Google: Just Too Many Country Versions Of Your Web Pages

Apr 4, 2022 - 7:21 am 1 by

Google Language Overall Quality

You have all seen them, these country/language switcher menus at the top of the page that let you flip the language and region of the page to be more localized to your taste. But when is it all just too much and not going to help you with Google Search?

One SEO asked Google's John Mueller why Google sometimes the US ranks a page from another country instead of the en-us version? In short, why does Google not follow the right page to be ranked in the right country. John's response was interesting, he said "Just because you can make country versions, doesn't mean it's a good idea."

He pointed out on Twitter "It looks like it's the same page, there's no real reason for us to even index both versions." So in these cases, the pages have nothing unique or different about them, so why are you giving the option to switch the language? John then said "I'd recommend using fewer versions" since it "looks like you have 78 URLs for the same content" he added.

Colin McDermott shared a snippet of only part of the language/country selector tool from the site, it is much larger than just this:

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 18, 2025

Jul 18, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google June Core Update Done, Local Ranking Update, AI Mode Updates & AI Calling Businesses

Jul 18, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Maps

New Google Business Profile Check Edit Status

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Login Service Pages Are Hard To Rank In Search

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google AI Overviews For Movie Queries

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Rolling Out Smart Bidding Exploration To Some Advertisers

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: New Google Ads Policy: PII & Financial Fraud, Identity Theft, Harmful Direct Contact Or Harassment