Hreflang

What are Hreflang Attributes?

Hreflang attributes are tags that tell search engines what language a web page is written in and which country or region it’s meant for.

Why Are Hreflang Attributes Important?

Hreflang tags are essential for SEO and international targeting. If your website has multiple versions in different languages or regions, hreflang helps ensure users see the correct version for their language and location in search results.

How Do Hreflang Tags Work?

Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yandex use hreflang to understand when pages are translated versions or regional variations of each other. This helps them show the best match based on a user’s location and language preferences.

Do All Search Engines Use Hreflang?

Not all search engines rely on hreflang.

• Google and Yandex support hreflang and use it for language and region targeting.

• Bing recommends hreflang but doesn’t rely heavily on it.

• Baidu, the top search engine in China, ignores hreflang and uses the content-language meta tag instead.

What Does a Hreflang Tag Look Like?

A typical hreflang tag looks like this:

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

This tag has three key parts:

• rel="alternate": Tells search engines this is a different version of the current page.

• hreflang="x": The “x” represents a language or region code (e.g., en for English or es for Spanish).

• href="...": The link to the alternate version of the page for that language or region.

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