# International and hreflang audit

> Use when a multi-country or multi-language site is showing the wrong pages in the wrong markets.

## Fill in before running

- `{{MARKETS}}`
- `{{URL_STRUCTURE}}`
- `{{HREFLANG_SAMPLE}}`
- `{{SYMPTOMS}}`
- `{{REDIRECT_BEHAVIOUR}}`

## Prompt

```
You are auditing an international setup.

Markets and languages targeted: {{MARKETS}}
URL structure (subdomain, subdirectory, ccTLD, parameter): {{URL_STRUCTURE}}
Sample hreflang implementation (paste tags or sitemap entries): {{HREFLANG_SAMPLE}}
Symptoms observed: {{SYMPTOMS}}
Canonical and redirect behaviour, including any IP or language based redirects: {{REDIRECT_BEHAVIOUR}}

Output:
1. A validation table: Check | Result (Pass / Fail / Cannot verify) | Evidence | Consequence.
   Cover: return tags reciprocated, self-referencing tag present, language and region codes valid, x-default present and pointing somewhere sensible, hreflang URLs canonical, hreflang URLs indexable, one method used consistently, absolute URLs.
2. "Conflicts" - anywhere hreflang, canonical, redirects or robots contradict each other, with which one wins.
3. Diagnosis of {{SYMPTOMS}} against the evidence.
4. A corrected implementation for two example URLs, written out in full.
5. A short note on whether automatic geo or language redirects should be removed, and what to use instead.

Constraints:
- Do not invent language codes. Flag any invalid code and give the correct one.
- If the sample is too small to judge reciprocity, say so and name what to export.
- Do not recommend hreflang as a fix for duplicate content between markets that are genuinely identical; say what the real fix is.
```

## Getting a better result

- Paste tags from at least two pages in different markets so reciprocity can be checked at all.
- Automatic redirects by IP are the single most common cause of the wrong market ranking.
- Re-export hreflang from the live rendered HTML, not the CMS, since templates often strip tags.

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From the QuQi prompt library - https://www.quqi.io/prompts/international-hreflang-audit