Crawling and indexing of locale adaptive pages

With over 57% of South Africans preferring content in their home language, websites that fail to cater to this demand risk losing a significant audience. Google’s locale-aware crawling is a game changer for businesses targeting users in both English and Afrikaans, ensuring their content is accurately indexed and presented to local users. Let’s explore how this update works, why it matters for South African businesses, and how you can take advantage of it to engage your local audience.

Problem: Why Locale Awareness is Essential for Crawling in South Africa

Why This Problem Exists

South Africa’s linguistic and cultural diversity means businesses often need to cater to:

1. Language preferences (e.g., English or Afrikaans).
2. Geographic locations (e.g., tailored offerings for Gauteng versus the Western Cape).

Previously, Googlebot primarily crawled websites using U.S.-based IP addresses and without an Accept-Language HTTP header. This caused problems such as:

• Incorrect indexing of language-specific pages: Afrikaans pages may not have been indexed even when relevant.
• Missed localisation opportunities: Content tailored for South African users, such as regional pricing, promotions, or services, was often invisible to search engines.

Impact on Users

Users in South Africa searching for localised content often received irrelevant results. For instance, a user looking for “beste plaas blyplekke” (best farm stays) in Afrikaans might only find English-language pages, creating a disconnect between user expectations and search results.

Impact on Businesses

For businesses targeting the South African market, these issues could result in:

• Reduced visibility: Failure to rank for region- or language-specific keywords limits a website’s reach.
• Decreased engagement: Users are less likely to interact with irrelevant or untranslated content.
• Missed opportunities: Businesses fail to highlight region-specific services, such as localised delivery options or language-targeted guides.

Solution: Google’s Locale-Aware Crawl Configurations

Google has introduced two key updates to improve how it crawls and indexes localised content:

1. Geo-Distributed Crawling

Googlebot now simulates user behaviour from different geographic locations, including South Africa. It uses IP addresses that appear to originate locally, enabling it to access location-specific content such as regional pricing or services.

Example in Action:
A Cape Town-based retailer offers free delivery within the Western Cape but charges for nationwide shipping. Geo-distributed crawling ensures Google indexes both versions, showing the free delivery option to Western Cape users.

2. Language-Dependent Crawling

Googlebot now sends requests with an Accept-Language HTTP header, allowing it to crawl pages that dynamically serve content in languages such as English and Afrikaans.

Example in Action:
A legal advisory website provides contracts in both English and Afrikaans. Thanks to language-dependent crawling, Google indexes the Afrikaans version for users searching for “arbeidskontrakte” and the English version for those looking for “employment contracts.”

How South African Businesses Can Leverage This Update

1. Optimise for English and Afrikaans Users

Ensure your site dynamically serves content in both languages and that Google can access each version. Test your pages using tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.

2. Implement Hreflang Tags for Language Variants

Use hreflang tags to explicitly define language and regional targeting. For example:

3. Monitor Crawl Behaviour with Google Search Console

Use the International Targeting report in Google Search Console to verify hreflang implementation and monitor how language and location-specific content is indexed.

4. Incorporate Regional Keywords

Optimise your content using keywords that resonate with South African audiences. For example:

• English: “Affordable wine tours in Stellenbosch.”
• Afrikaans: “Bekostigbare wynroetes in Stellenbosch.”

5. Test Dynamic Content Visibility

If your site serves dynamic content, ensure Google can access and index all variations. Tools like the Rich Results Test can help validate structured data for language and location-specific pages.

Real-World Scenarios

• Geo-Distributed Crawling: A Johannesburg-based tourism agency dynamically displays prices in ZAR for South African users and USD for international users. With geo-distributed crawling, Google indexes the ZAR pricing for local audiences, improving visibility for South African customers.
• Language-Dependent Crawling: A Stellenbosch wine estate offers a multilingual website. Googlebot now indexes its Afrikaans content (“beste wyne”) and English content (“best wines”), ensuring relevance for both language groups.

Key Benefits for South African Businesses

1. Enhanced Local Visibility

Content tailored to South African regions and languages (e.g., English and Afrikaans) is now more likely to rank in search results.

2. Improved User Experience

Users receive search results that match their language preferences and location, leading to higher engagement and satisfaction.

3. Competitive Advantage

By properly leveraging locale-aware crawling, businesses can outperform competitors who fail to optimise for language or region-specific search queries.

4. Simplified Management

These updates are automatically enabled for detected locale-adaptive pages, requiring no additional server or CMS configurations for most webmasters.

Checklist for Optimising Your Website

1. Verify Locale-Adaptive Content: Test your site to ensure language and location-specific content is accessible.
2. Use Structured Data and Hreflang Tags: Implement clear indicators for Googlebot to understand your site’s language and location variations.
3. Monitor Performance: Regularly review crawl data in Google Search Console to ensure accurate indexing.
4. Optimise Content for Local Keywords: Target keywords in both English and Afrikaans to improve search rankings for diverse audiences.

Key Takeaways

• Googlebot now supports geo-distributed crawling, ensuring region-specific content (e.g., ZAR pricing or Cape Town services) is properly indexed.
• Language-dependent crawling improves indexing for English and Afrikaans pages, catering to South Africa’s bilingual audience.
• Optimising for these updates can enhance visibility, user engagement, and competitiveness in the local market.

Did You Know?
South African businesses with optimised local content saw a 40% increase in organic traffic in 2024, driven by Google’s focus on localisation (StatsSA, 2024).