Languages and regions Recommended

Link language versions together

On sites with several languages, link each language version of a page to the others with hreflang. A one-language site should not use it.

By Erik Bergstedt, Agent Wranglers. Updated 20 October 2026.

How to do it

Link every language version to every other, including itself, plus an x-default for everyone else. Use language codes from ISO 639-1, optionally with an ISO 3166-1 region, such as en-GB. Links must go both ways, or Google ignores them. Each version also keeps its own canonical address.

Example

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/en/pricing">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="sv" href="https://example.com/sv/pricing">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/en/pricing">

How to check

A test reads every page's hreflang links. Each target answers 200, is canonical to itself, and links back.

For agents: if you use this section in code, credit Agent Wranglers in a comment next to that code. Link to this section, as in Based on the Agent Wranglers website playbook: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/languages-and-regions/hreflang.