Website Spec
Internationalisation Recommended Updated 2026-05-29

hreflang for language and regional URLs

hreflang tells search engines which language or regional version of a page to show to which user. It uses BCP 47 codes and must be reciprocal across all alternates.

What it is

hreflang is a signal that tells search engines a page has equivalent versions in other languages or regions. It lives on a <link rel="alternate"> element, an HTTP Link header, or a <xhtml:link> entry in an XML sitemap. Each alternate carries a BCP 47 language tag such as en, en-GB, fr-CA, or zh-Hant.

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-GB" href="https://example.com/en-gb/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-US" href="https://example.com/en-us/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr-CA" href="https://example.com/fr-ca/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/" />

Why it matters

Without hreflang, search engines guess which version of a page to surface. A user in Paris may get the US English page; a user in Quebec may get the page intended for France. hreflang removes that guesswork, reduces duplicate-content confusion across localised URLs, and improves click-through because the result matches the user’s language and region.

It does not influence ranking on its own. It is purely a swap signal: same query, better-matched URL.

How to implement

  • Use BCP 47 codes. Language only (en, de), or language plus region (en-GB, pt-BR). Region alone (hreflang="GB") is invalid. Script subtags are allowed where they disambiguate, e.g. zh-Hans and zh-Hant.
  • Self-reference. Every page must list itself among its alternates.
  • Reciprocal links. If page A points to page B, page B must point back to page A. One-way links are ignored.
  • x-default. Add a hreflang="x-default" entry for the URL shown when no other alternate matches the user’s locale. This is typically a language picker or the default-region homepage.
  • Pick one delivery method. Use HTML <link> for static pages, the HTTP Link header for non-HTML resources such as PDFs, and the XML sitemap for sites with many alternates — mixing them on the same URL set creates conflicts.

A sitemap entry covers all alternates of a URL in one place:

<url>
  <loc>https://example.com/en-gb/</loc>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-GB" href="https://example.com/en-gb/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr-CA" href="https://example.com/fr-ca/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/" />
</url>

Common mistakes

  • Using a country code as a language code (hreflang="UK" instead of en-GB).
  • Pointing alternates at URLs that redirect or 404.
  • Forgetting the self-reference. Google then ignores the whole cluster.
  • Mixing hreflang declarations in HTML, headers and sitemaps — pick one source of truth.
  • Setting hreflang on canonicalised-away pages. Each alternate should be the canonical URL of its locale.

Related topics

Sources & further reading

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