Metatag for Multilingual

When to Use

You have a multilingual Drupal 11 site with content translated into multiple languages. Without hreflang tags, Google may treat translated pages as duplicate content or serve the wrong language to users. Enable the metatag_hreflang submodule to auto-generate hreflang link elements for every translation of each piece of content.

Decision

If you need...	Approach	Why
hreflang on all translated content	Enable metatag_hreflang — no further config needed	Module auto-detects all active translations
x-default pointing to the main language	Configure x-default in metatag_hreflang settings	Signals to Google which URL to serve when no language matches
Language-specific title/description	Language-specific Metatag override at content type level	Each language entity has its own Metatag field values
hreflang on non-translatable pages (Views, custom routes)	Manual configuration or hook_page_attachments	Module only auto-generates for translatable content entities
Suppressing hreflang on admin/utility pages	Robots noindex + hreflang exclusion config	Indexed admin pages send confusing signals

Pattern

Enable and configure

1. Enable submodule:
   /admin/modules → Metatag: hreflang

2. Configure x-default:
   /admin/config/search/metatag → Global group
   → hreflang x-default: [site:url]   (or the primary-language homepage URL)

3. Verify output at any translated node:
   View source → search for <link rel="alternate" hreflang=

Automatic output for translated content

With metatag_hreflang enabled, Drupal outputs a <link> element for each available translation:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/en/about" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="https://example.com/fr/a-propos" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="es" href="https://example.com/es/acerca-de" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/" />

The module queries all enabled translations of the current content entity and generates the link set automatically — no per-node configuration required.

Language-specific meta tag overrides

Each translation of a node has its own Metatag field values. Tokens resolve in the context of the current language:

Title (EN node):  [node:title] | [site:name]  → "About Us | Acme Corp"
Title (FR node):  [node:title] | [site:name]  → "À propos | Acme Corp"

Token values come from the translated field values, so [node:title] returns the French title on the French translation. No special configuration needed — this is standard Drupal content translation behavior.

For language-specific overrides that go beyond token differences (e.g., a different description strategy for the French market), edit the Metatag field on the specific translation entity.

x-default Configuration

x-default scenario	Config value	Notes
Site has a primary/default language	URL of the default-language homepage	Most common — signals the "fallback" language
Site is region-specific (no universal page)	Omit x-default	Google recommendation when no single URL is best for all locales
Separate domain per language (example.com, example.fr)	`https://example.com/` (the neutral domain)	If no neutral domain exists, omit x-default

Content Translation Integration

hreflang depends on Drupal's content translation system:

Requirements:
  - Language module enabled
  - Content Translation module enabled
  - Content type has "Translatable" enabled at /admin/config/regional/content-language
  - metatag_hreflang submodule enabled

When a node has no translation for a given language, Drupal does not emit a hreflang tag for that language — the module only lists languages with actual translations. This is correct behavior; do not manually add hreflang for untranslated content.

Common Mistakes

Wrong: Manually hardcoding hreflang URLs in template files → Right: The metatag_hreflang module auto-generates these from Drupal's translation system; manual implementations diverge when URLs change
Wrong: Setting x-default to the English version's node URL (/en/about) → Right: x-default should point to a language-neutral or redirect URL (e.g., the homepage /) that serves the appropriate language based on browser preference
Wrong: Enabling hreflang without enabling Content Translation for the content type → Right: The module only generates hreflang for entities configured as translatable; check /admin/config/regional/content-language
Wrong: Expecting hreflang on Views pages or custom routes → Right: metatag_hreflang only auto-generates for content entities with translations; Views pages and custom routes need manual hook_page_attachments implementation
Wrong: Using the same meta description across all language translations by relying on Global group → Right: Each translated entity has its own Metatag field; write distinct descriptions in each language rather than having all languages use the same token resolving to the source language value
Wrong: Mixing hreflang with duplicate canonical URLs → Right: Each language URL should be its own canonical; hreflang and canonical work together — the canonical for /en/about is /en/about, not the French URL