How to fix html lang on Ghost
Add a lang attribute to your site's <html> tag that matches the primary language of your store's content.
Steps for Ghost
- In Ghost Admin, go to Settings → Design → Customize (or via SSH to your Ghost installation).
- Open your active theme's default.hbs file (found in content/themes/<your-theme>/).
- Locate the <html tag and add lang="en" (or use Ghost's {{@site.locale}} helper if available in your theme version): <html lang="{{@site.locale}}">.
- Upload the updated theme via Settings → Design → Upload theme, or restart Ghost if editing on the server.
What is html lang?
Every web page starts with an opening `<html>` tag. Adding a `lang` attribute to it — for example, `<html lang="en">` for English — tells browsers, screen readers, and search engines what human language the page is written in. It is a one-line change in your theme or template, and it is one of the most foundational requirements of modern web standards. The value uses a standard two-letter (or extended) language code such as `en`, `fr`, `de`, `es`, `ja`, or `zh-Hans`.
Screen readers used by visually impaired shoppers rely on the `lang` attribute to choose the correct pronunciation engine — without it, your content may be read aloud in the wrong language, making your store inaccessible. Accessibility laws in many jurisdictions (ADA in the US, EN 301 549 in the EU, AODA in Canada) treat a missing `lang` attribute as a conformance failure, creating real legal exposure. Search engines also use this signal to understand which market a page targets, which influences how and where your pages appear in regional search results. Fixing it is a quick win that simultaneously reduces legal risk, improves usability for millions of shoppers with disabilities, and reinforces your international SEO targeting.
See the complete Html lang guide for every platform and the full background.
Not sure if your Ghost store has this?
Run a free SEOLZ scan — we’ll find html lang and every other issue across your whole site.
Scan my site free