Hreflang is an HTML attribute and a technical solution for websites with similar content in multiple languages and language regions. Owners of multilingual websites want search engines to direct users to content in their language and region. The hreflang link attribute allows them to inform search engines about the language and region of the target page.
For example, if a user is Dutch and the page appearing in the ranking is in English, but there is also a Dutch version, you would want Google to display the Dutch page with the appropriate hreflang link attribute in the search results for that Dutch user. This is the problem that hreflang as an HTML attribute is designed to solve.
The hreflang attribute is used to mark pages of a multilingual website. This attribute ensures that users see the page in the correct language based on the language they use in their search query.
You can help avoid duplicate content. Sometimes you have a website with the same content for different locations (like the UK and the USA), with minor differences such as currency. This tells Google which location or language this webpage is optimized for.
However, keep in mind that you still need to work on the link-building strategy for each web page to ensure that it has enough authority to be displayed in the desired location.
There are three ways to apply the hreflang attribute:
Hreflang tags are a method for marking similar pages that are targeted at different languages and/or regions. There are three common ways to implement hreflang:
Hreflang tags are often used to target different markets that speak the same language – for example, to differentiate between the USA and Great Britain or between Germany and Austria.
In a complete hreflang implementation, each URL specifies which other variants are available. When users search, Google goes through the following process:
The user's current location and language settings determine the most suitable URL (and to complicate matters, users may have multiple languages in their browser settings; and the order in which these languages are displayed determines the most suitable language).
Now that we've learned what hreflang is and how it works, we can decide whether you should use it. Use hreflang if:
It doesn't matter whether your content is on one domain or multiple domains. You can link variations within the same domain, but also link between domains.
One thing is essential when implementing hreflang: Don't be too specific! Let's assume you have three types of pages:
You could choose to implement them with three hreflang attributes as follows:
However, which of the three results should Google show someone searching in German in Belgium? In this case, the first page would probably be best.
To ensure that everyone searching in German who doesn't match either "de-at" or "de-ch" receives the best default option, we should change the hreflang attribute to "de" only. In many cases, it makes sense to specify only the language.
It's good to know that when creating such link sets, the most specific result wins. The order in which the search engine sees the links doesn't matter. It always tries to match from the most specific to the least specific.
Hreflang is for SEO This is important because it helps search engines discover and provide the relevant localized version of your pages based on the language and/or region of the users.
It is one of the crucial components of international SEO if you want to expand your online presence in multiple countries.
Furthermore, the group of hreflang pages shares their ranking signals with each other.
According to Gary Illyes of Google, the best matching page determines the position in the ranking, but the most relevant page for a user is displayed in the SERPs.
Therefore, hreflang tags can directly affect your ranking.
Furthermore, hreflang is also one of the effective ways to resolve duplicate content on your website. Let's say you want to target audiences in the US and the UK with two different versions of the same page.
Aside from minor differences such as some spelling variations, currencies, etc., the rest of the content is identical on both pages. Therefore, you need to signal to Google about the two different versions using hreflang.
Without the hreflang attribute, Google could see these pages as duplicates and only index one of them. As a result, the other page would receive no visibility and no traffic.
Let's now look at some best practices for correctly implementing hreflang tags.
When applying hreflang tags to a page, make sure you have added a self-referencing hreflang link to the page.
For example, your website has the following English and Italian versions of a page:
https://beispiel.com/hallo und https://beispiel.com/ciao
In addition to
The English version must also refer to itself.
Although some SEOs argue that it is an optional practice, Google's guidelines state that it is a must.
Googlebot identifies the value of the hreflang attribute using language and region codes. The format approved by Google for the language code is ISO 639-1 and for the region code, ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2.
While the language code is mandatory, the region code in the hreflang attribute is optional. Therefore, if you only specify one code, Google will interpret it as the language code by default. You must use the correct format for the codes.
For example, if your target audience is the United Kingdom, the language region code must be en-gb and not en-uk.
The hreflang x-default tag informs Google that the page is intended for any other language not specified in the hreflang section.
Simply put, it serves as a fallback page, displayed to users whose language codes don't match the specified ones. It's not mandatory, but Google recommends it.
It looks like this:
The easiest way to ensure that hreflang tags are correct is to check that the tags are identical on all pages of the group.
In other words, all pages in the group must contain the same hreflang links.
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