Set the lang attribute on <html> — Claude Code

Missing lang attribute means screen readers use the wrong pronunciation and Google may serve your page to the wrong language market.

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Fixing this in Claude Code

Anthropic's official terminal coding agent

Claude Code can grep the whole codebase first, plan the change, then edit every affected file. Paste the prompt below into your Claude Code chat and the fix rolls out across the project in one pass.

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The prompt for Claude Code

Copy and paste this into your Claude Code chat exactly as-is.

Run Claude Code in the project root and make these exact changes, scanning the whole codebase first:

Add lang attribute to HTML

1. Add lang="en" (or the correct language) to the <html> tag.

Why this matters

The lang attribute tells browsers, screen readers, and search engines which language the page is in. Without it, screen readers use the OS default (often wrong), and Google may misidentify the target market.

For multilingual sites, set lang correctly on each locale and use hreflang tags for alternates. This is how Google decides which version to serve for German-speaking users vs. English-speaking.

How to use this prompt in Claude Code

1. Open your Claude Code project.
2. Copy the prompt above with the copy button.
3. Paste into the Claude Code chat and send.
4. Review the diff, accept the changes, redeploy.
5. Verify the fix using the checklist below.

Common mistakes to avoid

error_outlineLeaving the default `lang="en"` on a German site — Google serves English users.
error_outlineForgetting to update lang when adding i18n support.
error_outlineUsing `lang="en-US"` for a global English site — en-US is fine, but `en` is enough.

How to verify the fix worked

check_circleView source — `<html lang="...">` matches your content language.
check_circleLighthouse Accessibility → "HTML has a lang attribute" passes.
check_circleGoogle Search Console → International Targeting report — matches your intent.

Frequently asked questions

Should I use en or en-US?expand_more

Either works. en-US for US-specific English; en for general. Both pass accessibility.

How do I handle multilingual pages?expand_more

One `lang` per page matching the content. Use hreflang tags in the head to link between language versions.

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