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Are you looking for a list of hreflang language codes, or country codes, or both?
Here you can find a comprehensive list and how to implement them avoiding common mistakes and achieving precise targeting and better user experience.
These powerful HTML attributes can vastly improve the way search engines understand and serve your multilingual web content.
But what is a Hreflang Tag?
The hreflang tag is an HTML attribute that specifies the language and geographic targeting of a webpage.
They are pivotal in guiding search engines to comprehend a webpage’s language and regional targeting, because the HTML annotation directs search engine bots and users to display the correct language or regional URL in search results.
CORRECT hreflang implementation
INCORRECT hreflang implementation
This ensures convenient access to the desired content for users worldwide who speak different languages. To achieve this, it is essential to include the rel alternate hreflang attribute:
However, sometimes, a webpage might not be tailored to any specific region or language. For such situations, the hreflang=”x-default” attribute can be used to indicate a default page that should be served to users when no other language or regional variant is applicable.
These tags are composed of :
- the html tag: link rel=”alternate”
- reference to the target site href=”http://miweb.com”
- the hreflang tag and its attribute : hreflang=” “
These tags are composed of one of these three:
- a language code
- a country code
- both
When combined, it provides search engines with the necessary information to serve the most relevant content to users based on their language and location preferences.
For example, if you have a multilingual website with content primarily in Spanish targetting Spain, then content in Spanish targeting users in Mexico and also targeting users in the United States in English, you would use hreflang tags to specify the different language-country combinations.
Note that if the main and dominant language is Spanish, the hreflang implementation should be like this :
Those annotations ensure that search engines display the correct version of the homepage to users respectively in each country, greatly enhancing the user experience and improving SEO performance.
Comprehensive List of Hreflang Language Codes
Knowing the correct language codes based on the ISO 639-1 standard is key for effective use of hreflang tags. This standard provides a two-letter code system used to represent languages, which is integral to the hreflang attribute and its ability to target specific languages and regions.
For a complete list of hreflang language codes, refer to section 2.
ISO 639-1 Language Codes
ISO 639-1 language codes are two-letter codes employed to denote languages in hreflang tags, such as ‘lo’ to target Lao speakers in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, or ‘da’ to target Danish speakers.
These codes are essential for specifying the language of a webpage, allowing search engines to better understand and serve your content to the right audience.
When applying hreflang tags, using lowercase for language codes is crucial, conforming to the ISO 3166 convention. This ensures that your implementation adheres to global standards and improves your website’s compatibility with various search engines and platforms.
Language | Hreflang Code |
---|---|
Afar | aa |
Abkhaz | ab |
Avestan | ae |
Afrikaans | af |
Akan | ak |
Amharic | am |
Aragonese | an |
Arabic | ar |
Assamese | as |
Avaric | av |
Aymara | ay |
Azerbaijani | az |
Bashkir | ba |
Belarusian | be |
Bulgarian | bg |
Bihari | bh |
Bislama | bi |
Bambara | bm |
Bengali, Bangla | bn |
Tibetan Standard, Tibetan, Central | bo |
Breton | br |
Bosnian | bs |
Catalan, Valencian | ca |
Chechen | ce |
Chamorro | ch |
Corsican | co |
Cree | cr |
Czech | cs |
Old Church Slavonic, Church Slavonic, Old Bulgarian | cu |
Chuvash | cv |
Welsh | cy |
Danish | da |
German | de |
Divehi, Dhivehi, Maldivian | dv |
Dzongkha | dz |
Ewe | ee |
Greek (modern) | el |
English | en |
Esperanto | eo |
Spanish, Castilian | es |
Estonian | et |
Basque | eu |
Persian (Farsi) | fa |
Fula, Fulah, Pulaar, Pular | ff |
Finnish | fi |
Fijian | fj |
Faroese | fo |
French | fr |
Western Frisian | fy |
Irish | ga |
Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic | gd |
Galician | gl |
Guaraní | gn |
Gujarati | gu |
Manx | gv |
Hausa | ha |
Hebrew (modern) | he |
Hindi | hi |
Hiri Motu | ho |
Croatian | hr |
Haitian, Haitian Creole | ht |
Hungarian | hu |
Armenian | hy |
Herero | hz |
Interlingua | ia |
Indonesian | id |
Interlingue | ie |
Igbo | ig |
Nuosu | ii |
Inupiaq | ik |
Ido | io |
Icelandic | is |
Italian | it |
Inuktitut | iu |
Japanese | ja |
Javanese | jv |
Georgian | ka |
Kongo | kg |
Kikuyu, Gikuyu | ki |
Kwanyama, Kuanyama | kj |
Kazakh | kk |
Kalaallisut, Greenlandic | kl |
Khmer | km |
Kannada | kn |
Korean | ko |
Kanuri | kr |
Kashmiri | ks |
Kurdish | ku |
Komi | kv |
Cornish | kw |
Kyrgyz | ky |
Latin | la |
Luxembourgish, Letzeburgesch | lb |
Ganda | lg |
Limburgish, Limburgan, Limburger | li |
Lingala | ln |
Lao | lo |
Lithuanian | lt |
Luba-Katanga | lu |
Latvian | lv |
Malagasy | mg |
Marshallese | mh |
Māori | mi |
Macedonian | mk |
Malayalam | ml |
Mongolian | mn |
Marathi (Marāṭhī) | mr |
Malay | ms |
Maltese | mt |
Burmese | my |
Nauru | na |
Norwegian Bokmål | nb |
Northern Ndebele | nd |
Nepali | ne |
Ndonga | ng |
Dutch | nl |
Norwegian Nynorsk | nn |
Norwegian | no |
Southern Ndebele | nr |
Navajo, Navaho | nv |
Chichewa, Chewa, Nyanja | ny |
Occitan | oc |
Ojibwe, Ojibwa | oj |
Oromo | om |
Oriya | or |
Ossetian, Ossetic | os |
Panjabi, Punjabi | pa |
Pāli | pi |
Polish | pl |
Pashto, Pushto | ps |
Portuguese | pt |
Quechua | qu |
Romansh | rm |
Kirundi | rn |
Romanian | ro |
Russian | ru |
Kinyarwanda | rw |
Sanskrit (Saṁskṛta) | sa |
Sardinian | sc |
Sindhi | sd |
Northern Sami | se |
Sango | sg |
Sinhala, Sinhalese | si |
Slovak | sk |
Slovene | sl |
Samoan | sm |
Shona | sn |
Somali | so |
Albanian | sq |
Serbian | sr |
Swati | ss |
Southern Sotho | st |
Sundanese | su |
Swedish | sv |
Swahili | sw |
Tamil | ta |
Telugu | te |
Tajik | tg |
Thai | th |
Tigrinya | ti |
Turkmen | tk |
Tagalog | tl |
Tswana | tn |
Tonga (Tonga Islands) | to |
Turkish | tr |
Tsonga | ts |
Tatar | tt |
Twi | tw |
Tahitian | ty |
Uyghur, Uighur | ug |
Ukrainian | uk |
Urdu | ur |
Uzbek | uz |
Venda | ve |
Vietnamese | vi |
Volapük | vo |
Walloon | wa |
Wolof | wo |
Xhosa | xh |
Yiddish | yi |
Yoruba | yo |
Zhuang, Chuang | za |
Chinese | zh |
Zulu | zu |
Comprehensive List of Hreflang Country Codes
Knowing the correct country codes based on the ISO 3166-1 standard is as crucial as understanding language codes. This standard provides a set of two-letter codes used to represent countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest.
For instance, the British VG Virgin Islands have their own unique country code, as do the Caicos Islands, the island and McDonald Islands, Malta MT Marshall Islands, and minor outlying islands.
ISO 3166-1 Country Codes
ISO 3166-1 country codes are two-letter codes utilized to denote countries in hreflang tags, allowing for more precise targeting of specific regions and audiences. These codes are crucial for accurately specifying the country that a webpage is targeting, ensuring that your content is served to the right location.
When implementing hreflang tags, it’s essential to use the ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 code format for country codes (in capital letters). This ensures that your implementation adheres to global standards, improving your website’s compatibility with various search engines and platforms.
Country | 3166-1 Codes |
---|---|
Afghanistan | AF |
Åland Islands | AX |
Albania | AL |
Algeria | DZ |
American Samoa | AS |
Andorra | AD |
Angola | AO |
Anguilla | AI |
Antarctica | AQ |
Antigua and Barbuda | AG |
Argentina | AR |
Armenia | AM |
Aruba | AW |
Australia | AU |
Austria | AT |
Azerbaijan | AZ |
Bahamas | BS |
Bahrain | BH |
Bangladesh | BD |
Barbados | BB |
Belarus | BY |
Belgium | BE |
Belize | BZ |
Benin | BJ |
Bermuda | BM |
Bhutan | BT |
Bolivia, Plurinational State of | BO |
Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba | BQ |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | BA |
Botswana | BW |
Bouvet Island | BV |
Brazil | BR |
British Indian Ocean Territory | IO |
Brunei Darussalam | BN |
Bulgaria | BG |
Burkina Faso | BF |
Burundi | BI |
Cambodia | KH |
Cameroon | CM |
Canada | CA |
Cabo Verde | CV |
Cayman Islands | KY |
Central African Republic | CF |
Chad | TD |
Chile | CL |
China | CN |
Christmas Island | CX |
Cocos (Keeling) Islands | CC |
Colombia | CO |
Comoros | KM |
Congo | CG |
Congo, the Democratic Republic of the | CD |
Cook Islands | CK |
Costa Rica | CR |
Côte d’Ivoire | CI |
Croatia | HR |
Cuba | CU |
Curaçao | CW |
Cyprus | CY |
Czech Republic | CZ |
Denmark | DK |
Djibouti | DJ |
Dominica | DM |
Dominican Republic | DO |
Ecuador | EC |
Egypt | EG |
El Salvador | SV |
Equatorial Guinea | GQ |
Eritrea | ER |
Estonia | EE |
Ethiopia | ET |
Falkland Islands (Malvinas) | FK |
Faroe Islands | FO |
Fiji | FJ |
Finland | FI |
France | FR |
French Guiana | GF |
French Polynesia | PF |
French Southern Territories | TF |
Gabon | GA |
Gambia | GM |
Georgia | GE |
Germany | DE |
Ghana | GH |
Gibraltar | GI |
Greece | GR |
Greenland | GL |
Grenada | GD |
Guadeloupe | GP |
Guam | GU |
Guatemala | GT |
Guernsey | GG |
Guinea | GN |
Guinea-Bissau | GW |
Guyana | GY |
Haiti | HT |
Heard Island and McDonald Islands | HM |
Holy See (Vatican City State) | VA |
Honduras | HN |
Hong Kong | HK |
Hungary | HU |
Iceland | IS |
India | IN |
Indonesia | ID |
Iran, Islamic Republic of | IR |
Iraq | IQ |
Ireland | IE |
Isle of Man | IM |
Israel | IL |
Italy | IT |
Jamaica | JM |
Japan | JP |
Jersey | JE |
Jordan | JO |
Kazakhstan | KZ |
Kenya | KE |
Kiribati | KI |
Korea, Democratic People’s Republic of | KP |
Korea, Republic of | KR |
Kuwait | KW |
Kyrgyzstan | KG |
Lao People’s Democratic Republic | LA |
Latvia | LV |
Lebanon | LB |
Lesotho | LS |
Liberia | LR |
Libya | LY |
Liechtenstein | LI |
Lithuania | LT |
Luxembourg | LU |
Macao | MO |
Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of | MK |
Madagascar | MG |
Malawi | MW |
Malaysia | MY |
Maldives | MV |
Mali | ML |
Malta | MT |
Marshall Islands | MH |
Martinique | MQ |
Mauritania | MR |
Mauritius | MU |
Mayotte | YT |
Mexico | MX |
Micronesia, Federated States of | FM |
Moldova, Republic of | MD |
Monaco | MC |
Mongolia | MN |
Montenegro | ME |
Montserrat | MS |
Morocco | MA |
Mozambique | MZ |
Myanmar | MM |
Namibia | NA |
Nauru | NR |
Nepal | NP |
Netherlands | NL |
New Caledonia | NC |
New Zealand | NZ |
Nicaragua | NI |
Niger | NE |
Nigeria | NG |
Niue | NU |
Norfolk Island | NF |
Northern Mariana Islands | MP |
Norway | NO |
Oman | OM |
Pakistan | PK |
Palau | PW |
Palestine, State of | PS |
Panama | PA |
Papua New Guinea | PG |
Paraguay | PY |
Peru | PE |
Philippines | PH |
Pitcairn | PN |
Poland | PL |
Portugal | PT |
Puerto Rico | PR |
Qatar | QA |
Réunion | RE |
Romania | RO |
Russian Federation | RU |
Rwanda | RW |
Saint Barthélemy | BL |
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha | SH |
Saint Kitts and Nevis | KN |
Saint Lucia | LC |
Saint Martin (French part) | MF |
Saint Pierre and Miquelon | PM |
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | VC |
Samoa | WS |
San Marino | SM |
Sao Tome and Principe | ST |
Saudi Arabia | SA |
Senegal | SN |
Serbia | RS |
Seychelles | SC |
Sierra Leone | SL |
Singapore | SG |
Sint Maarten (Dutch part) | SX |
Slovakia | SK |
Slovenia | SI |
Solomon Islands | SB |
Somalia | SO |
South Africa | ZA |
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | GS |
South Sudan | SS |
Spain | ES |
Sri Lanka | LK |
Sudan | SD |
Suriname | SR |
Svalbard and Jan Mayen | SJ |
Swaziland | SZ |
Sweden | SE |
Switzerland | CH |
Syrian Arab Republic | SY |
Taiwan, Province of China | TW |
Tajikistan | TJ |
Tanzania, United Republic of | TZ |
Thailand | TH |
Timor-Leste | TL |
Togo | TG |
Tokelau | TK |
Tonga | TO |
Trinidad and Tobago | TT |
Tunisia | TN |
Turkey | TR |
Turkmenistan | TM |
Turks and Caicos Islands | TC |
Tuvalu | TV |
Uganda | UG |
Ukraine | UA |
United Arab Emirates | AE |
United Kingdom | GB |
United States | US |
United States Minor Outlying Islands | UM |
Uruguay | UY |
Uzbekistan | UZ |
Vanuatu | VU |
Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of | VE |
Viet Nam | VN |
Virgin Islands, British | VG |
Virgin Islands, U.S. | VI |
Wallis and Futuna | WF |
Western Sahara | EH |
Yemen | YE |
Zambia | ZM |
Zimbabwe | ZW |
Combining both Language and Country Codes
When targeting specific countries and languages using hreflang tags, it’s crucial to use the appropriate language and country codes in combination, as per the ISO standards. For example, if you want to target Spanish speakers in Spain, you would use the combiner hreflang attribute “es-ES”.
Accurate combination of language and country codes is necessary to achieve precise targeting with hreflang tags. By doing so, you can better specify the language variant used in a particular country or region, allowing for more precise language targeting and localization within numerous applications and systems.
Here’s detailed guidance to combine language and country codes:
Language Culture Name | Display Name |
---|---|
af-ZA | Afrikaans – South Africa |
sq-AL | Albanian – Albania |
ar-DZ | Arabic – Algeria |
ar-BH | Arabic – Bahrain |
ar-EG | Arabic – Egypt |
ar-IQ | Arabic – Iraq |
ar-JO | Arabic – Jordan |
ar-KW | Arabic – Kuwait |
ar-LB | Arabic – Lebanon |
ar-LY | Arabic – Libya |
ar-MA | Arabic – Morocco |
ar-OM | Arabic – Oman |
ar-QA | Arabic – Qatar |
ar-SA | Arabic – Saudi Arabia |
ar-SY | Arabic – Syria |
ar-TN | Arabic – Tunisia |
ar-AE | Arabic – United Arab Emirates |
ar-YE | Arabic – Yemen |
hy-AM | Armenian – Armenia |
Cy-az-AZ | Azeri (Cyrillic) – Azerbaijan |
Lt-az-AZ | Azeri (Latin) – Azerbaijan |
eu-ES | Basque – Spain |
be-BY | Belarusian – Belarus |
bg-BG | Bulgarian – Bulgaria |
ca-ES | Catalan – Spain |
zh-CN | Chinese – China |
zh-HK | Chinese – Hong Kong SAR |
zh-MO | Chinese – Macau SAR |
zh-SG | Chinese – Singapore |
zh-TW | Chinese – Taiwan |
zh-CHS | Chinese (Simplified) |
zh-CHT | Chinese (Traditional) |
hr-HR | Croatian – Croatia |
cs-CZ | Czech – Czech Republic |
da-DK | Danish – Denmark |
div-MV | Dhivehi – Maldives |
nl-BE | Dutch – Belgium |
nl-NL | Dutch – The Netherlands |
en-AU | English – Australia |
en-BZ | English – Belize |
en-CA | English – Canada |
en-CB | English – Caribbean |
en-IE | English – Ireland |
en-JM | English – Jamaica |
en-NZ | English – New Zealand |
en-PH | English – Philippines |
en-ZA | English – South Africa |
en-TT | English – Trinidad and Tobago |
en-GB | English – United Kingdom |
en-US | English – United States |
en-ZW | English – Zimbabwe |
et-EE | Estonian – Estonia |
fo-FO | Faroese – Faroe Islands |
fa-IR | Farsi – Iran |
fi-FI | Finnish – Finland |
fr-BE | French – Belgium |
fr-CA | French – Canada |
fr-FR | French – France |
fr-LU | French – Luxembourg |
fr-MC | French – Monaco |
fr-CH | French – Switzerland |
gl-ES | Galician – Galician |
ka-GE | Georgian – Georgia |
de-AT | German – Austria |
de-DE | German – Germany |
de-LI | German – Liechtenstein |
de-LU | German – Luxembourg |
de-CH | German – Switzerland |
el-GR | Greek – Greece |
gu-IN | Gujarati – India |
he-IL | Hebrew – Israel |
hi-IN | Hindi – India |
hu-HU | Hungarian – Hungary |
is-IS | Icelandic – Iceland |
id-ID | Indonesian – Indonesia |
it-IT | Italian – Italy |
it-CH | Italian – Switzerland |
ja-JP | Japanese – Japan |
kn-IN | Kannada – India |
kk-KZ | Kazakh – Kazakhstan |
kok-IN | Konkani – India |
ko-KR | Korean – Korea |
ky-KZ | Kyrgyz – Kazakhstan |
lv-LV | Latvian – Latvia |
lt-LT | Lithuanian – Lithuania |
mk-MK | Macedonian (FYROM) |
ms-BN | Malay – Brunei |
ms-MY | Malay – Malaysia |
mr-IN | Marathi – India |
mn-MN | Mongolian – Mongolia |
nb-NO | Norwegian (Bokmål) – Norway |
nn-NO | Norwegian (Nynorsk) – Norway |
pl-PL | Polish – Poland |
pt-BR | Portuguese – Brazil |
pt-PT | Portuguese – Portugal |
pa-IN | Punjabi – India |
ro-RO | Romanian – Romania |
ru-RU | Russian – Russia |
sa-IN | Sanskrit – India |
Cy-sr-SP | Serbian (Cyrillic) – Serbia |
Lt-sr-SP | Serbian (Latin) – Serbia |
sk-SK | Slovak – Slovakia |
sl-SI | Slovenian – Slovenia |
es-AR | Spanish – Argentina |
es-BO | Spanish – Bolivia |
es-CL | Spanish – Chile |
es-CO | Spanish – Colombia |
es-CR | Spanish – Costa Rica |
es-DO | Spanish – Dominican Republic |
es-EC | Spanish – Ecuador |
es-SV | Spanish – El Salvador |
es-GT | Spanish – Guatemala |
es-HN | Spanish – Honduras |
es-MX | Spanish – Mexico |
es-NI | Spanish – Nicaragua |
es-PA | Spanish – Panama |
es-PY | Spanish – Paraguay |
es-PE | Spanish – Peru |
es-PR | Spanish – Puerto Rico |
es-ES | Spanish – Spain |
es-UY | Spanish – Uruguay |
es-VE | Spanish – Venezuela |
sw-KE | Swahili – Kenya |
sv-FI | Swedish – Finland |
sv-SE | Swedish – Sweden |
syr-SY | Syriac – Syria |
ta-IN | Tamil – India |
tt-RU | Tatar – Russia |
te-IN | Telugu – India |
th-TH | Thai – Thailand |
tr-TR | Turkish – Turkey |
uk-UA | Ukrainian – Ukraine |
ur-PK | Urdu – Pakistan |
Cy-uz-UZ | Uzbek (Cyrillic) – Uzbekistan |
Lt-uz-UZ | Uzbek (Latin) – Uzbekistan |
vi-VN | Vietnamese – Vietnam |
By specifying both language and country codes correctly, you ensure that search engines serve the most relevant content to your users, based on their same language and location preferences.
To avoid common mistakes when combining language and country codes, always double-check the codes you’re using and ensure that they adhere to the ISO standards.
The above table is not comprehensive and can get more sophisticated than that, eg:
ca-ES-valencia for Catalan (Valencian)
Hreflang Implementation
There are three main methods for implementing hreflang tags :
- via HTML (using the HTML link element)
- HTTP headers
- XML sitemap,
HTTP Headers Implementation
Using HTTP headers to implement hreflang tags is ideal for non-HTML files, such as PDFs or images, that still need to be targeted based on language and region.
To implement hreflang tags using HTTP headers, you’ll need to include the hreflang attribute in the HTTP header of your website, specifying the language and country codes in the ‘hreflang’ header field.
Though this method is more technical than implementing hreflang tags within your HTML code, it offers the advantage of targeting non-HTML files with language and country-specific content.
XML Sitemap Implementation
Adding hreflang tags to your XML sitemap is a great way to organize and manage your hreflang implementation on websites with large number of pages or multiple language-country combinations.
To add hreflang tags to your XML sitemap, you’ll need to include a xhtml:link> element for each language and country combination, with the hreflang attribute specifying the language and country code for the page.
Implementing hreflang tags in your XML sitemap offers the advantage of better organization and management, allowing you to easily update or modify your hreflang implementation as needed.
Hreflang Testing and Validation
It’s essential to test and validate your implementation using various hreflang testing tools and techniques to ensure that your tags are accurately set up and correctly targeting the desired regions and audiences:
- Google Search Console (not available any more)
- Hreflang Tags Generator
- Hreflang Validators
These tools analyze your website’s code for hreflang tags and verify if the tags are accurately implemented and performing as expected. They can detect any mistakes or problems with your hreflang tags, such as missing or incorrect language or country codes.
By using hreflang testing tools, you can:
- Ensure that your implementation is accurate and compliant with global standards
- Improve your website’s compatibility with various search engines and platforms
- Detect and fix any common errors or issues with your hreflang tags
- Ensure that your content is served to the right audience in the right locations.
Common Validation Issues and Solutions
When combining language and country codes in hreflang tags, it’s common to make errors, such as using incorrect codes, not taking into account different language lengths, or mixing language and country codes incorrectly.
Example: UK instead of GB for the United Kingdom
To prevent these issues, it’s essential to utilize the appropriate ISO codes and ensure that your implementation is accurate and compliant with global standards.
Common validation issues with hreflang tags include incorrect language codes, incorrect country codes, and incorrect URLs. To fix these issues, double-check the language and country codes you’re using, and ensure that they adhere to the ISO standards.
Additionally, verify that the URLs in your hreflang tags are correct and functioning as intended.
Here’s some of the common mistakes:
- Putting Country code before Language code – should be other way round
- Using a dash (–) instead of a hyphen (-)
- Using wrong quotation marks (“ ”) instead of (” “)
- Using a relative URL e.g. /usa/ instead of showing a full URL
- Using country code only: language code is mandatory, country code is optional
- Missing self-referencing Hreflang: there should be only one Hreflang tag pointing to the page you’re on
- Multiple Hreflang tags for a single page
- Hreflang and Canonical tags in conflict: Hreflang and Canonicals are not supposed to be combined
By addressing common validation issues and troubleshooting your hreflang implementation to ensure it is accurate and compliant you will, no doubt, boost your website’s SEO for international exposure.
Furthermore, this will ensure that your content is served to the right audience in the right locations, ultimately enhancing the user experience and boosting your site’s SEO performance.
Conclusion
In conclusion, hreflang tags play a crucial role in improving the user experience and search engine optimization of your multilingual website.
By combining language and country codes accurately, implementing hreflang tags using the appropriate method, and testing and validating your implementation, you can ensure that your website’s content is served to the right users in the right locations.
Don’t underestimate how easy it is to set up hreflang incorrectly, by mistake. You need a proper implementation and validation method in place to ensure 100% compliance. If you would like your hreflang implementation to be audited, feel free to contact me for a quote.
In a nutshell:
- Hreflang tags are essential for search engines to identify language and region, leading to improved SEO & user experience.
- Combining language & country codes is essential for accurate targeting with hreflang tags, following ISO 639-1 and 3166 standards.
- To ensure accuracy in targeting desired regions & audiences, use appropriate ISO codes and test/validate the implementation of hreflang tags on your website.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the hreflang code for Spanish?
The hreflang code for Spanish is “es”, as identified by its two-letter abbreviation in ISO format code.
This code should be used to specify the language and country of each URL version when creating a Spanish-language version of an English-language page.
–
What ISO code is hreflang?
Hreflang uses two-letter ISO 639-1 language codes and ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country and region codes. It requires values to define languages according to ISO 639-1 and countries/regions according to ISO 3166-1.
Country-only values are not allowed, and the standard must be followed for search engines to interpret the hreflang value.
–
What is the hreflang tag for English in Australia?
The hreflang tag for English in Australia is “en-au”.
–
What is the purpose of hreflang tags?
Hreflang tags provide an effective way to help search engines understand the language and region of a webpage, thus ensuring the right version is displayed in search results.
–
What are ISO 639-1 language codes?
ISO 639-1 language codes are standardized two-letter codes used to represent languages for use in HTML elements such as hreflang tags.
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