Languages & regions
Declared language does not match the script on the page
One of the 136 checks Lala SEO runs on every page of a site in a free audit.
- How serious
- Worth fixing. Weakens how Google reads or shows the page. Fix after the serious ones.
- Based on
- Google's own documentation
What is wrong
Your page declares one language in the HTML tag, but the text on the page is written in a different language or script. For example, you might have told search engines the page is in English but published it in Chinese characters, or vice versa. This mismatch confuses automated systems that try to work out what language your visitors actually see.
Why it costs you
Google and other search engines use the declared language to decide how to process and index your content. When the declaration does not match reality, the search engine may misinterpret the page, apply the wrong rules for word breaking or character encoding, or show it to the wrong audience. Your page may rank poorly or not appear at all for searches in the language your visitors actually read.
How to fix it
Check the `lang` attribute in your opening `<html>` tag. Make sure it matches the language your page is actually written in. If you have multiple language versions, each page should declare the language it uses. If you have mixed languages on one page—for instance, an English page with a Japanese product name—declare the primary language of the page and let search engines handle the minority text.
What the audit tests
- Pages written in a non-Latin script declare a matching language
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