New Study Finds 31% of International Websites Contain Hreflang Errors

A recent study by SEO professionals suggests that frequent hreflang issues may be costing international websites important search engine visibility.

A recent study found that international websites need help implementing hreflang correctly. According to a study by SEO professionals, 31% of websites from other countries have hreflang problems. It could significantly impact how well SEO works and how visible you are on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Hreflang is a crucial tool for multinational websites targeting several languages and geographical areas. For search engines to effectively index a page, it enables web admins to declare the language and region of the content on that page. However, it can be complicated to implement hreflang appropriately.

Unfortunately, improper use of hreflang tags can result in duplicate content problems, inaccurate indexing, and poor SERP visibility, all of which degrade SEO performance. Fortunately, numerous tools are available online that can assist in locating any potential issues connected to the installation of Hreflang.

One in three websites have errors that could harm their performance in foreign SEO, according to a recent study that used NerdyData to evaluate the incidence of hreflang issues across 18,786 domains.

Following Screaming Frog crawls and removing GEO-IP redirection, 31.02% of the pages were discovered to include flaws, such as missing or improperly implemented alternate language pages, which can seriously misalign search results from different countries when Google's algorithm is used.

HreflangChecker.com and Visual SEO Studio enabled a more detailed study of potential issues affecting international exposure online; the data provides valuable insight into areas where web admins should pay particular attention when optimizing for international audiences!

An alarming 31.02% of websites with a multilingual presence have contradictory hreflang directives, which result in wrongly labeled URLs that confuse search engines and may lower their exposure in international markets. In addition, 16.04 percent lack self-referencing tags, 47.95 percent don't use x-default settings at all, 8.91 percent have incorrect language codes, and 1.6% have strange region combinations, leaving 22.4 percent mismatched and in need of immediate repair.

All Hreflang tags must be carefully implemented for the best visibility and precision in search results. It includes ensuring they are self-referencing, that any language and region codes used are from the legitimate ISO list, and using x-default sites to divert users looking in a language not offered on the site.

To ensure that your content is accurately indexed and given to the relevant audience in the correct language, proper hreflang tag implementation is crucial. Your organic search visibility and global reach can both benefit from taking the time to ensure that your hreflang tags are appropriately deployed.

Illustration: Freepik / Vectorjuice

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