Split: hreflang problems

This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.

Problem:
You are using AHREFS to optimize your site and it has identified numerous hreflang problems, including 215 pages with missing reciprocal hreflang and 14 pages with hreflang leading to redirects or broken pages.
Solution:
We reviewed the reported issues and found that the pages do indeed have the necessary hreflang tags, including the 'x-default' tag. Additionally, the links that were reported to lead to broken pages or redirects were checked and all returned a 200 status, indicating they are functioning correctly. It appears that the issues reported by AHREFS might be false positives or outdated. You can verify the status of these links yourself using https://www.redirect-checker.org/index.php.

If this solution does not resolve your issue or seems irrelevant due to it being outdated or not applicable to your case, we recommend opening a new support ticket. We also highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix, and confirming that you have installed the latest versions of themes and plugins. For further assistance, please contact us at our support forum.

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This topic is split from https://wpml.org/forums/topic/menu-bar-links-not-working-properly-after-moving-to-new-host/

Tagged: Bug

This topic contains 11 replies, has 2 voices.

Last updated by Lucas Vidal de Andrade 3 months ago.

Assisted by: Lucas Vidal de Andrade.

Author	Posts
June 19, 2024 at 3:01 pm #15756662
nickF-8	Ok thanks. Today I found another problem that might somehow be related. I use AHREFS (ahrefs.com) to help me optimize my site and find errors. Lately it has identified a lot of hreflang problems. As you can see in the image attached, there are currently 215 pages with missing reciprocal hreflang and 14 pages hreflang pages to redirect or broken page. Can you look into it?
June 19, 2024 at 7:31 pm #15758356
Lucas Vidal de Andrade Supporter Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) German (Deutsch ) Portuguese (Brazil) (Português ) Timezone: America/Sao_Paulo (GMT-03:00)	Hey there, Please send me the excel file you mentioned. You can upload it to Google Drive and share it with me lucas.v@onthegosystems.com. Please send me the link to it. Meanwhile, you can check if the pages actually have the hreflang reciprocal issue. Here's an exaplanation on what the issue actually is: hidden link Ahref is knows for having false positives, when it comes to SEO analysis.
June 19, 2024 at 9:14 pm #15758776
nickF-8	I sent you the file directly, hope thats ok. Not sure what to think of the Ahref problem, but considering that it only started flagging the hreflanguage problem from May 28 onwards, which is more or less right after I switched host, and we are experiencing other problems related to translations, I think there is something there not right.
June 20, 2024 at 5:29 pm #15765807
Lucas Vidal de Andrade Supporter Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) German (Deutsch ) Portuguese (Brazil) (Português ) Timezone: America/Sao_Paulo (GMT-03:00)	Hey there, I checked the file you sent, and WPML is behaving as expected. I randomly picked a few pages and saw that the default language, as well as the translations, have all the hreflang tags needed. Check the image attached. If you want to check that yourself, just pick one of the pages in the list, check the source code for all languages and see if they all have the hreflang tags for all languages. That's what should happen.
June 20, 2024 at 6:39 pm #15766093
nickF-8	So what seems to be the problem that AHREFS is flagging then?
June 20, 2024 at 6:52 pm #15766230
Lucas Vidal de Andrade Supporter Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) German (Deutsch ) Portuguese (Brazil) (Português ) Timezone: America/Sao_Paulo (GMT-03:00)	It's likely a false positive. We've had a couple users that reported the same behavior, but it was a false positive from Ahrefs. Regarding this specific issue, you can ignore it, or try using another SEO analysis platform. If you'd like, I can also check the other issue you mentioned, about the broken pages. You can send the report to my e-mail as well.
June 20, 2024 at 9:54 pm #15767757
nickF-8	Sent you the email
June 21, 2024 at 5:01 pm #15777244
Lucas Vidal de Andrade Supporter Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) German (Deutsch ) Portuguese (Brazil) (Português ) Timezone: America/Sao_Paulo (GMT-03:00)	I checked the first link in the "missing x-default" and it has a x-default tag (check image 01); Checking again a few of the missing self-referencing link, and they all had it (it's very similar to the non-recirpocal hreflang tag you mentioned); As for the final analysis, of hrelang links returning to broken pages or redirections, I checked a few of the links that were reported, and they all returned a 200 status (ok). You can check it yourself in hidden link WPML is behaving as expected. As I said they're all probably false positives or are not up-to-date.
June 21, 2024 at 11:36 pm #15779575
nickF-8	Will this have any negative impact on SEO?
June 24, 2024 at 11:54 am #15806563
Lucas Vidal de Andrade Supporter Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) German (Deutsch ) Portuguese (Brazil) (Português ) Timezone: America/Sao_Paulo (GMT-03:00)	No, as I said, it's likely a false positive.
June 24, 2024 at 1:42 pm #15807737
nickF-8	Well ok I will keep an eye on it and get in touch if something else comes up. I will also talk to Bluehost support to see what they can help with in and let me you know. Lets close this ticket, thanks
June 24, 2024 at 2:54 pm #15808442
Lucas Vidal de Andrade Supporter Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) German (Deutsch ) Portuguese (Brazil) (Português ) Timezone: America/Sao_Paulo (GMT-03:00)	Sure! You can always open a chat and talk to us 🙂

This ticket is now closed. If you're a WPML client and need related help, please open a new support ticket.