: Why Google recommendations for multilingual urls don't correspond to what they use (hl=xx)? Google's recommendations for multilingual sites say that: URL parameters site.com?loc=de Not recommended

@Heady270

Google does support URL parameters for language selection now. If you use a URL parameter, you will need to use rel alternate hreflang meta tags on every page (or in your sitemap) to point to the page in the other languages.

Using a country TLD, subdomain, or subdirectory is a bit easier. In those cases you can add each language to Google Search Console. Then hreflang tagging is optional.

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@LarsenBagley505

The key issue is that Google isn't a big fan of query strings when it comes to indexing, and I know of some instances in my own experience where sites I have managed which have used query strings have only had content indexed where the query strings didn't have to be used and yet couldn't get verification from anywhere 100% stating that query strings where or where not supported.

Google does not use the URL or lang meta tags to decide the language of the page, the language is detected automatically based on the visible content of the page. The only reason to divide it by directory or DNS is to provide a clearer demarcation of languages for the end user.

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