Baltics · EU, euro, Schengen
SEO audit for websites in Latvia
Latvia has one state language, a large Russian-speaking audience and an active public debate about how the two should be used in public life. For SEO, that makes language strategy the most important decision, ahead of anything in the code.
The sections below cover that choice, the technical details of Latvian spelling and postcodes, and what the audit checks on a Latvian site.
Latvia at a glance
- Languages and hreflang codes
- Latvian
lv-LVThe state language under the Official Language Law of 1999 - Russian
ru-LVWidely spoken at home; rules for its use in public communication have been in flux - English
en-LVB2B, tourism and international services
- Latvian
- Script
- Latin with eleven accented letters: ā, č, ē, ģ, ī, ķ, ļ, ņ, š, ū and ž.
- Domain
- .lv is the country code.
- Native name
- Latvija
- Currency
- Euro (EUR), since 2014
- Calling code
+371- Postcode
- ‘LV-’ plus 4 digits
e.g. LV-1050 (central Riga) - EU, EEA and Schengen
- EU member since 2004, euro area member, and part of Schengen since December 2007.
Market notes for Latvia
Language strategy comes before keywords
Latvian is the only state language, and the political discussion about Russian in public life has been active. For a business site, the safe default is a complete, well-written Latvian version first. Whether you add Russian, and how much of it, depends on your customers and on the rules that apply to your sector.
Rules for how businesses communicate in different languages have been a live topic, so confirm current requirements with a local adviser before you launch a Russian-only or English-only storefront. From the SEO side, whichever languages you publish need their own URLs, native-quality titles and descriptions, and reciprocal hreflang.
Eleven accented letters, and users who type without them
Latvian uses ā, č, ē, ģ, ī, ķ, ļ, ņ, š, ū and ž. Plenty of people type on phones or foreign keyboards without them, so some searches for ‘Riga’ and ‘Rīga’ will differ. Google often handles both, but results are not guaranteed to be identical, so check your priority terms with and without the diacritics.
For your own pages, keep diacritics in titles, headings and structured data. In URLs, choose either UTF-8 slugs or a consistent ASCII mapping, and apply it everywhere. Latvian is also an inflected language, so use natural phrasing and see in Search Console which word forms bring clicks.
Postcodes that carry their own country prefix
Latvian postcodes are written with an LV- prefix followed by four digits, as in LV-1050. In structured data, use the form shown by Latvian Post and in your Google Business Profile, and write it identically on the contact page, in the footer and in schema. Small differences between ‘LV-1050’ and ‘1050’ across listings are a common source of messy local data.
Keep the country in the addressCountry property as LV, and the telephone in international format starting with +371.
Targeting the three Baltic markets at once
Many companies roll a service out across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania together. If pages differ only in the language of the copy, treat each as a separate language version with its own hreflang code (et-EE, lv-LV, lt-LT) instead of a single page with a country dropdown. If you have one English page for all three, use a plain en tag and an x-default rather than inventing regional variants.
Do not add a Latvian version to a .ee or .lt domain and expect it to rank at home. A .lv domain, or a .com with a Latvian folder, is the clearer route for Latvian searchers.
Copy-ready examples for Latvia
Both snippets use placeholder data. Replace the domain, name, street, phone number, coordinates and prices with your own before you publish them.
hreflang tags
This set covers 3 versions (lv-LV, ru-LV, en-LV) plus an x-default. Put the same full set in the <head> of every language version, each page listing itself too; Google ignores pairs that do not link back.
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="lv-LV" href="https://example.lv/lv/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="ru-LV" href="https://example.lv/ru/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-LV" href="https://example.lv/en/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.lv/lv/" />LocalBusiness JSON-LD
The postcode follows the Latvia format (‘LV-’ plus 4 digits) and the telephone starts with +371. Use the most specific business type that fits, and keep every detail identical to your footer, contact page and map listing.
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "ProfessionalService",
"name": "Example Studio Riga",
"url": "https://example.lv/lv/",
"image": "https://example.lv/images/storefront.jpg",
"telephone": "+371 6000 0000",
"priceRange": "€€",
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"streetAddress": "Example iela 1",
"addressLocality": "Rīga",
"postalCode": "LV-1050",
"addressCountry": "LV"
},
"geo": {
"@type": "GeoCoordinates",
"latitude": 56.9496,
"longitude": 24.1052
},
"openingHoursSpecification": [
{
"@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
"dayOfWeek": [
"Monday",
"Tuesday",
"Wednesday",
"Thursday",
"Friday"
],
"opens": "09:00",
"closes": "18:00"
}
]
}What the audit looks at
What the audit checks for Latvia
UTF-8 and diacritics
We check the charset declaration and look for titles and headings where Latvian letters have been dropped or replaced.
hreflang for lv-LV, ru-LV and en-LV
The audit checks reciprocal tags, a self-reference on every page and a valid x-default.
Canonical and duplicate language pages
A Russian page canonicalised to the Latvian original disappears from search, so we flag cross-language canonicals.
LocalBusiness schema with an LV- postcode
We validate required properties and look for postcode formats that differ between schema, footer and contact page.
Questions about SEO in Latvia
Do I need a Russian version of my Latvian site?
It depends on your customers and on the rules that apply to your sector, so ask a local adviser. For SEO, publish it only if you can keep it fully translated, with its own titles and descriptions.
Should I include the LV- prefix in a postal code?
Use the form shown by Latvian Post and your Google Business Profile, normally LV-1050, and keep it identical everywhere the address appears.
Do searchers use Latvian diacritics?
Some do and some do not. Test your priority queries with and without ā, č, ē and the other accented letters, and keep the full letters in your visible text.
Which hreflang codes does a Latvian site need?
lv-LV for Latvian, ru-LV for Russian if you publish it and en-LV for English aimed at Latvia, linked reciprocally with x-default for the selector.
Is Latvia in the euro area?
Yes, since 2014. It is also in the EU, which it joined in 2004, and in Schengen.
Need a hand with Latvia?
If your Latvia audit turns up work you would rather hand over, two teams stand behind this tool. Nomor (nomor.tech) is our software development company and Limi Creatives (limicreatives.com) is our marketing company. Send us your report and tell us which market you are working in.
Nomor
Our software development company. Nomor designs and builds the software and websites behind this tool, including the audit engine, the PDF report and the pages you are reading. It is the right place to start for custom development, performance work and technical fixes.
Limi Creatives
Our marketing company. Limi Creatives is a creative agency that runs SEO, paid ads, content, social media and video for brands. It is the right place to start when you want help turning audit findings into traffic and enquiries.