Technical fix guide
Hreflang Tags Missing on Multilingual Site
Page appears to target multiple languages or regions but lacks hreflang annotations, which help search engines serve the correct version to users.
Issue ID: TECH-HREFLANG-PRESENT-001
Severity: minor
Impact: Med
Effort: M
Use this article when
- You need deeper remediation guidance than the issue card can show.
- You want CMS-specific steps before handing the fix to a developer.
- You want a repeatable re-check path after shipping the change.
What this issue is
Page appears to target multiple languages or regions but lacks hreflang annotations, which help search engines serve the correct version to users.
Why it matters
Page appears to target multiple languages or regions but lacks hreflang annotations, which help search engines serve the correct version to users. This affects crawlability, rendering, and whether the site can be interpreted correctly by search engines.
How we detect it
- FreeSiteAudit flags this issue when the rule for TECH-HREFLANG-PRESENT-001 fails and the page evidence points to Head metadata.
- You can usually confirm this by checking the page source or the relevant page settings inside your CMS.
Evidence examples
Check the affected page source, rendered output, or relevant CMS setting to confirm the missing or incorrect element.
How to fix it
- 1Add <link rel="alternate" hreflang="xx"> tags for each language version
- 2Include a self-referencing hreflang tag for the current page
- 3Add an x-default hreflang for the fallback language
How to re-check it
- View page source and confirm hreflang tags are present for all language versions
Related tools
This issue is best verified with the full FreeSiteAudit crawl rather than a single-point mini tool.