---
title: Empty Hreflang URL
description: Prevent empty hreflang URLs from showing up as errors in Google Search Console by following these steps to upgrade your hreflang attributes.
---

[Knowledge Base - Resources - seoClarity ](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase)

# [Empty Hreflang URL](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/glossary/hreflang/empty-hreflang-url)

 Written by [Suraj Lalchandani](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/author/suraj-lalchandani) | May 4, 2023

Empty hreflang URLs are going to be shown as errors in Google Search Console. 

Luckily, you can update your [hreflang attributes](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/glossary/hreflang) to populate a URL. Read on to learn how. 

#### Table of Contents

- - [The Issue With Empty Hreflang URLs](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/glossary/hreflang/empty-hreflang-url?hs_amp=true#issue-empty-hreflang-urls)
    - [How to Add a URL to Your Hreflang Attribute ](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/glossary/hreflang/empty-hreflang-url?hs_amp=true#how-add-url-hreflang-attribute)
    - [Adding URLs to Hreflang at Scale](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/glossary/hreflang/empty-hreflang-url?hs_amp=true#adding-urls-hreflang-scale)
      
          - [Before and After](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/glossary/hreflang/empty-hreflang-url?hs_amp=true#before-after)
    - [*Looking for other hreflang issues?*](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/glossary/hreflang/empty-hreflang-url?hs_amp=true#looking-hreflang-issues)

## The Issue With Empty Hreflang URLs

Hreflang must have the URL populated for Google to pick it up. If your hreflang is missing a URL, you can add one. 

## How to Add a URL to Your Hreflang Attribute 

If you have the proper edit access on your site, you can update the hreflang manually. This will solve the problem on a page-by-page cadence. 

If you don’t have the necessary edit access, you may need to bring in the dev team. 

## Adding URLs to Hreflang at Scale

A manual approach isn’t the only solution to this problem. 

To bypass the dev team and implement changes to your site across thousands of pages, you can leverage [SEO execution platform](https://www.seoclarity.net/seo-automation/) ClarityAutomate.

Here’s the quick 5-step process.  

1. **Select what you'd like to optimize: Code**  
   Since hreflang is a part of your page's code, that’s what we’re looking to optimize.
2. **Choose how you'd like to optimize it: Update**  
   Since the hreflang tag exists but is missing the href attribute, we’re looking to update it. 
3. **XPath location: XPath of the hreflang with the missing href **  
   Selecting the correct XPath allows us to narrow in on the specific hreflang entry with the issue. 
4. **Attribute: href**  
   The attribute that is empty and needs to be updated in this scenario is the href. 
5. **New Value: A valid hyperlink for the hreflang attribute**  
   Lastly, we simply enter a valid URL to fill the missing gap. 

## Before and After

[ClarityAutomate](https://www.seoclarity.net/seo-automation/) allowed us to add a URL to this attribute and push it live in just a few minutes. 

#### Looking for other hreflang issues?

- [Conflicting Hreflang and rel=canonical](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/conflicting-hreflang-and-canonical) 
- [Hreflang with multiple defaults](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/hreflang-with-multiple-defaults) 
- [Invalid region in the Hreflang attribute](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/invalid-region-hreflang-attribute) 
- [Invalid language in the Hreflang attribute](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/invalid-language-hreflang-attribute) 
- [Hreflang with Duplicate Language/Region Combinations](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/hreflang-with-duplicate-language/region-combinations) 
- [Hreflang Missing Language Entry](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/hreflang-missing-language-entry) 
- [Underscore Instead of Dash in Hreflang](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/underscore-instead-dash-hreflang) 
- [Hreflang Not Present](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/hreflang-not-present) 
- [Hreflang Present Outside <head>](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/hreflang-present-outside) 
- [Hreflang URL Is Invalid](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/hreflang-url-invalid) 
- [Invalid order of Hreflang values](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/invalid-order-hreflang-values) 
- [No self-referencing Hreflang tag](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/no-self-referencing-hreflang-tag) 
- [Hreflang Using Relative links](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/hreflang-using-relative-links) 

[View full post](https://www.seoclarity.net/resources/knowledgebase/glossary/hreflang/empty-hreflang-url)

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