SOP: hreflang via sitemap (multilingual sites)
Keeps language alternates out of your HTML head and centralized.
Step 1 — Namespace: xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
Step 2 — For each <url>, add one <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang=".."> for EVERY language version, INCLUDING the page itself (self-reference).
Step 3 — ✅ Reciprocity rule: if A lists B, B must list A. Missing return links void the cluster.
Step 4 — Use ✅ ISO 639-1 language + optional ISO 3166-1 region: en, en-GB, x-default.
Step 5 — ✅ Add one x-default per cluster for unmatched users.
Step 6 — Every alternate URL must be ✅ 200 and indexable.
Definition of done: each cluster is fully reciprocal, self-referencing, has an x-default, and every alternate returns 200 — verified on 10 sampled clusters.
The Sitemap SOP
@SitemapSOP
SOP: hreflang via sitemap (multilingual sites)
Этот пост опубликован в Telegram-канале The Sitemap SOP. Подписаться можно по ссылке: @SitemapSOP.