Glossary · technical-seo
What is Hreflang?
Hreflang is an HTML attribute that tells search engines a page has versions in other languages or for other regions, and which version belongs to which audience. Each version lists all the others, including itself, using language codes such as en for English or ur for Urdu, optionally with a region such as en-PK, plus an x-default for everyone else. Google then shows searchers the version that matches their language and location. It does not translate anything or boost rankings by itself; it prevents the wrong version showing and stops translated pages being mistaken for duplicates.
What does Hreflang mean for a business in Pakistan?
Hreflang matters when an Islamabad business publishes both an English page and a proper Urdu-script page, or targets Pakistani and Gulf audiences separately. Roman Urdu is not a separate language code, so a Roman Urdu page is usually treated as part of the English or Urdu version rather than tagged on its own.
A worked example
An Islamabad Hajj and Umrah operator publishes its packages page in English at /en/umrah-packages and in Urdu at /ur/umrah-packages. Both pages carry hreflang tags listing en, ur and x-default pointing at the English page. Someone searching in Urdu script is shown the Urdu page; someone searching in English sees the English one.
Terms that go with this one
These come up in the same conversations and are worth reading together.
- Canonical tagcanonical tagA canonical tag is a line in a page's HTML head, written as link rel="canonical", that tells search engines which web address is the main version of…
- Duplicate contentduplicate contentDuplicate content is the same or nearly the same text appearing at more than one web address, either on your own site or across different sites.…
- IndexingindexingIndexing is Google storing a copy of your page so it can be shown in results. It is the step after crawling: a bot visits the page, then Google…
- SitemapsitemapA sitemap is an XML file listing the URLs on your site that you want search engines to know about, usually sitting at /sitemap.xml. It is a…
- SEOSEOSEO is the work of making a website turn up in Google's unpaid results when someone searches for what you sell. It has three parts: technical work so…
Hreflang — quick answers
What does Hreflang mean?
Hreflang is an HTML attribute that tells search engines a page has versions in other languages or for other regions, and which version belongs to which audience. Each version lists all the others, including itself, using language codes such as en for English or ur for Urdu, optionally with a region such as en-PK, plus an x-default for everyone else.
Hreflang ko Urdu mein kya kehte hain?
ایچ آر ای ایف لینگ — though in practice almost everyone in Pakistan says "hreflang tag". Hreflang matters when an Islamabad business publishes both an English page and a proper Urdu-script page, or targets Pakistani and Gulf audiences separately.
Why does Hreflang matter for a business in Pakistan?
Hreflang matters when an Islamabad business publishes both an English page and a proper Urdu-script page, or targets Pakistani and Gulf audiences separately. Roman Urdu is not a separate language code, so a Roman Urdu page is usually treated as part of the English or Urdu version rather than tagged on its own.
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