Google: Use Hreflang When Sitelinks Go To Wrong Country Version

Sep 12, 2023 - 7:31 am 0 — by

Google Globe Lines

Google's John Mueller said if you see that your sitelinks in Google Search are going to the wrong country version URL on your site, then try using hreflang. John said on X, "This is kinda what hreflang is for (and even that isn't a guarantee that languages/regions won't mix)."

Daniel_Howard posted an SEO issue where a site was showing the US version of the URL in a search done on Google UK. Also, the spelling of "Jewelry" was in the US version and not in the UK version of "Jewellery."

Here is the screenshot Daniel shared on Twitter:

click for full size

Just said you should try using hreflang, he said "This is kinda what hreflang is for (and even that isn't a guarantee that languages/regions won't mix)."

You can use hreflang to tell Google about the variations of your content, so that we can understand that these pages are localized variations of the same content. Google doesn't use hreflang or the HTML lang attribute to detect the language of a page; instead, Google uses algorithms to determine the language.

More details on this over here.

Forum discussion at X.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Google Search Volatility

More Details

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: October 19, 2026

Oct 19, 2026 - 10:00 am
Blog Administration

Is It New? AI Scan Tool

Oct 19, 2026 - 7:51 am
Google Maps

Google Moves Google Posts Higher Up On Local Panel

Oct 19, 2026 - 7:41 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Now In AI Mode With Personal Intelligence

Oct 19, 2026 - 7:31 am
Google

Google AI Mode Citations With Preferred Source Preferences

Oct 19, 2026 - 7:21 am
ChatGPT Ads

ChatGPT Ads New Ad Formats, Updated Conversion Page, Performance Emails...

Oct 19, 2026 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: Google On Content On E-Commerce Category Page: Stay Away From Low-Quality Blurbs