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warningSEO RULE · R18

Hreflang errors: how to fix language and region targeting

Hreflang annotations tell Google which language and region version of a page to show to which audience. Misconfigured hreflang — missing return links, invalid codes, mismatched URLs — causes the wrong page to rank in the wrong market.

Hreflang annotations tell Google which language and region version of a page to show to which audience. Misconfigured hreflang — missing return links, invalid codes, mismatched URLs — causes the wrong page to rank in the wrong market. A hreflang annotation is <link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-US" href="https://example.com/en-us/page"> (also expressible in the sitemap or HTTP header). Every language version of a page must declare every other language version, including itself (self-reference).

Last updated·part of the 50-rule library

What it is

A hreflang annotation is <link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-US" href="https://example.com/en-us/page"> (also expressible in the sitemap or HTTP header). Every language version of a page must declare every other language version, including itself (self-reference).

Why it matters

Without hreflang, Google may show your UK page to US visitors, your German page to French ones, or simply pick one version and ignore the others. For international sites, this is significant lost traffic and conversion.

How to fix it

  1. Declare every alternate (and self) on every page. If you have en-US, en-GB, and de-DE versions, each version must list all three hreflang entries.
  2. Use valid ISO codes. Language is ISO 639-1 (en, es, de). Region is ISO 3166-1 (US, GB, DE). Common typo: en-UK (wrong, use en-GB).
  3. Add x-default for the language picker. hreflang="x-default" points to the page Google should show when no locale match exists. Usually your global English version.
  4. Verify return links exist both ways. If page A links to page B with hreflang, page B must link back to A. Search Console reports broken return links.

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