Articles on Language Implementation

This section contains articles and guides on the practical implementation and importance of language tags in web applications.

Why Language Tags Matter

Proper language tagging is a crucial but often overlooked aspect of web development. Implementing language tags correctly:

• Improves accessibility for users with screen readers and other assistive technologies
• Enhances SEO by helping search engines understand and index your content properly
• Supports internationalization efforts by making language-specific functionality work correctly
• Ensures compliance with accessibility standards like WCAG, ADA, Section 508, and EAA

According to the WebAIM Million report, missing or incorrect language tags remain one of the most common accessibility issues on the web, affecting millions of websites.

Articles in This Section

Fundamentals

• Language Tags & SEO - How proper language tags can improve your search engine rankings
• Language & Accessibility - Why language tags are essential for assistive technology
• Common Language Mistakes - The most frequent errors developers make with language tags
• Library Comparisons - How ally-bcp-47 compares to other language tag libraries

Implementation Guides

• React Implementation - Setting up language tags correctly in React applications
• Vue Implementation - Implementing proper language handling in Vue
• Angular Implementation - Working with language tags in Angular apps
• Building a Language Switcher - Creating an accessible, SEO-friendly language selector

Best Practices at a Glance

• Always include a lang attribute on your HTML element
• Use valid BCP-47 language tags (e.g., en-US, not en_US or english)
• Set the language tag on any content that differs from the page's primary language
• Ensure your language tags are properly canonicalized (e.g., en-US, not EN-us)
• Include regional variants when relevant to your content (e.g., pt-BR vs pt-PT)
• Verify your language tags with a validator like ally-bcp-47

Recent Findings

Recent studies have found that:

• Over 97% of home pages have detectable WCAG failures, with language-related issues being common
• Users of assistive technologies face significant barriers when language tags are missing or incorrect
• Proper language identification can improve search ranking in language-specific searches
• Incorrect language tags can lead to poor pronunciation in screen readers, making content inaccessible

Explore the articles in this section to learn how you can avoid these problems and improve the accessibility, SEO, and user experience of your applications.