Missing Return Links
What This Means
URLs with missing return links (or ‘return tags’ in Google Search Console) to them, from their alternate pages. Hreflang is reciprocal, so all alternate versions must confirm the relationship. When page X links to page Y using hreflang to specify it as its alternate page, page Y must have a return link. No return links means the hreflang annotations may be ignored or not interpreted correctly.
What Triggers This Issue
This issue is triggered when URLs with hreflang annotations lack corresponding return links from their alternate versions. For example:
https://www.getasky.com/technical-seo/ Has the hreflang annotations:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-gb" href="https://www.getasky.com/technical-seo/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-us" href="https://www.getasky.com/us/technical-seo/" /> But https://www.getasky.com/us/technical-seo/ only includes:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-us" href="https://www.getasky.com/us/technical-seo/" /> Missing the “en-gb” return hreflang link.How To Fix
Ensure alternate pages include hreflang annotations to URLs which are missing return links. This will confirm they are a ‘set’ of alternate pages.
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