The hreflang tag is an HTML attribute used to tell search engines which language and, optionally, which regional version of a page should be shown to users based on their location or browser language settings. It’s essential for websites with content published in multiple languages or targeting multiple countries.
Without proper hreflang implementation, search engines may show visitors the wrong language version of a page, or treat different language versions as duplicate content, diluting the ranking potential of each.
Hreflang implementation is notoriously easy to get wrong — tags must be reciprocal (each version must reference every other version, including itself) and use correct language and country codes, making regular audits important for any multilingual site.
International SEO configuration, including hreflang, falls under our Technical SEO service.