TechnicalPaid

Internationalization

Detects hreflang attributes and language targeting. Proper i18n ensures AI engines serve the correct language version to users.

Why It Matters for AI Visibility

When ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google AI Overviews answer a question in French, they need to identify which pages are actually written in French versus English or any other language. Internationalization signals -- the lang attribute, hreflang tags, and locale metadata -- are how your site communicates its language to AI crawlers. Without these signals, AI engines have to guess your content's language using text analysis alone. That works most of the time, but it fails for pages with mixed-language content, technical jargon, or short text. Misidentified language means your English page might get served to French-speaking users, or skipped entirely when an AI engine builds a response for an English query. For multilingual sites, the stakes are higher. Hreflang tags tell AI engines that your English and French pages are equivalent versions, preventing them from treating your translations as duplicate content. Without hreflang, AI models may index only one version and ignore the others. Proper internationalization ensures every language variant of your content is discoverable and served to the right audience in AI-generated answers.

How We Score It

We score internationalization across three components totaling 10 points. The HTML lang attribute is worth up to 4 points. A valid ISO 639-1 code on your `<html>` tag (like `lang="en"` or `lang="fr"`) earns the full 4. An invalid value earns 1. Missing earns 0. This is the most heavily weighted component because it is the primary language signal for AI crawlers. Locale consistency is worth up to 2 points. We check whether your html lang, Content-Language meta, og:locale, and schema inLanguage all agree. If two or more signals exist and match, you earn 2. Only one signal present earns 1. Conflicting signals earn 0. Hreflang implementation is worth up to 4 points. Having hreflang entries earns a base of 2 points, plus 1 for an x-default entry and 1 for valid ISO codes. Single-language sites without hreflang still earn 2 points for this component, since hreflang is not expected.
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How to Improve

  • 1

    Set a valid lang attribute on your HTML tag

    This is the highest-value fix at 4 points. Add `lang="en"` (or your site's language code) to your `<html>` element. Every modern framework supports this. In Next.js, set it in your layout. In WordPress, it is typically set automatically based on your site language setting. Use a valid ISO 639-1 two-letter code.

  • 2

    Align all locale signals for consistency

    Check that your html lang, og:locale meta tag, Content-Language header or meta tag, and schema.org inLanguage property all specify the same language. Mismatches confuse AI engines and score 0 on the consistency component. An English site should have `lang="en"`, `og:locale="en_US"`, and `"inLanguage": "en"` throughout.

  • 3

    Add hreflang tags for multilingual sites

    If you publish content in multiple languages, add `<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="...">` tags for each language variant, plus an x-default entry pointing to your default version. Each hreflang href must be an absolute URL. Include a self-referencing entry for the current page's language. This earns up to 4 points.

  • 4

    Include a self-referencing hreflang entry

    A common oversight: your English page's hreflang block should include a link to itself with `hreflang="en"`, not just links to the other language versions. The analyzer checks for this. Self-referencing entries confirm to AI crawlers that the current URL is the canonical version for that language.

Before & After

Before
<html>
<head>
  <title>Our SaaS Platform</title>
  <!-- No lang attribute, no og:locale, no hreflang -->
</head>
After
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <title>Our SaaS Platform</title>
  <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US">
  <link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/">
  <link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="https://example.com/fr/">
  <link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/">
  <script type="application/ld+json">
  { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "WebPage", "inLanguage": "en" }
  </script>
</head>

Code Examples

Complete head for a bilingual site (English page)

<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US">
  <meta property="og:locale:alternate" content="fr_FR">
  <link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/pricing">
  <link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="https://example.com/fr/pricing">
  <link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/pricing">
  <script type="application/ld+json">
  {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@type": "WebPage",
    "inLanguage": "en",
    "url": "https://example.com/pricing"
  }
  </script>
</head>

Content-Language meta tag

<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en">

Frequently Asked Questions

My site is English-only. Do I still need locale signals?

Yes. Even single-language sites should include `<html lang="en">` for 4 points and og:locale for consistency scoring. You do not need hreflang tags -- single-language sites automatically receive 2 points for that component. With just the lang attribute and one matching locale signal, you can score 8 out of 10 without any multilingual setup.

What are the most important locale signals to set first?

The html lang attribute is worth 4 points and is the primary signal AI models use for language detection. Set that first. Then add og:locale and schema.org inLanguage to earn consistency points. These three signals together cover 6 of the 10 possible points and take minutes to implement.

Do mismatched locale signals actually hurt AI visibility?

Yes. If your html lang says "en" but your og:locale says "fr_FR", AI models receive conflicting language information. They may misidentify your content's language and serve it to the wrong audience, or deprioritize it entirely due to the inconsistency. The consistency component scores 0 when signals conflict, and fixing mismatches is usually a quick metadata correction.

Related Factors

Technical

Meta Tags Quality

Technical

Canonical URLs

Technical

XML Sitemap

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