Hreflang for B2B Sites: Setup, QA, Edge Cases

Getting hreflang right isn’t just a technical SEO flex. For B2B websites operating across markets, it’s a necessity. It ensures the right decision-makers see the right version of your content in search, and it prevents your pages from cannibalising each other across borders.

This article walks through how to implement hreflang effectively for B2B websites, how to QA your setup, and how to handle some of the trickier edge cases that come with international expansion.

Why hreflang matters more in B2B

B2B buyers don’t bounce from Google to your homepage out of curiosity. They search with intent: "vendor onboarding platform Netherlands", "enterprise logistics software UK", "B2B payment gateway en fr". If you’re showing the wrong language or location version in their search results, your bounce rate goes up and your credibility goes down.

Hreflang tags act as a signal to Google, clarifying which version of a page matches the searcher's language and region. Without it, you risk the wrong pages ranking – or worse, Google getting confused and not ranking any of them effectively.

For example, if you have a .com/en/ version aimed at UK and US, but no hreflang tags, Google might show the US user a German page or a global fallback. One confused click and they’re gone.

Setting up hreflang the right way

First, decide how your international content is structured: ccTLDs (like .fr or .de), subdomains (fr.example.com), or subfolders (example.com/fr/). Your hreflang setup needs to match this structure.

Each version of the page should reference itself and all other versions. This reciprocal linking is critical. A UK page should point to the US, German, French, and Dutch versions – and each of those should point back.

There are three main ways to implement hreflang:

  1. In the HTML of each page

  2. In the HTTP header (typically for PDFs or non-HTML content)

  3. In XML sitemaps (the preferred option for large sites)

For most B2B marketing teams, sitemaps offer the cleanest solution. They're easier to update in bulk, don’t bloat your page code, and are less likely to break when dev teams touch templates.

Here’s what a correct hreflang entry looks like in a sitemap:

<url> <loc>https://example.com/en-gb/solutions</loc> <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-gb" href="https://example.com/en-gb/solutions"/> <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-us" href="https://example.com/en-us/solutions"/> <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.com/de/solutions"/> <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/solutions"/> </url>

Note the inclusion of x-default. This tells Google what to show if it can’t confidently match the user’s language or location. Often it’s your global homepage or a country selector page.

Quality assurance: catch the common pitfalls

Once you’ve set up hreflang, you’re not done. QA is where most international SEO setups break down.

One of the biggest mistakes is non-reciprocal hreflang. If the US page references the UK version, but the UK page doesn’t link back, Google may ignore both.

Another common issue: language codes. Use ISO 639-1 for languages ("en", "de", "fr") and ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 for countries ("US", "GB", "DE"). Mix them up and Google will ignore your tags. "en-UK" is wrong. It should be "en-GB".

Use tools like:

  • Google Search Console's International Targeting report (if using subfolders or subdomains)

  • Merkle's hreflang Tag Testing Tool

  • Sitebulb or Screaming Frog with hreflang checks enabled

If you're deploying via sitemap, validate your sitemap structure and check for any broken or missing entries.

Handling tricky edge cases

1. Pages in the same language, different markets

You have the same English copy for the UK, US, and Australia. Should you duplicate it?

Yes, but with local tweaks. Even if the content is 90% the same, it pays to adjust terminology, date formats, currencies, and calls to action. This justifies separate URLs (e.g. /en-gb/, /en-us/) and avoids duplicate content issues.

Include hreflang for each version even if the content is similar. Google uses it to serve the right version based on the user's location.

2. Market-specific landing pages

Sometimes, a market doesn’t get the full website treatment, just a high-converting landing page. That’s fine. But if that page overlaps with others in structure or keywords, add hreflang to avoid cannibalisation.

Example: A single landing page for the UAE might compete with your global /en/ version. Without hreflang, the wrong one might rank – or both might struggle.

3. No direct match for some languages or countries

If you haven’t yet translated content for certain markets, but you get traffic from them, use x-default wisely.

Point it to a global page or a country/language selector. Never leave users guessing or dropping onto a page they can’t understand.

Wrapping it up

Hreflang isn’t glamorous, but in international B2B SEO, it’s essential. It protects your investment in content, improves your conversion rates, and signals professionalism to global buyers.

It also pays dividends for your sales and support teams. When prospects land on the right version of your solution or product page, your credibility goes up before the first call is booked.

Don’t skip the QA, and don’t let your dev team throw in a rushed implementation. Done right, hreflang helps your global site act like a local everywhere it counts.