Hreflang: Multiple Entries

URLs with multiple entries to a language or regional code.

For example, if page X links to page Y and Z using the same ‘en’ hreflang value annotation.

This filter will also pick up multiple implementations, for example, if hreflang annotations were discovered as link elements and via HTTP header.

While multiple implementations are permitted by Google, there’s no benefit and it can increase the likelihood of implementation error.

How to Analyse in the SEO Spider

View URLs with this issue in the ‘Hreflang’ tab and ‘Multiple Entries’, filter and export all URLs using the ‘Export’ button.

Read our tutorial on ‘How To Audit Hreflang’.

What Triggers This Issue

This issue is triggered when URLs have multiple entries for the same language or regional code in their hreflang annotations.

For example:

https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/page-z/

Has the hreflang annotations:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-us" href="https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/page-z/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-gb" href="https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/page-y/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-gb" href="https://www.screamingfrog.com/page-x/" />

In the above, there are two different pages being targetted with the same ‘en-gb’ values.

How To Fix

Update hreflang annotations to only use a language and region pair once, so they can be used for geotargeting the right audiences appropriately. If you have multiple implementations, consider using one preferred implementation.