Do you have a multilingual website or content targeted at different countries?
So it’s crucial that search engines show the right version to the right users. When you work with international SEO, it’s about controlling who sees what and where.
Here, hreflang plays an important role in ensuring a relevant and correct user experience.
What is Hreflang?
Hreflang is an HTML attribute that tells search engines which language and geographic version of a web address to display to the user. It is typically used on multilingual or internationally targeted websites.
Proper implementation of hreflang helps you avoid duplicate content and ensures that visitors are sent to the most relevant version of the content.
It is a necessary part of an international SEO strategy.
Why is hreflang important for SEO?
Hreflang is important for search engine optimization (SEO) as it helps search engines understand which language and country-specific version of a page to show to each user, and it also ensures a more relevant experience for the visitor.
Without hreflang, search engines may have difficulty understanding the relationship between different language versions, which can lead to issues with indexing the wrong pages in certain language versions.
What are the benefits of hreflang?
Hreflang can provide both SEO and user-related benefits. This is especially true for websites with content in multiple languages. Or content aimed at different geographic markets.
By showing the right version of a page to the right user, you ensure both relevance and visibility.
Some of the benefits of hreflang include:
- Increased visibility in local search results
- Improved user experience by displaying content in the correct language
- Reduce bounce rate by correct language display
- Preventing duplicate content between language versions
Technical implementation of hreflang
There are several ways to implement hreflang. The choice often depends on your CMS, your content, and your resources. Here are the 3 most common ways to implement hreflang:
Hreflang tags can be implemented in three ways: HTML tag in the section:Example:
- HTTP-header:
Particularly relevant for non-HTML content like PDF files. - XML-sitemap:
Hreflang annotations can be included directly in XML sitemaps, which is useful for large websites with many pages in different language versions.
Every page that uses hreflang should reference all available language versions – including itself. This is often called a bi-directional reference.
Language and locale codes in hreflang
Hreflang uses ISO 639-1 codes for languages (e.g. “da” for Danish, “en” for English) and ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 codes for countries (e.g. “DK” for Denmark, “US” for the United States).
You can combine these to clarify both language and geography:
- da-DK = Danish to Denmark
- en-GB = English for Great Britain
- fr-CA = French for Canada
It is important to follow these standards precisely, as error codes can result in hreflang tags being ignored.
Common mistakes in hreflang implementation
Many websites fail in their hreflang setup, which can compromise their international SEO.
Some typical errors include:
- Lack of self-referencing (each page must link to itself)
- Conflicting or incomplete tags between language versions
- Wrong or invalid language/country codes
- Using hreflang without having unique URLs for each version
It is recommended to use tools like Google Search Console or third-party SEO platforms to validate hreflang implementation.
What happens if hreflang is incorrect?
If hreflang is implemented incorrectly, it can lead to search engines showing the wrong language version to the user. Or completely ignoring hreflang tags. This can typically result in a poorer user experience and pogo sticking.
Hreflang and relationship to other SEO elements
Hreflang often works in conjunction with canonical tags, but be careful when combining them, as conflicting signals can confuse search engines.
For example, if a canonical page uses a canonical tag to point to a different language version, it can undermine the effectiveness of the hreflang tag.
Additionally, hreflang plays an important role in conjunction with international geotargeting strategies, where content and technical setup are targeted to specific regions to improve relevance and performance.
How do you test hreflang?
Implementation of hreflang can be examined using tools like Google Search Console, where you can see if there are errors or missing tags. In addition, there are other tools like Screaming Frog, Merkle Hreflang Tags Testing Tool, and Ahrefs.
