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hreflang & language tags

hreflang return tag

Also known as: hreflang return tag, reciprocal hreflang

A hreflang return tag means two pages reference each other through hreflang. If page A points to page B, page B must point back to page A. According to Google, the tags are ignored when the pages don’t point to each other. SISTRIX quotes a 2020 statement by John Mueller that hreflang is evaluated in pairs.

How do return tags work?

Each version of a page lists all versions, including itself. The self-reference is part of the requirement. This applies to all three implementation methods: HTML head, HTTP header and XML sitemap.

In practice, missing return tags often appear when a new language version is not added to the existing pages, or after a relaunch (an assumption based on experience). A crawler that checks hreflang relationships finds them. Audit tools usually report them as “missing reciprocal hreflang” or “no return tag”.

hreflang cluster with four language versionsFour pages de-DE, de-AT, en and x-default all point to each other. Only between en and de-AT the return link is missing: en points to de-AT, but de-AT does not point to en. Google therefore ignores this pair.de-DEexample.com/de-de/de-ATexample.com/de-at/enexample.com/en/x-defaultexample.com/point to each other: validone-way only: pair is ignoredEvery page lists all four versions, including itself.
Four language versions of one page. Each lists all versions, including itself. de-AT does not list en, so Google ignores the one-way link from en to de-AT. Source: Google Search Central: Tell Google about localized versions of your page.

Example

The English page example.com/en/ points to example.com/de/, but the German page has no entry for /en/. The return tag is missing, so the annotation does not take effect.

Correct on both pages:

HTML
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/en/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.com/de/" />

Sources

  1. Tell Google about localized versions of your page – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
  2. Missing reciprocal hreflang (no return tag) – Sitebulb (secondary)sitebulb.com
  3. Missing reciprocal hreflang – Ahrefs Help (secondary)help.ahrefs.com
  4. hreflang-Guide – SISTRIX (secondary)sistrix.de

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