Implementing hreflang tags on a website can help search engines understand the language and regional targeting of your content, ultimately improving your website’s visibility in relevant search results.

Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to implement hreflang tags on your website:

▪️ Understand the Purpose of hreflang:

• Hreflang is an HTML attribute used to indicate the language and regional targeting of a webpage.
• It helps search engines display the most appropriate version of your content to users based on their language and location.
• Hreflang tags are typically implemented in the section of your HTML code.

▪️ Identify Targeted Languages and Regions:

• Determine the languages and regions you want to target with your content.
• For each language/region combination, you will need to create a separate webpage or alternate URL.

▪️ Choose the Right hreflang Implementation Method:

• There are three main methods to implement hreflang tags: HTML tags, HTTP headers, and XML sitemaps. We’ll focus on the HTML tags method, as it is the most commonly used.

▪️ Implement hreflang Tags:

• For each alternate version of your webpage, add the appropriate hreflang tag in the section of your HTML code.
• The hreflang tag consists of two parts: the rel attribute and the hreflang attribute.
• The rel attribute should be set to “alternate” to specify an alternate version of the page.
• The hreflang attribute should be set to the appropriate language and region code. For example, “en” for English or “en-US” for English spoken in the United States.
• Here’s an example of how to implement hreflang tags for two alternate versions of a webpage:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/page" />

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="https://example.com/fr/page" />

▪️ Implement Self-Referencing hreflang Tags:

• For each version of your webpage, including the original version, add a self-referencing hreflang tag.
• The self-referencing hreflang tag helps search engines understand the default version of your content.
• Here’s an example of a self-referencing hreflang tag for the English version of a webpage:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/page" />

▪️ Use Canonical Tags:

• To prevent duplicate content issues, it’s recommended to include canonical tags in your HTML code.
• Canonical tags indicate the preferred version of a webpage.
• Add a canonical tag to the section of each version of your webpage, pointing to the preferred version.
• Here’s an example of a canonical tag for the English version of a webpage:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/page" />

▪️ Validate hreflang Tags:

• After implementing hreflang tags, it’s essential to validate them to ensure they are correctly implemented and functioning as intended.
• You can use the hreflang validation tools provided by search engines like Google to check for errors.

▪️ Monitor and Maintain hreflang Tags:

• Regularly monitor your website’s performance in search results to ensure the correct versions of your content are being displayed.
• Update hreflang tags whenever you create new versions of your webpages or make changes to existing ones.
• Monitor crawl errors and international targeting reports in your website’s search console to identify and fix any hreflang-related issues.

Remember to save your HTML code after implementing hreflang tags and ensure that all alternate versions of your webpages are accessible and crawlable by search engines.