Glossary · HTTP, edge and rendering
hreflang
A link annotation that tells a search engine which language or regional version of a page a URL is, and where the other versions live.
What hreflang means
A link annotation that tells a search engine which language or regional version of a page a URL is, and where the other versions live. It groups alternates; it does not redirect anyone, does not translate anything, and a set that is not reciprocal across every version is ignored by the engine that reads it.
What hreflang can and cannot support
| It can support | It cannot support |
|---|---|
| A link annotation that tells a search engine which language or regional version of a page a URL is, and where the other versions live. | It groups alternates; it does not redirect anyone, does not translate anything, and a set that is not reciprocal across every version is ignored by the engine that reads it. |
Where hreflang comes up on this site
- Do AI crawlers render JavaScript?The same applies to canonical tags, meta robots directives and hreflang: a directive that only exists after hydration is a directive most clients never receive.
- CrawlCheck in German, French, Spanish and PortugueseAnd there is no redirect by IP address or browser language: a German visitor typing the English URL gets the English page, with hreflang links telling the engine which four alternates exist.
Related terms in HTTP, edge and rendering
The delivery layer between an origin and a client: proxies, caches, redirects, status codes and the headers that decide what a crawler actually received.
Origin server · Reverse proxy · CDN · Edge node · WAF · Bot score · TLS handshake · DNS resolution · DNS timeout · Connection timeout · Read timeout · Redirect chain · Redirect loop · 301 redirect · 302 redirect · 307 redirect · 308 redirect · 304 response · 404 response · 410 response · 429 response · 500 response · 502 response · 503 response · 504 response · HEAD request · GET request · Content type · MIME sniffing · Content encoding · Compression · Brotli · ETag · Last-Modified · If-None-Match · Cache hit · Cache miss · Cache key · Vary header · Stale response · Stale-while-revalidate · Edge redirect · Origin bypass · Response parity · Header parity · canonical URL · HSTS · HSTS preload list · Content-Security-Policy · CSP nonce · edge cache · cache split · cache-buster · Cache-Control · Age header · render-blocking resource · payload text share · lazy loading · 404 and 410 status codes
Questions about hreflang
What is hreflang?
A link annotation that tells a search engine which language or regional version of a page a URL is, and where the other versions live.
What does hreflang not show or guarantee?
It groups alternates; it does not redirect anyone, does not translate anything, and a set that is not reciprocal across every version is ignored by the engine that reads it.
Which area of the glossary does hreflang belong to?
HTTP, edge and rendering: The delivery layer between an origin and a client: proxies, caches, redirects, status codes and the headers that decide what a crawler actually received.
← Header parity · canonical URL →
See it in the full glossary · 668 terms across 19 areas.