Google’s John Mueller said again that using hreflang will not help you rank better and does not change rankings for your site. All it technically does it replace the URL that ranks already with the regionally appropriate URL in Google Search.

John said on Twitter when asked “Is there any chance someone would see a rank increase after implementing hreflang?” John replied “No. Hreflang does not change ranking.”

John said this before in 2016, so this is just a reminder. Here is what he said in 2016 in a video hangout on Google+ at the 2:29 mark into the video. He said:

Forum discussion at Twitter.