Hreflang Checker
Validate hreflang tags for international SEO.
What Is This Hreflang Checker Tool?
This free tool checks the hreflang tags on any webpage and validates them against the most common implementation mistakes. Hreflang tags<link rel="alternate" hreflang="..."> tell search engines which language and regional version of a page to show a visitor, based on their location and language settings. That makes them essential for any site running multiple language or country versions of the same content.
Paste in a URL, and the tool pulls out every hreflang tag it finds, checks that the language and region codes are actually valid, and flags the mistakes that tend to do the most damage missing return tags, wrong language codes the kind of errors that quietly go unnoticed until international traffic starts underperforming for no obvious reason.
How to Use the Hreflang Checker
- Enter the URL you want to check into the input box.
- Run the check. The tool fetches the page and pulls all hreflang tags out of its HTML
<head>or checks the XML sitemap instead, if that’s where hreflang is implemented on your site. - Review the results. You’ll see every declared language/region pair, the URL each one points to, and warnings for issues like a missing self-referencing tag, a missing
x-defaulttag, or a return tag mismatch between two language versions.
Hreflang errors are almost invisible when you’re just browsing a site normally, since they don’t change how anything looks. Running a check like this is usually the only practical way to catch them before they quietly cost you international search visibility.
Common Hreflang Errors This Tool Catches
- Missing return tags (non-reciprocal hreflang). If Page A points to Page B via hreflang, Page B needs to point back to Page A. Miss that return link, and search engines may ignore the whole pairing. This is by far the most common hreflang mistake, especially on larger sites.
- Invalid language or region codes. Hreflang values need to follow ISO 639-1 language codes, plus an optional ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 region code think
en-usorfr-ca. A typo here means that specific tag just gets ignored. - Missing self-referencing tag. Every page in a hreflang set should include a tag pointing to itself, confirming its own language and region alongside the alternates.
- Missing
x-defaulttag. This optional but recommended tag tells search engines which version to show visitors whose language or region doesn’t match any of the declared alternates. - Conflicting canonical and hreflang signals. If a page’s canonical tag points somewhere different from what’s declared in its own hreflang set, that sends contradictory signals about which version should actually be treated as authoritative. If you want to check a page’s canonical setup on its own, the Canonical Checker is built for exactly that.
Why Hreflang Matters for International SEO
- It prevents duplicate content issues across language versions. Without hreflang, search engines can end up treating near-identical pages in different languages as duplicate content, which can hurt all the versions instead of properly serving each region.
- It improves the experience in search results. Done correctly, a French-speaking user is far more likely to land directly on the French version of a page, instead of hitting the English one and having to hunt for a language switcher.
- Errors are common and easy to miss. Since hreflang tags don’t change how a page visually renders, a broken or incomplete setup can sit there for months without anyone noticing, quietly capping international traffic the whole time.
Who Uses This Tool
- SEO professionals managing multi-language or multi-region sites, auditing hreflang as part of a broader international SEO strategy.
- Developers verifying hreflang tags were implemented correctly across templates for different locales.
- E-commerce and SaaS companies with country-specific versions of their site, where hreflang errors can directly hit regional traffic and conversions.
- Agencies auditing hreflang setups for clients expanding into new international markets.
FAQ
What is hreflang used for? It tells search engines which language and regional version of a page to show a user, based on their language settings and location, when multiple versions of similar content exist.
Why is my hreflang tag being ignored by search engines? The most common cause is a missing return tag if Page A points to Page B, Page B has to point back too, or the whole pairing can get disregarded.
What’s the difference between hreflang and a canonical tag? A canonical tag tells search engines which URL is the “master” version among duplicates. Hreflang tags do something different they indicate that multiple versions are intentionally distinct (by language or region) and should each be served to the right audience, not consolidated into one. The Canonical Checker is the tool to reach for if you’re specifically auditing canonical tags rather than hreflang.
Is this tool free to use? Yes, completely free, with no sign-up and no usage limit.
What is x-default used for in hreflang? It specifies a fallback version to show visitors whose language or region doesn’t match any of a page’s declared alternates often a language-selector page or a default international version.
Can hreflang be implemented in the XML sitemap instead of page HTML? Yes. Hreflang can be declared either in page <head> tags or inside an XML sitemap, and both approaches are valid as long as they’re implemented consistently. If you’re going the sitemap route, the XML Sitemap Validator is worth running alongside this tool to catch structural issues in the sitemap itself.
Looking for something else? Check the Canonical Checker, the XML Sitemap Validator, or browse the full Free SEO Tools collection.