What is Hreflang?
TL;DR
Hreflang is an HTML attribute that tells search engines and AI crawlers which language and regional version of a page to show to users in different locations.
Last updated: 2026-03-09
Definition#
Hreflang is an HTML attribute used on multilingual and multi-regional websites to indicate the language and geographic targeting of each page version. It uses the
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="xx"> tag in the page's <head> section.
For example, if you have an English page and a Spanish version, each page would include hreflang tags pointing to both versions. This tells crawlers that these pages are translations of each other, not duplicate content. The format uses ISO language codes (e.g., en, es, fr) and optionally ISO country codes (e.g., en-US, en-GB, es-MX).
Hreflang prevents duplicate content issues across language versions and ensures users (and AI models) see the right language version for their context.Why It Matters for AI Readiness#
For multilingual sites, proper hreflang implementation prevents AI crawlers from treating your language versions as duplicate content. It helps AI models serve the right language version when answering questions. The Crawl Health factor checks for hreflang issues on multilingual sites.
Related Concepts#
Hreflang works with canonical tags (each language version should self-canonical), prevents issues with crawl budget, and is part of the Crawl Health factor.
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