seo-hreflang

Hreflang & International SEO

When to Use

• Use when validating or generating hreflang for multilingual or multiregional sites.
• Use when the user mentions international SEO, language tags, x-default, or hreflang issues.
• Use when auditing locale alternates across HTML, headers, or sitemap implementations.

Validate existing hreflang implementations or generate correct hreflang tags

for multi-language and multi-region sites. Supports HTML, HTTP header, and

XML sitemap implementations.

Validation Checks

1. Self-Referencing Tags

• Every page must include an hreflang tag pointing to itself
• The self-referencing URL must exactly match the page's canonical URL
• Missing self-referencing tags cause Google to ignore the entire hreflang set

2. Return Tags

• If page A links to page B with hreflang, page B must link back to page A
• Every hreflang relationship must be bidirectional (A→B and B→A)
• Missing return tags invalidate the hreflang signal for both pages
• Check all language versions reference each other (full mesh)

3. x-default Tag

• Required: designates the fallback page for unmatched languages/regions
• Typically points to the language selector page or English version
• Only one x-default per set of alternates
• Must also have return tags from all other language versions

4. Language Code Validation

• Must use ISO 639-1 two-letter codes (e.g., en, fr, de, ja)
• Common errors:
• eng instead of en (ISO 639-2, not valid for hreflang)
• jp instead of ja (incorrect code for Japanese)
• zh without region qualifier (ambiguous; use zh-Hans or zh-Hant)

5. Region Code Validation

• Optional region qualifier uses ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 (e.g., en-US, en-GB, pt-BR)
• Format: language-REGION (lowercase language, uppercase region)
• Common errors:
• en-uk instead of en-GB (UK is not a valid ISO 3166-1 code)
• es-LA (Latin America is not a country; use specific countries)
• Region without language prefix

6. Canonical URL Alignment

• Hreflang tags must only appear on canonical URLs
• If a page has rel=canonical pointing elsewhere, hreflang on that page is ignored
• The canonical URL and hreflang URL must match exactly (including trailing slashes)
• Non-canonical pages should not be in any hreflang set

7. Protocol Consistency

• All URLs in an hreflang set must use the same protocol (HTTPS or HTTP)
• Mixed HTTP/HTTPS in hreflang sets causes validation failures
• After HTTPS migration, update all hreflang tags to HTTPS

8. Cross-Domain Support

• Hreflang works across different domains (e.g., example.com and example.de)
• Cross-domain hreflang requires return tags on both domains
• Verify both domains are verified in Google Search Console
• Sitemap-based implementation recommended for cross-domain setups

Common Mistakes

| Issue | Severity | Fix |

|-------|----------|-----|

| Missing self-referencing tag | Critical | Add hreflang pointing to same page URL |

| Missing return tags (A→B but no B→A) | Critical | Add matching return tags on all alternates |

| Missing x-default | High | Add x-default pointing to fallback/selector page |

| Invalid language code (e.g., eng) | High | Use ISO 639-1 two-letter codes |

| Invalid region code (e.g., en-uk) | High | Use ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 codes |

| Hreflang on non-canonical URL | High | Move hreflang to canonical URL only |

| HTTP/HTTPS mismatch in URLs | Medium | Standardize all URLs to HTTPS |

| Trailing slash inconsistency | Medium | Match canonical URL format exactly |

| Hreflang in both HTML and sitemap | Low | Choose one method (sitemap preferred for large sites) |

| Language without region when needed | Low | Add region qualifier for geo-targeted content |

Implementation Methods

Method 1: HTML Link Tags

Best for: Sites with <50 language/region variants per page.

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

Place in <head> section. Every page must include all alternates including itself.

Method 2: HTTP Headers

Best for: Non-HTML files (PDFs, documents).

Link: <https://example.com/page>; rel="alternate"; hreflang="en-US",
      <https://example.com/fr/page>; rel="alternate"; hreflang="fr",
      <https://example.com/page>; rel="alternate"; hreflang="x-default"

Set via server configuration or CDN rules.

Method 3: XML Sitemap (Recommended for large sites)

Best for: Sites with many language variants, cross-domain setups, or 50+ pages.

See Hreflang Sitemap Generation section below.

Method Comparison

| Method | Best For | Pros | Cons |

|--------|----------|------|------|

| HTML link tags | Small sites (<50 variants) | Easy to implement, visible in source | Bloats <head>, hard to maintain at scale |

| HTTP headers | Non-HTML files | Works for PDFs, images | Complex server config, not visible in HTML |

| XML sitemap | Large sites, cross-domain | Scalable, centralized management | Not visible on page, requires sitemap maintenance |

Hreflang Generation

Process

1. Detect languages: Scan site for language indicators (URL path, subdomain, TLD, HTML lang attribute)
2. Map page equivalents: Match corresponding pages across languages/regions
3. Validate language codes: Verify all codes against ISO 639-1 and ISO 3166-1
4. Generate tags: Create hreflang tags for each page including self-referencing
5. Verify return tags: Confirm all relationships are bidirectional
6. Add x-default: Set fallback for each page set
7. Output: Generate implementation code (HTML, HTTP headers, or sitemap XML)

Hreflang Sitemap Generation

Sitemap with Hreflang

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
        xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/page</loc>
    <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-US" href="https://example.com/page" />
    <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="https://example.com/fr/page" />
    <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.de/page" />
    <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/page" />
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/fr/page</loc>
    <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-US" href="https://example.com/page" />
    <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="https://example.com/fr/page" />
    <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.de/page" />
    <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/page" />
  </url>
</urlset>

Key rules:

• Include the xmlns:xhtml namespace declaration
• Every <url> entry must include ALL language alternates (including itself)
• Each alternate must appear as a separate <url> entry with its own full set
• Split at 50,000 URLs per sitemap file

Output

Hreflang Validation Report

Summary

• Total pages scanned: XX
• Language variants detected: XX
• Issues found: XX (Critical: X, High: X, Medium: X, Low: X)

Validation Results

| Language | URL | Self-Ref | Return Tags | x-default | Status |

|----------|-----|----------|-------------|-----------|--------|

| en-US | https://... | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |

| fr | https://... | ❌ | ⚠️ | ✅ | ❌ |

| de | https://... | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |

Generated Hreflang Tags

• HTML <link> tags (if HTML method chosen)
• HTTP header values (if header method chosen)
• hreflang-sitemap.xml (if sitemap method chosen)

Recommendations

• Missing implementations to add
• Incorrect codes to fix
• Method migration suggestions (e.g., HTML to sitemap for scale)

Error Handling

| Scenario | Action |

|----------|--------|

| URL unreachable (DNS failure, connection refused) | Report the error clearly. Do not guess site structure. Suggest the user verify the URL and try again. |

| No hreflang tags found | Report the absence. Check for other internationalization signals (subdirectories, subdomains, ccTLDs) and recommend the appropriate hreflang implementation method. |

| Invalid language/region codes detected | List each invalid code with the correct replacement. Provide a corrected hreflang tag set ready to implement. |

Limitations

• Use this skill only when the task clearly matches the scope described above.
• Do not treat the output as a substitute for environment-specific validation, testing, or expert review.
• Stop and ask for clarification if required inputs, permissions, safety boundaries, or success criteria are missing.