Research / Top sites study

Language versions declared correctly: how the world's top websites do

Of 107 of the world's most popular websites that we audited, 66 pass this check and 41 fall short.

What this check means

hreflang tags tell search engines which language version to show. Counted only on sites that use them.

How this was measured

The figure comes from Adnave's own audits of 551 popular websites, each read as a search engine first receives it and re-checked about once a month. A site “falls short” when the result is anything other than a pass. That is not always a mistake: a very large site may skip something on purpose. Sites that refuse automated visits are not in the sample, so the figure describes the popular sites that could be read, not the whole web. Full method and limits

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<a href="https://adnave.com/research/stats/hreflang"><img src="https://adnave.com/embed/hreflang.svg" alt="Share of the world's top websites that pass the check “Language versions declared correctly”. Live figure by Adnave." width="480" height="200" loading="lazy"></a>

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