Missing reciprocal hreflang (no return-tag). Some pages don't include hreflang links to all the other pages of the group

Question

There is some error when testing my site in https://ahrefs.com/:

Missing reciprocal hreflang (no return-tag)

It suggests:

Why and how to fix

Issue details

Confirmation (return) links are missing for the pages declared in "hreflang" annotations.

If page A links to page B in "hreflang" annotations, page B must link to page A in return.

See Google's guidelines on "hreflang" implementation here.

How to fix

To prevent this issue, make sure all the page versions translated or targeted to users in a certain region have the same set of "hreflang" annotations.

I tried to solve this problem, but I couldn't come out successful.

Another site (https://hreflang.org/missing-return-tags-error-for-hreflang/) suggests:

• All pages use the same set of tags for Hreflang. This is the easiest way to remember how to implement your tags.
• Each page self-references itself. i.e. page A will include a link to itself in one of the Hreflang tags. It does not just link to pages B and C.
• Pages B and C will also need to include Hreflang tags (the exact same ones)

Google Webmaster Tools will report this error but if that’s how you are discovering errors, it is too late. Ideally, you want to find Hreflang errors on your site before Google’s crawler does.

If Google is reporting these errors, chances are one or more of the following has occurred:

• Page A is the main page. It links only to its alternate versions (pages B and C) but does not link to itself.
• Pages B and C do not include any Hreflang tags.
• Pages B and C do not include the same set of Hreflang tags. They omit one or more links.`

"If Google is reporting these errors, chances are one or more of the following has occurred:"

This issue is terrible. How can I fix this issue?

Answer 1

Sometimes you can get some wrong messages about hreflang implementation which are no correct. You should always check Google Search Console instead of other tools (Search traffic > International targetting). Those are the real errors Google is facing.

Nevertheless, I just checked your hreflang implementation and everything seems correct. I also run some test with other tools like https://technicalseo.com/seo-tools/hreflang/ and https://www.sistrix.com/hreflang-guide/hreflang-validator/ and no errors were found.