Technical Definition
Language targeting signals which language version to show searchers. Methods: hreflang tags (primary), HTML lang attribute, content language, meta language. Language without region (hreflang='en') targets all English speakers. Language with region (hreflang='en-GB') targets specific locale. Different from country/region targeting.
Simple Explanation (ELI13)
Language targeting tells search engines which language your content is in and which language speakers it's for. You mainly do this with hreflang tags. You can target a language generally ('fr' for all French speakers) or specifically ('fr-CA' for Canadian French speakers).
Related Terms
Hreflang, International SEO, Content Language, Localization
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