How to Use Hreflang Tags for International SEO

Growing your business on the global stage can be exhilarating, but without the right technical execution, your international content may only reach the wrong audience. Hreflang tags are the unsung heroes of international SEO that make sure that search engines deliver the right language, or regional variation of your pages, to user who see these pages around the world. Let’s take a look at how to implement these tags correctly.

What Are Hreflang Tags?

Hreflang tags are HTML attributes that inform search engines on which languages and geographic targeting you are using on a page. Google officially launched hreflang in 2011, so the goal of the tags was focused on averting duplicate content situations, and making sure that users are exposed to the content in the language or region that works best for them.

Conceptually, think of hreflang tags as a traffic director for your international webpages. When someone in Spain types in a search for your product, they are taken to your Spanish webpage (hreflang) and not your English webpage, even though the content is similar.

Why Hreflang Tags Matter for SEO

Correctly implementing hreflang tags brings with it a number of critical advantages. First, they prevent duplicate content penalties that often arise on multilingual sites. If you have similar content in different languages, search engines may consider the content to be duplicate; hreflang tags clarify that the content is identical, but there are legitimate variations.

Second, hreflang tags greatly improve user experience by sending users to content in their own language. This improves the bounce rate and increases user engagement, two positive signals to rankings. Users who find content in their native language will be more likely to convert, making this not only an SEO tactic but a revenue driver too.

Third, hreflang tags consolidate ranking signals. Instead of having link equity diluted across multiple language variants of the content, search engines will understand that these pages are related and may even add to your overall domain authority.

Hreflang Tag Syntax Explained

The basic hreflang syntax follows this format:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x" href="https://example.com/page" />

The hreflang value uses ISO 639-1 language codes (en for English, fr for French, es for Spanish) and optionally ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 country codes (US, GB, MX). You can target language only (en), or combine language and region (en-US, en-GB, es-MX).

Here’s a practical example for a page with English, Spanish, and French versions:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/page" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="es" href="https://example.com/es/page" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="https://example.com/fr/page" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/page" />

The x-default tag serves as a fallback for users whose language preferences don’t match any specified versions.

Three Implementation Methods

You can implement hreflang tags using three different methods, each with distinct advantages.

HTML Head Method: Add hreflang tags directly in the section of the HTML of each page. This approach is very easy to do, as it does not require any additional files, and it is a great option for smaller sites. Every page has to reference all language versions, including itself.

HTTP Header Method: Use HTTP headers for non-HTML files like PDFs. This is the only option for documents that don’t have a head section. Headers follow this format: Link: <https://example.com/file.pdf>; rel="alternate"; hreflang="en"

XML Sitemap Method: Add hreflang annotations to your XML sitemap. This approach works well for large sites where managing HTML tags becomes unwieldy. Each URL entry includes xhtml:link elements pointing to all language variations.

Common Hreflang Mistakes to Avoid

Numerous websites administer hreflang improperly and are therefore potentially inviting downfalls that could easily be avoided. Too many times, the biggest mistake occurs when there are no return tags. If page A contains an hreflang link to page B, then page B must have a return tag linked back to page A. There must be a two-way relationship.

Another mistake is using the wrong language or country codes. If “en-UK” is used when it should be “en-GB,” it will fail to implement. Always check codes against accepted ISO codes.

Self-referential tagging is also an important use. Each page needs an hreflang tag that links to itself. Without this, the search engines will not recognize your hreflang implementations.

Do not implement using a mix and match of both methods. By using either an HTML tag on the page and an XML sitemap annotation, there will be contradictory cues. Pick a method and stick to that method to administer through the website.

Testing Your Hreflang Implementation

Checking your implementation is the next step after the implementation is validated. The International Targeting report in Google Search Console will highlight any potential errors. The report gives you a quick glance at the missing return tags, incorrect codes, and other errors in implementation.

Another recommended tool is a third-party validator, such as the Hreflang Tag Testing Tool from Merkle. These validators offer a more detailed analysis of hreflang implementation since they crawl your pages based on a URL list you provide and check all of the versions of that page in all languages.

While you wait for clarity on the hreflang implementation, we recommend looking at your organic search traffic based on language and based on each country in Google Analytics. If implemented correctly, analytics will confirm the proper implementation as Google will see users landing on the correct version of the page based on their location and language.

Best Practices for Success

Always use absolute (vs relative) URLs. Each time you utilized an hreflang tag, include the URL with the whole address (the protocol, e.g., https://). You should be consistent across the language versions with the hreflang, so every time you add a new language version you should be updating all pages.

Use x-default for your primary market or language selector page. This allows you to have a fallback option for visitors whose preferences do not match the versions you have available.

Overall, hreflang tags provide the necessary infrastructure for successful international SEO. Implementing the hreflang tags is detail-oriented and challenging, but worth the effort on behalf of user experience, less duplicate content, and targeting specific traffic, for any global brand.