Alexis Kestler
If your business spans multiple countries, your website must be optimized for all those users living across different regions who visit your website. This can be made possible using hreflang tags which let search engines know about the language of the content.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll answer every question related to hreflang in detail and list four hreflang generators and testing tools to help you implement hreflang tags effectively.
What are Hreflang Tags and How Do They Work?
Hreflang tags, short for "hyperlink reference language", are attributes added to HTML code that specify the language and regional targeting of web pages.
Here is an example of a basic hreflang tag:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-us" href="https://www.website.com/page">This tag tells search engines that the page is the US English version.
The key components of a hreflang tag are:
-
rel="alternate" – This indicates the linked document is an alternate version of the current document.
-
hreflang="x" – This specifies the language/region code. Common codes are en-US, en-GB, fr-FR, etc.
-
href="URL" – This provides the URL of the alternate document.
When added to HTML code, hreflang tags indicate to search engines that:
- The current page has alternate language/region versions.
- The specific language/region targeting of each alternate version.
This allows search engines like Google to display the most relevant version of a page in search results based on the user‘s locale and language preferences.
For example, someone searching on Google in Spanish from Spain would see the Spanish URL over an English URL for the same content.
The end result is a better search experience and higher click-through rates for international websites utilizing hreflang tags properly.
Benefits of Hreflang Tags for SEO
Using hreflang tags provides several important SEO benefits:
1. Improved international SEO
Hreflang tags allow search engines to serve the correct language or regional version of a page to searchers. This provides a better user experience which leads to higher CTRs and potential for ranking improvements in international search results.
2. Prevent duplicate content issues
Pages with similar content in multiple languages can appear duplicate to search engines without hreflang tags. Adding tags indicates the relationship between versions, avoiding duplicate content penalties.
3. Target multiple regional markets
Brands can use hreflang tags to optimize their website for many different target markets and languages simultaneously.
4. Increase conversion rates
Displaying content in a user‘s native language and specific to their region results in higher conversions. Hreflang tags enable this personalization.
5. Improve cross-domain internal linking
Cross-domain canonical tags pass link equity between different regional websites. This strengthens internal linking for international sites.
Overall, adding hreflang tags provides substantial SEO value for international websites. Brands planning multilingual and multiregion websites should implement hreflang tagging as part of their core SEO strategy.
Hreflang Tag Implementation Best Practices
To gain the most SEO value from hreflang tags, certain best practices should be followed during implementation:
Use self-referencing tags
Each page should have a self-referencing hreflang tag pointing back to itself to explicitly define the target locale:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-ca" href="https://www.website.com/page"/>Add tags to all alternate versions
Tag every alternate language/region version of a page – omitting some can cause issues.
Use the proper country and language codes
Adhere to the ISO 3166 standard for country codes and ISO 639-1 for language codes.
Place tags in section
Insert hreflang tags in the section of the HTML code for best practice compliance.
Use x-default for catch-all version
Adding a tag with x-default for the default language can catch users who don‘t match an exact locale:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://www.website.com"/>Validate with testing tools
Use online hreflang testing tools to validate tags after implementation. Fix any errors or warnings.
Following these best practices will ensure hreflang tags are set up for optimal SEO benefit.
Common Hreflang Tag Errors to Avoid
While implementing hreflang tags, there are some common mistakes that can negatively impact SEO:
Missing self-referencing tags
All pages should contain a self-referencing tag pointing back to itself. Missing self-references is a frequent error.
Wrong language/region codes
Using incorrect or invalid language/region codes such as "eng-GB" instead of "en-GB" can cause hreflang issues.
Inconsistent tagging across pages
Tags should be implemented consistently across all alternate versions of a page. Inconsistent tagging causes problems.
Not tagging images/PDFs
Non-HTML versions like images or PDFs require hreflang HTTP headers for tagging.
Blocking pages from indexing
Hreflang won‘t function properly if pages are blocked from indexing with robots.txt or meta noindex tags.
Wrong rel="alternate" placement
The rel="alternate" portion must come immediately after the opening tag, before hreflang, or tags will break.
Mismatched domains
If the domain in the href doesn‘t match the actual domain of the page it‘s pointing to, hreflang won‘t work. For example:
<!--Incorrect-->
<link rel=“alternate” href=“http://example.de” hreflang=“de” />
<!--Correct-->
<link rel=“alternate” href=“http://example.com/de” hreflang=“de” />Watching out for these common hreflang mistakes during implementation can help avoid serious SEO issues down the line.
Hreflang Tag Generators
Because proper setup of hreflang tags can be complex, using a hreflang generator tool is highly recommended to automate the process.
Here are 4 top hreflang tag generator tools:
1. Ryte Hreflang Tool
Ryte‘s free online hreflang tag generator makes it easy to create tags for your website‘s language and regional versions.
Just enter your root domain and the tool will walk you through selecting the right country and language targeting options.
The tool checks your inputs and automatically generates perfectly formatted hreflang tags for each page variation. You can then copy and paste the tags directly into your code.
Ryte‘s generator also includes the option to output tags in XML sitemap format for submitting to search engines. This covers all the bases to get your hreflang tags implemented correctly.
2. SEO Browser
SEO Browser offers an intuitive hreflang tag generator that makes it simple to build tags for your multilingual pages.
After entering your URL, pick the target country and language for each alternate version you want to tag. The tool then outputs optimized hreflang code for you to copy into the HTML headers.
Helpful lookups for language, country, and region codes are also built into the SEO Browser generator to prevent mistakes.
They also offer bulk tagging by uploading a CSV, useful for sites with a large number of translated pages and locales to tag.
3. Metricool
Metricool‘s hreflang tag generator takes just seconds to create optimized tags for your site‘s local versions.
Just enter the target URL and pick the country and language from the dropdowns. The generator will instantly output clean, properly formatted hreflang tags to copy and paste.
Metricool checks for potential errors and flags warnings if your selected countries and languages don‘t match. This helps prevent mistakes when targeting multiple regional versions.
They also offer a full hreflang checker tool for validating implemented tags meet Google‘s requirements.
4. Sistrix
Sistrix provides a solid hreflang tag generator as part of their SEO toolkit platform.
Enter the root domain then select your target language and country combinations. The tool outputs the full hreflang code for each.
Sistrix automatically follows proper ISO standards in the tags it generates. Their generator is fast and intuitive for basic hreflang needs.
They also offer advanced hreflang audit and migration tools for in-depth management of large international SEO tag implementations.
Hreflang Testing Tools
Once you’ve implemented hreflang tags on your site, it’s crucial to test them for any issues before search engines start crawling the tagged pages.
Here are 4 top tools for validating hreflang tags:
1. Ryte Hreflang Tester
Ryte‘s free hreflang testing tool performs in-depth analysis on implemented tags to catch problems.
Just enter your root domain URL and the tool will crawl the site, extracting hreflang tags from each page header.
The Ryte tester checks for a comprehensive range of hreflang errors and inconsistencies. Any issues discovered are outlined with details to help troubleshoot and correct them.
For complete peace of mind, Ryte also features visual graphing of your hreflang structure to highlight potential weaknesses.
2. SEMrush Hreflang Checker
The SEMrush hreflang checker scans your implemented tags for errors impacting SEO and crawling.
After entering a root domain or subfolder, it generates a list of all hreflang tags on those pages along with key details:
- Self-referencing – flags missing self-references
- HTTP vs HTML – checks for tagging discrepancies between HTTP and HTML headers
- Warnings – highlights bad codes or patterns that break tags
Filtering and exports make it easy to dig into the details and resolve any problematic hreflang tags.
3. SEO Site Checkup
SEO Site Checkup offers a simple automated tool for finding hreflang errors.
Just input your homepage URL. The crawler will extract and verify every hreflang tag on your site.
Any issues with tags incorrectly formatted, not self-referencing, or targeting improper regions/languages are clearly identified.
The free hreflang checker from SEO Site Checkup makes it easy to spot potential problems with your international SEO tags.
4. Metricool
In addition to their generator, Metricool also provides a robust online hreflang checker.
The validation tool crawls a site to compile all implemented hreflang tags for in-depth analysis:
- Checks format correctness
- Verifies self-referencing
- Detects improper region/language targeting
- Finds missing country codes
The detailed hreflang reports from Metricool make it fast and easy to resolve tag issues damaging SEO.
Hreflang Tags on WordPress
For WordPress sites with multilingual content, plugins can handle hreflang tagging automatically.
Two top options are:
Yoast SEO Premium
Yoast‘s premium plugin has automatic hreflang generation built-in when using WordPress multilingual plugins like WPML and Polylang. This makes setup painless.
All in One SEO Pack Pro
AIOSEO‘s pro version also includes simple options for generating hreflang tags for translated content managed with WPML, Polylang, or MultilingualPress.
For most WordPress sites, relying on a premium SEO plugin to handle hreflang tagging is the easiest option.
The Bottom Line
Adding hreflang tags to a multilingual website is crucial for both SEO and user experience.
However, improper implementation can cause major indexing issues. Using a generator tool along with thorough testing validation is key to avoid hreflang pitfalls.
When set up correctly following best practices outlined here, hreflang tags should provide significant international SEO value for global brands along with better localization for users.
