Hreflang for multilingual sites: correct setup

Site translated IT/EN but English traffic isn't coming? Probably hreflang is wrong. It's the tag telling Google which version to show to which country. Done well is essential; done wrong is worse than not having it.

Correct tag format

In every page, in <head>:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="it" href="https://gamerbit.it/it/page" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://gamerbit.it/en/page" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://gamerbit.it/" />

Every page must link to ALL versions (including itself).

x-default: the critical fallback

x-default is the page shown if user doesn't match any specified language. Often ignored, but critical: without it, users in non-Italian/English countries see random results.

Common mistakes that nullify effect

• Non-reciprocal hreflang (IT links EN but EN doesn't link IT)
• Wrong language codes ("eng" instead of "en")
• Relative URLs instead of absolute
• Canonical pages pointing to wrong version
• Hreflang in robots.txt nofollow

Free verification

• Google Search Console: "International Targeting" report
• Hreflang Tags Testing Tool (free)
• Screaming Frog SEO Spider: crawl + hreflang report

Correct hreflang included in Gamerbit bilingual sites. See the Foundation package.

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