inLanguage

inLanguage · Not mentioned by Google

Appears in

Event · WebSite

What is it?

The primary language of a website, event, or creative work. Values use IETF BCP 47 language codes such as en for English or es for Spanish. For WebSite schema, inLanguage tells search engines and AI systems what language the site content is published in. For events, it indicates what language attendees will hear or read during the performance.

Why this matters for AEO

When a user asks "is this site in English?" or "find Spanish-language conferences near me," AI answer engines use inLanguage to filter and match results by language. Without this field, the AI must guess the language from page content, which fails for multilingual sites, events with titles in one language and content in another, or sites that mix languages across pages.

For WebSite schema, inLanguage helps AI systems determine the intended audience before processing full page content. For events in multilingual markets, it directly answers whether the event will be presented in the attendee's language.

What the specs say

Schema.org: Language, Text. The language of the content or performance or used in an action. Please use one of the language codes from the IETF BCP 47 standard. schema.org/inLanguage

Google: Not mentioned. This field does not appear in Google's structured data documentation for Event or WebSite. Google Event docs

How to find your value

• English — en
• English (US) — en-US
• English (UK) — en-GB
• Spanish — es
• French — fr
• German — de
• Portuguese (Brazil) — pt-BR
• Japanese — ja
• Mandarin Chinese — zh
• Chinese (Taiwan) — zh-TW
• Korean — ko
• Arabic — ar
• Italian — it

Use the two-letter code for general language. Append a country code for regional variants (en-US, pt-BR, zh-TW). Full reference: IETF BCP 47.

Format and code

WebSite with language:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "WebSite",
  "name": "Yoast",
  "url": "https://yoast.com/",
  "inLanguage": "en-US"
}

Event with language:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Event",
  "name": "AI Summit Madrid",
  "inLanguage": "es",
  "startDate": "2025-03-15T09:00:00+01:00"
}

Multiple languages (array):

{
  "@type": "Event",
  "name": "European Tech Conference",
  "inLanguage": ["en", "de", "fr"]
}

Language object (less common):

{
  "@type": "Event",
  "name": "Tokyo Developer Meetup",
  "inLanguage": {
    "@type": "Language",
    "name": "Japanese",
    "alternateName": "ja"
  }
}

The plain text format ("en", "es") is preferred for simplicity and compatibility.

Webflow implementation

Static pages

For WebSite schema, add inLanguage in Site Settings > Custom Code > Head Code so it applies site-wide:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "WebSite",
  "name": "Your Site Name",
  "url": "https://yoursite.com",
  "inLanguage": "en-US"
}
</script>

For Event schema on static pages, add inLanguage to the event JSON-LD block in Page Settings > Custom Code.

CMS template pages

For event CMS collections, create a plain text field (e.g., "Language Code") storing the BCP 47 code. Reference it in the JSON-LD embed:

"inLanguage": "{{wf {"path":"language-code"} }}"

For single-language sites, hardcode the value in site-wide code rather than creating a CMS field.

In Schema HQ

inLanguage supports for both WebSite and Event schema. Select the language from a dropdown or enter the BCP 47 code directly. For WebSite, the language publishes as part of the site-wide schema block.

Real examples

WebSite with inLanguage :

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "WebSite",
  "name": "Le Monde",
  "url": "https://www.lemonde.fr/",
  "inLanguage": "fr"
}

Multilingual event :

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Event",
  "name": "Web Summit Lisbon",
  "inLanguage": ["en", "pt"],
  "startDate": "2025-11-11T09:00:00+00:00",
  "location": {
    "@type": "Place",
    "name": "Altice Arena, Lisbon"
  }
}

Related fields

• name — the name of the website or event
• url — the website URL
• description — text description, which should match the declared language
• startDate — when the event begins
• eventAttendanceMode — whether the event is online, offline, or mixed

FAQ

Should I use the text format or the Language object?

Use the text format ("en", "es-MX"). It is simpler, widely supported, and recommended by schema.org for BCP 47 codes. The Language object adds verbosity without practical benefit for most implementations.

Does inLanguage affect search visibility?

Google does not list inLanguage in its Event or WebSite structured data documentation, so it does not directly influence rich result eligibility. AI engines and other structured data consumers use this field to match language-specific queries, making it valuable for multilingual sites and event listings.

Should I include inLanguage for a single-language English site?

Yes. Declaring inLanguage: "en" removes ambiguity for machines parsing the markup. It takes one line and provides a clear signal about the content language, even when the page text makes the language obvious to humans.