCurrency”: “EUR”,
    “price”: “499.99”
    },
    “@language”: “es”
    }

2. Implement Schema Markup on Each Language Version

If you have separate pages for each language (e.g., English, Spanish, and German), each page should have its own schema markup that corresponds to the content in that language. This ensures that search engines correctly interpret and display the information for the appropriate audience.

• Why This Matters: Providing language-specific schema helps avoid confusion and ensures search engines show the right content in search results based on the user’s language preference.
  • Action: Implement schema markup individually for each language page. For example, on your German page, you’d include German content in the schema, as shown below:
    
    {
    “@context”: “https://schema.org”,
    “@type”: “Product”,
    “name”: “Smartphone der neuesten Generation”,
    “description”: “Ein Smartphone mit fortschrittlichen Funktionen.”,
    “sku”: “12345”,
    “offers”: {
    “@type”: “Offer”,
    “priceCurrency”: “EUR”,
    “price”: “499.99”
    },
    “@language”: “de”
    }

3. Use hreflang Tags Along with Schema Markup

To further assist search engines in understanding which version of your content to display based on the user’s region or language, you should use hreflang tags in conjunction with your schema markup. These tags signal to search engines that your pages have content for specific languages or regions.

• Why This Matters: Hreflang tags help prevent issues with duplicate content and ensure that users are served the right language or regional page, improving their experience and your SEO performance.
  • Action: On the Spanish product page, add hreflang tags that specify the language and region:
    
    <link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”es” href=”https://example.com/es/producto/smartphone” />
    <link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”de” href=”https://example.com/de/product/smartphone” />
    <link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”en” href=”https://example.com/en/product/smartphone” />

4. Ensure Structured Data Is Consistent Across Pages

While each language version needs its own schema markup, it’s important to keep the data consistent. For example, the price, product name, and other details should remain the same across languages but localized for each audience. This consistency helps search engines understand that the same product is being offered across different languages.

• Why This Matters: Consistency across language versions improves the chances of your pages being correctly indexed and ranked in their respective markets.
  • Action: Double-check that the schema markup is consistent in terms of product details (like price, name, and description) while making sure the content is localized (like translating product descriptions and adjusting currencies).

Example

Let’s say you sell a laptop on your site and want to implement schema markup for three language versions:

1. English (US): https://example.com/us/laptop
2. Spanish (Spain): https://example.com/es/laptop
3. German (Germany): https://example.com/de/laptop

English Page Schema Markup

On the English page, your schema would look like this:

{
“@context”: “https://schema.org”,
“@type”: “Product”,
“name”: “Latest Model Laptop”,
“description”: “A high-performance laptop for professionals.”,
“sku”: “12345”,
“offers”: {
“@type”: “Offer”,
“priceCurrency”: “USD”,
“price”: “999.99”
},
“@language”: “en”
}

Spanish Page Schema Markup

For the Spanish version, the schema would be translated and localized accordingly:

{
“@context”: “https://schema.org”,
“@type”: “Product”,
“name”: “Laptop de última generación”,
“description”: “Un ordenador portátil de alto rendimiento para profesionales.”,
“sku”: “12345”,
“offers”: {
“@type”: “Offer”,
“priceCurrency”: “EUR”,
“price”: “899.99”
},
“@language”: “es”
}

German Page Schema Markup

For the German page, you’d use German language-specific schema:

{
“@context”: “https://schema.org”,
“@type”: “Product”,
“name”: “Laptop der neuesten Generation”,
“description”: “Ein leistungsstarker Laptop für Profis.”,
“sku”: “12345”,
“offers”: {
“@type”: “Offer”,
“priceCurrency”: “EUR”,
“price”: “899.99”
},
“@language”: “de”
}

Hreflang Tags

Along with this schema markup, add the hreflang tags to signal the different language versions:

<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”en” href=”https://example.com/us/laptop” />
<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”es” href=”https://example.com/es/laptop” />
<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”de” href=”https://example.com/de/laptop” />

Managing schema markup for multilingual content is all about ensuring that each page has language-specific schema markup with the correct language attributes and that you use hreflang tags to help search engines serve the right content to the right users. By following these steps, you can improve your site’s visibility in international search results and avoid issues with duplicate content.