WP Polylang how to change hreflang

If your WordPress website uses the Polylang plugin to manage multilingual content, it’s important to correctly set up hreflang tags for each language version of your pages. Hreflang is a meta tag that helps search engines recognize alternative language versions of pages and display them properly based on user settings. This is particularly crucial for international websites where content is available in multiple languages.

How to set up hreflang correctly using Polylang filters:

1. Install and configure Polylang: Start by ensuring that the Polylang plugin is installed and configured on your website.
2. Open the functions.php file: It’s located in the root of your theme within the wp-content folder.
3. Add filters for hreflang: To do this, you need to add filter code that will replace the default language codes with the ones you want to use. Here’s an example code for Ukrainian, Russian, and English languages:
   
   PHP

   add_filter( 'pll_rel_hreflang_attributes', function( $hreflangs ) { if (isset($hreflangs['uk'])) { $hreflangs['uk-UA'] = $hreflangs['uk']; unset( $hreflangs['uk'] ); } if (isset($hreflangs['ru'])) { $hreflangs['ru-UA'] = $hreflangs['ru']; unset( $hreflangs['ru'] ); } if (isset($hreflangs['en'])) { $hreflangs['en-US'] = $hreflangs['en']; unset( $hreflangs['en'] ); } if (isset($hreflangs['pl'])) { $hreflangs['pl-PL'] = $hreflangs['pl']; unset( $hreflangs['pl'] ); } return $hreflangs; } );

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

   add_filter( 'pll_rel_hreflang_attributes', function( $hreflangs ) {     if (isset($hreflangs['uk'])) {         $hreflangs['uk-UA'] = $hreflangs['uk'];         unset( $hreflangs['uk'] );     }     if (isset($hreflangs['ru'])) {         $hreflangs['ru-UA'] = $hreflangs['ru'];         unset( $hreflangs['ru'] );     }     if (isset($hreflangs['en'])) {         $hreflangs['en-US'] = $hreflangs['en'];         unset( $hreflangs['en'] );     }     if (isset($hreflangs['pl'])) {         $hreflangs['pl-PL'] = $hreflangs['pl'];         unset( $hreflangs['pl'] );     }          return $hreflangs; } );

4. Save the file: Save the changes in the functions.php file.
5. Check the result: Open your website and inspect the source code of the pages. You should see corresponding hreflang tags with the modified language codes. Press CTRL+U in your browser and find the lines that should look like this:
   
   XHTML

   <link rel="alternate" href="https://di-grand.com/blog/" hreflang="uk-UA" /> <link rel="alternate" href="https://di-grand.com/blog/ru/" hreflang="ru-RU" /> <link rel="alternate" href="https://di-grand.com/blog/en/" hreflang="en-US" /> <link rel="alternate" href="https://di-grand.com/blog/pl/" hreflang="pl-PL" />

   1 2 3 4

   <link rel="alternate" href="https://di-grand.com/blog/" hreflang="uk-UA" /> <link rel="alternate" href="https://di-grand.com/blog/ru/" hreflang="ru-RU" /> <link rel="alternate" href="https://di-grand.com/blog/en/" hreflang="en-US" /> <link rel="alternate" href="https://di-grand.com/blog/pl/" hreflang="pl-PL" />

That’s it! Search engines will now be able to recognize alternative language versions of your content, improving SEO and helping users from different regions see content in their preferred language.