What Are Some Common Mistakes With Hreflang Tags?

Story Based Question

Imagine you’re a web manager for a tourism website that offers services in different languages and regions. After launching new pages targeting Spanish-speaking users in Latin America and Europe, you notice complaints from users that they are landing on the wrong version of your site. Worse yet, search rankings are inconsistent across regions.

What might be going wrong with your hreflang tags, and what are the common mistakes you should look for to fix the issue?

Exact Answer

Common mistakes with hreflang tags include:

1. Incorrect language-region codes.
2. Missing reciprocal tags.
3. Pointing to non-canonical or broken URLs.
4. Not including hreflang tags in the sitemap or HTML.
5. Using incorrect syntax or formatting.

Explanation

Hreflang tags are powerful for serving the right content to users in different languages and regions. But even small errors can derail your international SEO efforts.

Here are the most common issues:

1. Incorrect language-region codes
   People often confuse codes like en-us for en-uk, or mix up Spanish-speaking countries like es-mx (Mexico) versus es-es (Spain). Search engines rely on these codes for precise targeting.
2. Missing reciprocal tags
   If the English page links to the Spanish version using hreflang, the Spanish page must link back to the English version. Missing this reciprocity makes the implementation invalid.
3. Broken or non-canonical URLs
   Hreflang annotations should always point to canonical URLs. If they lead to broken links or non-canonical pages, search engines won’t interpret them correctly.
4. Lack of inclusion in the sitemap or HTML
   Forgetting to add hreflang tags either in the page’s HTML or in your XML sitemap can lead to search engines missing these directives.
5. Syntax or formatting issues
   Small mistakes like not closing a tag properly, using the wrong attribute name, or leaving out the x-default for global fallback content can cause the hreflang to fail.

Example

In the story, your tourism website targets Latin America (es-mx) and Spain (es-es). Upon investigation, you discover:

• The es-mx version incorrectly uses es-us.
• Your Spanish pages link back to English, but the English pages don’t reciprocate.
• Some hreflang annotations point to old non-canonical URLs instead of updated ones.

You fix these issues:

1. Correct language-region codes in the tags.
2. Add missing reciprocal links for every page.
3. Update all annotations to use canonical URLs.

Once you recheck everything with tools like Google Search Console and Screaming Frog, your site’s regional rankings stabilize, and users start landing on the correct pages.