seo-hreflang

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# Content Parity Audit for Multi-Language Sites

Load this reference when auditing content parity across language versions of a site.
Content parity ensures all language versions provide equivalent value and SEO signals.

Original concept: Chris Muller (Pro Hub Challenge)

## Content Parity Matrix

For each page that exists in multiple languages, check:

| Dimension | What to Compare | Acceptable Variance | Severity if Failing |
|-----------|----------------|--------------------|--------------------|
| Page existence | Does equivalent page exist in all declared languages? | 0% — all declared languages must have the page | High |
| Section structure | Same number of H2/H3 sections? | ±1 section allowed | Medium |
| FAQ items | Same number of FAQ questions? | ±2 items allowed | Medium |
| Images | Same number of images with localized alt text? | Must match exactly | Medium |
| Charts/SVGs | Charts present in all versions? | Must match exactly | Low |
| Word count | Proportional to language expansion ratio? | ±30% of expected ratio | Low |
| Schema markup | JSON-LD present and localized in all versions? | Must match type and key properties | High |
| Title tag | Localized with target 

# Cultural Adaptation Profiles for International SEO

Load this reference when analyzing multi-language sites or generating hreflang
implementations. Profiles guide cultural assessment beyond technical validation.

Original concept: Chris Muller (Pro Hub Challenge)

## DACH Region (DE, AT, CH)

| Dimension | Guideline |
|-----------|-----------|
| Formality | High. Use "Sie" (formal you). Professional tone expected. |
| Humor | Conservative. Avoid sarcasm and wordplay in CTAs. |
| CTA Style | Indirect preferred. "Jetzt entdecken" over "Jetzt kaufen". |
| Trust Signals | Certifications (TUV, ISO), "Datenschutz" (privacy), Impressum required by law. |
| Legal | Impressum page mandatory. DSGVO (GDPR). Widerrufsrecht (right of withdrawal). |
| Number Format | 1.000,00 (dot for thousands, comma for decimal) |
| Date Format | DD.MM.YYYY |
| Currency | EUR (DE/AT), CHF (CH) |
| Color Symbolism | Blue = trust, Green = eco/nature, Red = caution (not urgency) |
| Brand Substitution | Walmart → MediaMarkt, Home Depot → Hornbach, Amazon → Otto/Zalando |
| Word Expansion | +25-35% vs English (plan for longer headlines and button text) |

## Francophone (FR, BE, CA-FR, CH-FR)

| Dimension | Guid

# Locale Format Reference for International SEO

Load this reference when validating content parity or generating localized content.
Mismatched formats (e.g., US date format on a German page) signal poor localization
and reduce user trust.

Original concept: Chris Muller (Pro Hub Challenge)

## Number Formats

| Locale | Thousands | Decimal | Example |
|--------|-----------|---------|---------|
| en-US | , | . | 1,234.56 |
| en-GB | , | . | 1,234.56 |
| de-DE | . | , | 1.234,56 |
| de-AT | . | , | 1.234,56 |
| de-CH | ' | . | 1'234.56 |
| fr-FR | (space) | , | 1 234,56 |
| fr-CA | (space) | , | 1 234,56 |
| es-ES | . | , | 1.234,56 |
| es-MX | , | . | 1,234.56 |
| ja-JP | , | . | 1,234 |
| pt-BR | . | , | 1.234,56 |
| it-IT | . | , | 1.234,56 |
| nl-NL | . | , | 1.234,56 |
| ko-KR | , | . | 1,234 |
| zh-CN | , | . | 1,234.56 |

## Date Formats

| Locale | Format | Example |
|--------|--------|---------|
| en-US | MM/DD/YYYY | 04/14/2026 |
| en-GB | DD/MM/YYYY | 14/04/2026 |
| de-DE | DD.MM.YYYY | 14.04.2026 |
| fr-FR | DD/MM/YYYY | 14/04/2026 |
| es-ES | DD/MM/YYYY | 14/04/2026 |
| ja-JP | YYYY/MM/DD or YYYY年MM月DD日 | 2026/04/14 |
| pt-BR | DD/MM/YYYY | 14/04/2026 |
| ko-KR | YYYY.M

# Machine-translation QA flag (September 11, 2025 QRG)

Google's January 23, 2025 Quality Rater Guidelines update added
explicit language about **machine-translated content with no human
review** as a form of scaled content abuse (§4.6.5). This is also the
**enforceable webmaster-facing spam policy** (updated 2026-05-15), which
names "automated transformations like synonymizing, **translating**, or
other obfuscation techniques" as scaled content abuse:
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies

> "Using automated tools (generative AI or otherwise) as a low-effort
> way to produce many pages that add little-to-no value."

Machine-translated content is fine **when reviewed by a human
speaker and corrected**. Untranslated MT — or "lightly post-edited"
output that still contains hallucinated terms, wrong gender/number
agreement, or untranslated proper nouns — is treated as scaled
content abuse.

## Signals the seo-hreflang audit should surface

| Signal | Severity | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple `hreflang` alternates point to URLs whose content is identical except for header chrome | Critical | Indicates the body wasn't translated; just template wrapped. |
|

---
name: seo-hreflang
description: >
  Hreflang and international SEO audit, validation, and generation. Detects
  common mistakes, validates language/region codes, and generates correct
  hreflang implementations. Use when user says "hreflang", "i18n SEO",
  "international SEO", "multi-language", "multi-region", or "language tags".
user-invocable: true
argument-hint: "[url]"
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: AgriciDaniel
  version: "2.2.5"
  category: seo
---

# Hreflang & International SEO

Validate existing hreflang implementations or generate correct hreflang tags
for multi-language and multi-region sites. Supports HTML, HTTP header, and
XML sitemap implementations.

## Validation Checks

### 1. Self-Referencing Tags
- Every page must include an hreflang tag pointing to itself
- The self-referencing URL must exactly match the page's canonical URL
- Missing self-referencing tags cause Google to ignore the entire hreflang set

### 2. Return Tags
- If page A links to page B with hreflang, page B must link back to page A
- Every hreflang relationship must be bidirectional (A→B and B→A)
- Missing return tags invalidate the hreflang signal for both pages
- Check all language versions