Add Native Support for Hreflang Tags in WordPress Core

[henrykarl]

Hreflang tags are essential for websites serving content in multiple languages or regions. They help search engines understand which version of a page to display to users based on their language or location, improving SEO performance and user experience.

Currently, WordPress does not offer native support for Hreflang tags, leaving users reliant on third-party plugins like WPML or Hreflang Manager. While these plugins work well, they add complexity and cost, especially for users who need a simple, out-of-the-box solution.

Adding native Hreflang tag support to WordPress core would:

Simplify multilingual SEO for millions of WordPress users.
Reduce reliance on third-party plugins.
Align WordPress with other platforms (e.g., Shopify, Wix) that already include this feature.
This feature could be implemented as part of the core SEO functionality or as an optional module for multilingual sites.

Thank you for considering this request. I believe it would greatly benefit the WordPress community and improve the platform’s competitiveness in the multilingual space.

[peterwilsoncc]

Hi @henrykarl and welcome to trac!

For user facing features, WordPress aims to design for the majority of websites with the guideline that ​new features will be used by 80% of end users.

While the majority of sites use a language pack other than US English, they're typically single language sites that don't have a use for hreflang tags so I think this is a feature that remains best in plugins.

At its absolute simplest, I think a plugin could use a custom taxonomy and the wp_head action to output the header tag. Something like the following, untested, code:

<?php
function really_simple_hreflang() {
        if ( ! is_singular() ) {
                return;
        }
        
        $permalink = get_permalink();
        $langs = wp_get_object_terms( get_post_id(), 'rsh_langs' );
        
        foreach( $langs as $lang ) {
                $term_domain = get_term_meta( $lang->term_id, 'rsh_domain', true );
                $lang_permalink = preg_replace( '/:\/\/(.*)\//U', "://{$$term_domain}/", $permalink );
                $esc_lang_permalink = esc_url( $lang_permalink );
                echo "<link rel='alternate' hreflang='{$term->slug}' href='{$esc_lang_permalink}' />"
        }
}

add_action( 'wp_head', 'really_simple_hreflang' );

I've closed this ticket off as maybelater, which means that the feature can be reconsidered if the need for native support of the hreflang tags become more widely used in the future.