Hreflang Checker

An hreflang checker inspects alternate-language annotations that connect equivalent pages for different languages or regions. It looks for declared language-region values, duplicate annotations and the URLs referenced by each alternate.

Hreflang errors rarely break a page for users, which means they can go unnoticed while search engines receive incomplete or contradictory international targeting signals. Missing return links, invalid codes and canonicals pointing outside the language cluster are frequent causes.

1. 1Enter one URL from the international page set.
2. 2Review every detected hreflang value and destination.
3. 3Confirm language codes are ISO-style values and optional regions are appropriate.
4. 4Check reciprocal annotations on alternate pages and confirm canonicals remain inside the intended cluster.

• A language-only value such as `en` targets English generally.
• A language-region value such as `en-GB` narrows the intended audience to English users in the UK.
• x-default can identify a fallback page when no listed language or region matches.

• Using country codes without a language component.
• Linking from page A to page B when B does not reference A.
• Mixing canonical URLs and hreflang URLs from different clusters.
• Pointing hreflang to redirected or non-indexable pages.

• Normalize codes and URLs across every page in the set.
• Generate reciprocal annotations from the same source of truth.
• Remove stale alternates when localized pages are deleted or redirected.

• Use absolute canonical URLs.
• Keep each alternate indexable when it is intended to appear in search.
• Test several page families because homepage hreflang can work while deeper templates fail.

The checker can inspect annotations available from the fetched page. It cannot prove that a search engine has accepted the international targeting or that every remote alternate remains unchanged later.