Medium impactIndexing & crawl
Hreflang Errors
Wrong or missing hreflang causes Google to show the wrong language version to users. Here's the audit-and-fix flow.
What it means
Hreflang tells Google which page to serve per language/region. Common errors: missing self-reference, broken return tags, invalid ISO codes, missing x-default.
Why it matters
Without correct hreflang, Google may show your English page to French users, or index duplicates as competing pages, splitting authority.
How to fix it
- Add a self-referencing hreflang on every translated page.
- Use valid ISO 639-1 + ISO 3166-1 codes (e.g. en-US, fr-CA).
- Add hreflang='x-default' for your global fallback.
- Make sure every page links to every other translation (bidirectional).
Example
Before
<link rel="alternate" href="/fr/" hreflang="french" />After
<link rel="alternate" href="https://example.com/fr/" hreflang="fr" />
<link rel="alternate" href="https://example.com/" hreflang="x-default" />Find this issue on your site automatically
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Frequently asked questions
Do I need hreflang for one language?
No. Hreflang is only for multilingual or multi-regional sites.