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How to track hreflang tag issues on Ahrefs

intermediate 8 min read Updated 2026-04-20
Quick Answer

Track hreflang tag issues in Ahrefs by running a Site Audit and navigating to the Health section to find hreflang-specific errors. The tool identifies missing return tags, incorrect language codes, and other implementation problems automatically.

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Prerequisites

  • Active Ahrefs subscription
  • Website with international versions or multilingual content
  • Basic understanding of hreflang implementation
  • Site Audit project already set up in Ahrefs

Step-by-Step Instructions

1

Access Site Audit in Ahrefs

Log into your Ahrefs account and navigate to Site Audit from the main dashboard. Select your target website project or create a new one by clicking + New Project if you haven't already set up site auditing for your multilingual website.
Ensure your crawl settings include all international versions of your site for comprehensive hreflang analysis.
2

Navigate to Health Issues

Once your site audit is complete, click on Health in the left sidebar menu. This section displays all technical SEO issues found on your website, including hreflang-related problems that could impact your international SEO performance.
3

Filter for Hreflang Issues

In the Health section, use the search bar at the top and type hreflang to filter for hreflang-specific issues. You'll see various hreflang errors such as Missing return hreflang tags, Incorrect hreflang values, and Conflicting hreflang declarations.
You can also use the issue type filter on the left to focus on specific categories of hreflang problems.
4

Examine Specific Hreflang Errors

Click on any hreflang issue to see detailed information. Ahrefs will show you:
  • The exact pages affected
  • What the error is and why it matters
  • The specific hreflang tags causing problems
  • Recommendations for fixing the issue
Review each error type to understand the scope of your hreflang implementation problems.
Start with high-impact errors like missing return tags, as these can significantly affect international search visibility.
5

Export Affected URLs

For each hreflang issue, click the Export button to download a CSV file containing all affected URLs. This export includes columns for the URL, issue description, and specific hreflang problems, making it easy to share with your development team or work through fixes systematically.
Use the export data to create a prioritized fix list based on page importance and traffic potential.
6

Monitor Pages Section for Hreflang Details

Navigate to Pages in the left sidebar and use the Issues filter to find pages with hreflang problems. This view shows you which specific pages have hreflang issues alongside other page-level metrics like organic traffic and backlinks, helping you prioritize fixes.
Sort by organic traffic to prioritize fixing hreflang issues on your most valuable pages first.
7

Set Up Monitoring and Alerts

Go to Settings in your Site Audit project and configure email notifications for new hreflang issues. Set the audit to run weekly or monthly to track improvements and catch new problems. You can customize alerts to notify you specifically when hreflang error counts increase or decrease.
Regular monitoring helps you catch hreflang issues early, especially when adding new international pages or making site changes.
8

Track Progress Over Time

Use the Overview section to monitor your hreflang health score over time. Ahrefs shows historical data of issue resolution, allowing you to track the effectiveness of your fixes. Compare audit results before and after implementing hreflang corrections to measure improvement.
Document your fixes and re-run audits to verify that hreflang issues have been resolved properly.

Common Issues & Troubleshooting

Hreflang issues not showing up in audit results

Verify that your Site Audit crawl settings include all international versions of your site and that the crawler can access pages with hreflang tags. Check if your Crawl Settings have proper user-agent and geographic targeting configured.

Too many false positive hreflang errors reported

Review your hreflang implementation method - if using HTTP headers instead of HTML tags, Ahrefs may not detect them properly. Ensure your hreflang tags are properly formatted with correct language-country codes like en-US or es-ES.

Site Audit not crawling international pages

Increase your crawl limit in Crawl Settings and ensure international pages are properly linked from your main site. Add international sitemaps to your audit configuration and verify that pages aren't blocked by robots.txt or noindex tags.

Hreflang errors persist after implementing fixes

Wait 24-48 hours after making changes, then re-run your Site Audit. Clear any CDN or caching that might be serving old versions of your pages. Verify fixes are properly deployed across all international versions using View Source on affected pages.

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