Hreflang Checker
hreflang tells search engines which language and region version of a page to serve. The annotations only work when they are reciprocal and use valid language tags, and a one-sided set is ignored rather than reported. This check reads the hreflang links on a sample of pages and lists what does not hold together.
Results open in the site's full report, which you can share, compare and re-run.
What it checks
- Language tags that are not valid BCP 47 values, and whether x-default is present
- Alternate URLs that cannot be parsed
- Missing reciprocal links between pages inside the checked sample
- How many hreflang annotations the homepage declares
Frequently asked questions
- What does reciprocal mean?
- If page A lists page B as its alternate, B must list A back. Search engines ignore a one-sided annotation entirely, which is why a half-configured set behaves as though it were absent.
- Do I need x-default?
- It is not required, but it is how you nominate the fallback for visitors whose language you do not have a version for. Without it an engine guesses.
- Why does the check not find all my hreflang problems?
- Reciprocity can only be verified between pages in the same sample, and the sample is at most twelve pages. A full multilingual audit needs a complete crawl of every language version.
- Should hreflang go in the HTML or the sitemap?
- Either works, and they are equivalent. Putting them in the sitemap scales better for large sites; in the HTML is simpler to keep correct per page.
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