How to implement hreflang

What is hreflang?

Hreflang, or a hreflang attribute, is a language code that tells Google and some other search engines which language you are using on a specific page. The code also informs search engines if the page is aimed at a specific country and language (for example the page may be targeting French Canadians). This then helps search engines surface the correct page for that user’s language and location.

Why should I use hreflang?

Hreflang codes allow you to get closer to your target audience by instructing Google and other search engines which URL to surface for a specific language or region. It’s important to ensure each URL variation is unique to that specific language and country (if applicable).

Should I use hreflang on a CCTLD or sub-domain?

Hreflang should be used on any page that has a localized alternative even if the URL structure has been localized.

Does hreflang solve duplicate content?

Hreflang will not solve duplicate content, but it will help search engines decipher those URL variations which have been created to target a specific language or language and country. This is why it is essential to optimize each URL variation to the targeted language and, if applicable, country.

How to implement hreflang code

There are three ways you can implement hreflang on your website.

HTML

Adding <rel=“alternate” hreflang=“en-GB” href=“https://www.example.co.uk”/> to your page header will communicate every localized variation of a page to search engines. This is a very common approach to implementing hreflang.

HTTP headers

HTTP headers can be used to communicate which language and country URL version the search engine should select. This is most common in those pages without HTML files, such as PDFs. For a page in the UK and US, it would look something like this: Link: <url1>; rel=“alternate” ; hreflang=“en-GB”,  <url2>; rel=“alternate” ; hreflang=“en-US” , …

Sitemap

You can also use a XML sitemap to tell search engines which localised URL is most relevant to the user. To implement a hreflang sitemap, you will need to add <loc> to specify a URL and include <xhtml:link> for each of the local variations of the URL.

If you were targeting English, French and German users, your code would look like this:

<urlset xmlns=”http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9″
xmlns:xhtml=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml”>
<url>
<loc>https://www.example.com/en</loc>
<xhtml:link
rel=”alternate”
hreflang=”fr”
href=”https://www.example.com/fr”>
<xhtml:link
rel=”alternate”
hreflang=”de”
href=”https://www.example.com/de”/>
</url>

Each of these methods dictate the correct language and country code for each variation of your URL. Below, we have put a list together of all the possible language and country codes you may need when adding hreflang to your website.

Hreflang Language Codes

Here is a list of applicable language codes, also referred to as ISO 639 codes. These can be used to ensure your hreflang implementation has been carried our correctly.