Businesses in Germany often work in several languages: German for the local market, English for international partners and expats, and other languages for diaspora communities. Mistakes in the structure of a multilingual site cause confusion in search results and lost rankings.

Choosing a URL structure for language versions

Google's options include country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs such as domain.de and domain.com) or language subfolders on a single domain (domain.com/de/ and domain.com/en/). Subfolders are usually the most practical choice for small and medium-sized businesses: they concentrate all link authority and domain history on one main host.

How rel=alternate hreflang works and its syntax

hreflang attributes tell search engines which language version of a page is intended for users in a particular region. The most important technical rule is reciprocity: if the German page points to the English page via hreflang, the English version must contain a matching return tag pointing to the German one.

Language and region codes (ISO 639-1 and ISO 3166-1)

The hreflang tag gives the language code first and then, optionally, the country code: for example, hreflang="de-DE" for users in Germany, hreflang="de-AT" for Austria and hreflang="de-CH" for Switzerland. The value x-default (hreflang="x-default") sets the default landing page for visitors whose language does not match any of the versions offered.

Avoiding forced redirects based on IP address

A serious mistake on multilingual sites is forcibly redirecting visitors and search engine crawlers to a particular language based on their IP address. Googlebot usually crawls from IP addresses in the USA, so a forced redirect can prevent the German version from being indexed. Give users a choice through a convenient language switcher instead.

What to check

  • Place language versions in a clear subfolder structure (/de/, /en/).
  • Set up reciprocal hreflang tags in the HTML head or the XML sitemap.
  • Add an hreflang="x-default" tag for the international landing page.
  • Avoid forced redirects based on location and keep language choice free.

Example situation

A consulting portal fixed broken hreflang links between its German and English versions and removed a forced IP-based redirect, increasing the visibility of its German pages on google.de by 45%.

Next step

A properly configured hreflang setup avoids duplicate content and ensures German users see the right language version.

Official information on this topic

Checklists and examples are organisational recommendations. Requirements depend on the procedure, the city and your situation; check them with the relevant office before you act. Please discuss legal and tax questions with an authorised professional.

This article was prepared with the help of AI. The example illustrates the approach and does not describe a client case.