Why it matters to a buyer
A site with an English and Arabic version, or several country versions, risks showing searchers the wrong language, or having its own translated pages compete against each other in search results, without correct hreflang. For a buyer expanding into a new language or market, hreflang is one of the easiest things to get subtly wrong, since it requires every language version to reference every other one correctly and consistently, and a single broken reciprocal link can invalidate the whole set for that group of pages.
How it is measured or applied
Each page lists a link element for every language and region variant it has, including itself, using consistent language and, where relevant, region codes, plus an x-default for the fallback version. Annotations must be reciprocal: if page A references page B, page B must reference page A back, or Google disregards them. It is validated with Search Console's international targeting-style checks or a dedicated hreflang auditing tool, which flags missing return tags, inconsistent codes and mismatched canonical and hreflang URLs, all common sources of silent failure.
Sources
- Tell Google about localized versions of your page, Google Search Central
