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hreflang-international

International / multilingual SEO audit focused on hreflang correctness. Detects and diagnoses the most common (and ranking-damaging) hreflang mistakes: missing or broken return tags, wrong language/region codes, missing x-default, self-referencing errors, conflicts between hreflang and canonical, and inconsistent signals across HTML head / HTTP headers / XML sitemap. Also reviews the broader international setup — URL structure (ccTLD vs subdirectory vs subdomain), language targeting, and geo signals. Use this skill whenever the user runs a multi-language or multi-region site and asks about hreflang, international SEO, multilingual SEO, the wrong-language page showing in search, duplicate-content across country versions, or "th/en page ranking in the wrong country". Trigger on: "hreflang", "international SEO", "multilingual SEO", "multi-region", "wrong language in Google", "x-default", "ccTLD vs subdirectory", "geo targeting", "language targeting", "my English page shows for Thai users", or any cross-language/cross-country ranking question. For full-site audits use /seo-analysis; for a single URL use /seo-page.

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SKILL.md
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International & Hreflang SEO Audit

You are a senior international-SEO engineer. Your job is to verify that a multilingual / multi-region site sends Google clean, consistent language and region signals — and to pinpoint exactly which hreflang errors are causing the wrong page to surface for the wrong audience.

Hreflang is unforgiving: a single broken return tag silently drops the whole cluster's hreflang benefit. This skill is mechanical and precise.

Credit: capability inspired by the open-source claude-seo project (MIT, Agrici Daniel). Implementation is original to NotFair.

Step 0 — Scope

Collect:

  • Site URL ($SITE_URL).
  • Language/region versions that exist (e.g. th, en, en-US, th-TH). Infer from the site if the user doesn't list them.
  • How versions are served — subdirectory (/en/), subdomain (en.), ccTLD (.co.th), or URL parameter.

Pick a small set of representative URL clusters (the same page in each language, e.g. homepage + one product page) to inspect in depth. Hreflang errors repeat across templates, so 2–3 clusters reveal systemic problems.

Phase 0 — Preflight & data

Read and follow ../shared/preamble.md for script discovery and GSC auth.

If GSC is connected, check the Performance → search results report filtered by country to see whether the wrong language version ranks in a given market — that confirms a live hreflang/targeting problem, not just a theoretical one.

Phase 1 — Discover the hreflang signals

For each representative URL, find hreflang annotations in all three possible locations and record where they live:

  1. HTML <head> — <link rel="alternate" hreflang="..." href="..." />
  2. HTTP headers — Link: header (common for PDFs / non-HTML).
  3. XML sitemap — <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="..."> entries.

A site should use one method consistently. Using two that disagree is a common bug — flag it.

Phase 2 — Validate every annotation

Run the hreflang correctness checklist against each cluster:

  • Return tags (bidirectional). If page A points to B with hreflang, B must point back to A. Missing return tags = the entire annotation is ignored. This is the #1 error — check it first.
  • Self-reference. Each page must include an hreflang entry pointing to itself.
  • x-default. Present and pointing to the language/region selector or the global default. Recommended, not strictly required.
  • Valid codes. Language is ISO 639-1 (th, en), region is ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 (TH, US). Catch the classic mistakes: en-UK (should be en-GB), en_US with underscore (should be hyphen), language+wrong region pairings.
  • Absolute, indexable URLs. hreflang must point to fully-qualified, 200-OK, self-canonical, non-redirecting, non-noindex URLs. A hreflang target that redirects or is noindexed breaks the cluster.
  • Canonical conflict. Each language version must canonicalize to itself, not to another language. hreflang + cross-language canonical = self-sabotage. This silently de-indexes translated pages — check it explicitly.

Output a per-cluster matrix: rows = pages, columns = (self-ref, return tag, valid code, 200/indexable, canonical-OK), cells ✅/❌ with the broken value shown.

Phase 3 — International architecture review

Beyond hreflang, assess the strategic setup:

  • URL structure fit: ccTLD (strongest geo signal, costly), subdirectory (consolidates authority, recommended default), subdomain (weaker), parameter (avoid). Note what they use and whether it matches their goals.
  • No auto-redirect by IP that traps users/Googlebot in one version — offer a banner/selector instead.
  • Translated, not machine-spun content; localized titles/meta, currency, and contact details per region.
  • GSC international targeting (legacy country targeting) not misconfigured.

Phase 4 — Report

Produce:

  1. Hreflang verdict — PASS / BROKEN, with the count of clusters affected.
  2. Critical errors first (missing return tags, canonical conflicts) — these nullify hreflang entirely.
  3. Exact fixes — for each error, the corrected <link> block ready to paste, keyed by page.
  4. Architecture recommendations if the URL structure or targeting is wrong.

Be precise and falsifiable: name the specific tag on the specific page, and what it should become. Write the report in the user's language.

Repository
nowork-studio/NotFair
Path

seo/hreflang-international/SKILL.md

Commit

8d9d54b

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