Hreflang Implementation
Hreflang implementation that Google actually uses.
Hreflang implementation by a senior team in Amsterdam and New York, set up on 50+ international sites. Each country sees its own page.
- Visitors from every country land on the right page
- Works on Shopify Markets and custom-built websites
- Audit, setup and monitoring in one project
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Storefronts
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Languages
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Headless CMS
Trusted by ambitious brands worldwide
SEMrush agency
Ranked #1 SEO agency in The Netherlands on Semrush
SEO for Google and AI
Found in Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews
Hreflang implementation from a senior SEO agency in Amsterdam and New York
Most hreflang setups are broken from the day they launch. Visitors land in the wrong country, at the wrong price. We match every page to its version per market and keep it right as your site grows.
Most hreflang setups are broken from the day they launch. Visitors land in the wrong country, at the wrong price. We match every page to its version per market and keep it right as your site grows.
LASEO is a 100% SEO agency in Amsterdam and New York. Hreflang is a set of tags that tells Google which language or country version of a page to show to which visitor. Our hreflang implementation covers the audit, matching every page across markets, building it into your website and an automatic check that keeps it correct. We have set it up on Shopify Plus stores with seven markets, on custom Shopify themes and on custom-built websites, as part of our international SEO and technical SEO work. Before we sign off, every setup goes through two outside testing tools and our own check that every page links back to its other language versions.
Get your free hreflang auditOur clients
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shows every market its own page, in its own language and currency. Hreflang built into your website, checked after every update and kept right as you add markets.
Hreflang is not a tag you add once and forget. It is a list of matching pages per market, and it has to stay correct as you add countries, retire products and translate categories. We do the first setup, then leave an automatic check behind that warns us when a page loses its link back. Read more about international SEO.
Part of Technical SEO. Related services: Mobile SEO, Site Speed, Core Web Vitals and Website Migration.
How we set up hreflang
Hreflang implementation in five phases
A separate project of two to four weeks: audit, match the pages, choose the method, implement, monitor. Everything we build is yours, including the automatic check.
- 01
Audit of your current hreflang setup
We test 25 typical pages across your markets with an outside hreflang testing tool, then scan your full site. You get an audit report that lists every broken group of language versions, every page that does not point to itself and every wrong country code.
- 02
Matching pages per market and language
We build one master spreadsheet with every page in every market and its equivalents in the other markets. For online stores we organise it by collection and product: one row per product, one column per market. We mark which pages are translated, which fall back to a language-only version and which need a default page for visitors from other countries. Your website then reads its language links from this one list.
- 03
Choosing how to add it
For small sites (under 1,000 page pairs) we put the tags in the code of each page. For anything bigger we put them in the sitemap. For PDFs and other files we use a third method that sits outside the page. We write down the decision and the trade-offs, so your CTO can check it, and we match it to how your website is hosted and cached.
- 04
Built into your website
We make the changes in your website ourselves; your developers approve them. On Shopify Plus we edit the theme and add a custom sitemap with the language links. On other Shopify themes we add a small reusable block of code to every page. On custom-built websites we add one helper that reads from the master list. Every change comes with an automatic test that stops the release if a group of language links breaks.
- 05
Daily checks and monitoring
We set up a daily scan that walks through every group of language versions, checks that each page links back, and posts in Slack when something breaks. We also watch these pages in Google Search Console, so we spot pages dropping out of Google early. The check is yours, with documentation for your team.
Hreflang done once,then checked every day.
Hreflang is not something you add once and forget. It is a list of matching pages per market, and it has to stay correct as you add markets, retire products and translate categories. We do the first setup, then leave behind an automatic check that runs every time your website is updated and alerts us when a page loses its link back. Nothing breaks quietly.
What our hreflang clients say
Multi-market site owners in their own words
Our international shops were competing against each other in Google. LASEO mapped hreflang correctly and now the NL and BE versions rank where they should.
With customers in many countries we kept hitting wrong-locale URLs in the SERPs. LASEO fixed hreflang plus geo-targeting without our dev team having to touch it.
LASEO overhauled our hreflang tags, including x-default and the right language-region pairs. Our German and French markets immediately got the visibility they deserved.
Our international shops were competing against each other in Google. LASEO mapped hreflang correctly and now the NL and BE versions rank where they should.
With customers in many countries we kept hitting wrong-locale URLs in the SERPs. LASEO fixed hreflang plus geo-targeting without our dev team having to touch it.
LASEO overhauled our hreflang tags, including x-default and the right language-region pairs. Our German and French markets immediately got the visibility they deserved.
Google and AI search
Found in Google, and in the answers AI gives
More and more buyers ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI Overviews before they click on anything. We make sure your brand shows up there too: as a source AI quotes and a brand it recommends.
More about AI SEOWhere your buyers search
- ChatGPT
- Google AI Overviews
- Perplexity
- Gemini
- Copilot
Your free audit shows whether ChatGPT and AI Overviews mention you.
- 01
Answers AI wants to quote
Clear answers, facts and sources on your pages, so AI tools pick your site as the source.
- 02
A site AI can read
A clean technical base that tells AI tools exactly what you sell and who it is for.
- 03
Mentioned in the right places
Reviews, press and trusted sites: the signals AI uses to decide which brands to recommend.
- 04
Measured, not guessed
We test the questions your buyers ask and track how often AI tools mention you, next to your Google rankings.
Honest answers about hreflang implementation
What marketing, tech and SEO teams ask before starting a hreflang project.
About LASEO
Question not listed?
A senior specialist is happy to answer it. Request your free audit, or call us directly.
Start by testing 25 typical pages with a free hreflang testing tool, spread across your homepage, top collections and top products. Then scan your full site with a tool like Screaming Frog to find every broken group. The three most common errors are pages that do not point to themselves (every page in a group must list itself), pages that do not link back (page A points to page B, but B does not point back to A) and wrong country codes (en-UK does not exist, use en-GB). Fix it in your website's code rather than in a plugin, so the fix survives plugin updates. Add an automatic test that stops a release when a page stops pointing to itself. Then set up a daily scan that keeps watching the groups.
Both work. Tags in the page code are easier to check, because you can see them in your browser, but they make pages heavier: a site with ten markets adds ten lines to every page. Hreflang in the sitemap scales better for sites with thousands of page pairs, because the information sits outside the page itself. Under 1,000 page pairs we recommend the page code. Above 1,000 we recommend a separate hreflang sitemap. Never mix the two methods on the same pages: Google can read both, but conflicting signals are a common reason a group fails. The third option, sent alongside the file instead of inside it, is for files like PDFs and images you want shown per language.
Yes, for country versions in the same language. If you show the same English content on /en-us/, /en-gb/ and /en-au/ and only the currency and shipping text differ, hreflang tells Google which version to show in which market, so they stop competing with each other. It does not solve every duplicate problem: pages that are almost identical can still be filtered out by Google, whatever hreflang says. We pair hreflang with a tag on each version that tells Google this version counts, so every market page stands on its own. For very thin versions (only the currency differs, nothing else) consider merging them into one page with a currency switcher.
If page A lists page B as its alternative, page B must list page A back. That is called a return tag. If page B does not point back, Google sees the group as broken and ignores the hreflang completely. Return tags break when page addresses change in one market but not in the others, when a market launches new pages without updating the rest of the group, or when plugins only partly rebuild the tags. We set up an automatic scan that walks through every group every day and checks that every link back really exists. When one breaks, our Slack channel gets an alert. Most teams never set this up and quietly lose half their hreflang coverage within a year of launch.
Google does not require a default page, but we strongly recommend one for any site with three or more markets. The default tag (x-default) tells Google which page to show to visitors who do not match any of your languages or countries. For example: a Spanish-speaking visitor lands on your site, but you only have English, French and German versions. Without a default, Google picks one at random. Most sites point the default at their English homepage or a country picker. A country picker is the better experience but has to be built; the English homepage is the practical choice. We always include a default page in setups with three or more markets and record the choice in the master spreadsheet, so your team knows what happens to visitors from other markets.
Free hreflang audit
Get your free hreflang auditfrom a senior specialist.
Free and without obligation. A senior specialist tests five of your pages and sends you an expert report on what holds your international pages back in Google and AI search, such as visitors landing on the wrong country version, and what to fix first. No sales pitch. If you want us to fix it, we scope the work with you.