What is Hreflang?

Hreflang is the tag that tells search engines which language and region a page is for, so the right version is shown to the right searcher.

If you publish the same page in several languages, or several regional variants of one language, search engines need to know they are alternates rather than duplicates. Hreflang is how you say so.

Each version lists every version including itself, with a language code and optionally a region code. The relationship must be reciprocal: if page A points at page B, B must point back at A, or the whole set is ignored.

It is fiddly and easy to get wrong, and it only matters if you genuinely serve multiple languages or countries. A single-language site does not need it.

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