When do you use hreflang?
- International sites: If your website is available in multiple languages, as is often the case with online stores, you should use hreflang.
- Regional differences: If the content is almost the same but has minor differences such as currency or local features (e.g. for the DACH region), hreflang prevents duplicate content.
- User-generated content: Sometimes only the layout but not the main content is translated, e.g. in forums. hreflang is also used here.
Why is hreflang important for SEO?
Even though hreflang doesn't directly influence the ranking, it improves the user experience of your website. Users land directly on the language version that is relevant to them, which can lead to longer visits or more interactions. In turn, Google likes this and can help your site get a better rating.
How do you implement hreflang?
- HTML: The easiest way is to add the hreflang attribute directly to the HTML code. It looks something like this:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://beispiel.de" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com" />
- HTTP headers: If your documents aren't HTML files (e.g. PDFs), you can use hreflang in the HTTP header:
link: < https://beispiel.de/datei.pdf >; rel="alternate”; hreflang="en”
- You can also use hreflang in your XML site map Indicate what is particularly helpful for large pages.
Tools and checkers for hreflang
There are lots of tools to help you verify the hreflang implementation. A few examples include:
Alternative solutions
If that's too technical for you, there are also services like Weglot that automatically translate your website into different languages and display the appropriate versions without you having to manually intervene in the code.
conclusion
Hreflang is a useful tool to ensure that your website is displayed correctly internationally and that users see the content that is relevant to them. It not only improves the user experience, but can also indirectly increase your SEO performance. So if you have a multilingual or internationally oriented site, you should definitely think about implementing hreflang!
