Some days ago, Google’s John Mueller said that Google can figure out different languages without the hreflang attribute. In a forum discussion on Reddit, he added that having the wrong hreflang attribute can be worse than having no hreflang attribute at all:
“If hreflang isn’t valid (non-indexed pages linked, invalid language codes) then it’s ignored & the same as not having it at all (this is on a per-hreflang-link basis, so if some are ok, they’ll work).
If the hreflang is between the wrong pages (eg the English ‘Fish’ page is connected to the Spanish ‘Chicken’ page), then that would probably be worse than not having hreflang set up at all.”
If you have a multilangual website that targets different countries, you should take a closer look at the hreflang attribute. Otherwise, it’s better to ignore it.
Check your web pages for the hreflang attribute
Among many other things, the SEO website audit tool in SEOprofiler also checks your web pages for hreflang attributes. The SEO website audit tool helps you to improve your pages so that they can get better rankings on Google and other search engines. If you haven’t done it yet, create your free SEOprofiler account now:
