When a website serves content in multiple languages or for multiple regions, hreflang annotations tell Google which version to show to which user. A French-language page is shown to French-speaking users; a French-Canadian variant is shown to users in Quebec.
Implementation: hreflang can be added as an HTML <link rel="alternate" hreflang="..."> element in the <head>, as an HTTP header, or as an entry in the XML sitemap. All pages in a language set must reference every other page in the set, including a self-referential annotation.
Common mistakes:
- Broken hreflang targets — URLs that return 404 or redirect
- Missing self-referential annotations
- Using incorrect locale codes (
en_USinstead ofen-US)
What SearchVitals checks: The Technical SEO audit validates hreflang annotations across crawled pages, flagging broken destination URLs, missing reciprocal links, and invalid locale codes as critical or warning findings.