Hreflang for a bilingual site, without the specification

Aug 29
3 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Introduction

A business publishes in two languages. Both versions exist, both are indexed, and the wrong one keeps appearing for the wrong audience. Visitors arrive on a page they cannot read and leave immediately.

The mechanism for fixing this is a set of tags naming each language version of a page and linking them together. It is not difficult, and it is unusually unforgiving: partially implemented, it is ignored entirely, and the effort produces no result at all.

1. Hreflang for a bilingual site connects equivalent pages

Understand what it declares.

Each page states which language it serves and lists the addresses of its equivalents in other languages. Search engines then show whichever version matches the reader, rather than choosing between them on signals that have nothing to do with which language the person actually reads.

2. Know what it does not do

Two common misunderstandings.

It does not resolve duplicate content between languages, because translations are not duplicates, and it has no effect on ranking. It influences which version is displayed to whom, and nothing else.

3. Make the references reciprocal

The rule that breaks most implementations.

If page A names page B, page B must name page A. One-directional tags are disregarded entirely, which is why a partial implementation delivers precisely nothing in return for the work involved, and why this is the first thing to check when a set appears to be having no effect.

4. Include a reference to the page itself

Easily missed and required.

Every page in the set must list every version including its own. Omitting the self-reference is the second most common error and produces the same outcome as the first.

5. Use the correct language codes

Small errors invalidate the whole set.

Codes must be valid, and a region should only be specified where you genuinely serve different content to different countries. Inventing a code, or using a country code in the position where a language code is required, breaks the entire set silently and without any visible symptom on the pages themselves.

6. Decide whether region matters at all

Simplify wherever you can.

Most bilingual businesses need only language, not language and region. Adding regional variants multiplies both the number of tags and the number of ways the set can go wrong, in exchange for a distinction the business does not actually make in what it publishes or how it sells.

7. Add a default for everybody else

The fallback entry.

A default declaration tells search engines which version to show a reader whose language matches none of yours. Without it, those visitors are assigned whichever version the engine considers most likely, which may be neither.

8. Keep it in step as pages change

Where working implementations decay.

Publishing an article in one language before the other, or removing a page from one version, breaks the pairings. Whatever process publishes translations needs to update the tags at the same time, otherwise the set degrades quietly over a year.

9. Validate rather than assume

Verification is available and quick.

Your search console reports errors in these tags across the site, including missing return references. Reading that report once after implementation catches the great majority of mistakes while somebody still remembers what was done.

Do not use automatic redirection based on a visitor's apparent location as a substitute. It prevents people choosing a language deliberately, frequently traps bilingual readers on the wrong version, and can stop crawlers reaching one of the versions entirely.

Conclusion

Treat these tags as a way of connecting equivalent pages so the right language is shown, not as a duplicate content remedy or a ranking tactic.

Make every reference reciprocal because one-directional tags are ignored, include a self-reference on every page, use valid language codes and add a region only where you genuinely serve different content, keep the implementation as simple as the business actually requires, add a default declaration for readers matching neither language, update the tags whenever pages are published or removed, validate with the report in your search console, and avoid automatic redirection based on location.