Hreflang checker

Use the hreflang checker to review HTML, HTTP and sitemap annotations. Compare language versions in a matrix, with return links and canonical conflicts.

Free, no account. Ten site checks per hour.

Our crawler reads HTML, HTTP Link headers and an optional sitemap, then checks up to 20 alternates within 30 seconds. Robots rules apply. Results can be cached for five minutes.

Read XML hreflang from this sitemap or up to three children of an index. Leave empty to check HTML and HTTP headers.

An hreflang checker reads the language alternates a page declares and checks them the way Google describes. This one validates each code, looks for a self reference and duplicates, then opens up to 20 alternates to confirm they load, link back to the page and agree on the canonical address. Problems are reported for each pair.

How to use this checker

Enter one language version
Use a page that has translations. We read its HTML and HTTP Link header. Add a sitemap URL to include XML annotations, with up to three child files from an index.
Check every pair
Google requires return links. We read up to 20 alternates within 30 seconds, at most two connections per host, respecting robots.txt on every redirect. The matrix checks links between sibling versions as well as links back to the starting page.
Fix the codes first
A code is a language from ISO 639-1, such as de, with an optional region from ISO 3166-1, such as de-AT. Underscores, uk for the United Kingdom and a region on its own are common mistakes. x-default marks the page for every other visitor.

Questions about this checker

If page A lists page B as an alternate, page B has to list page A too. Google calls this a return link and ignores pairs without one, so that one site cannot claim another site’s pages as its translations.

Yes. Google asks each language version to list itself as well as every other version. Add the page’s own address with its own code to the same set of tags.

Each alternate should name itself as canonical. If the German page names the English page as canonical, Google may treat it as a duplicate and drop it, and the pair then has no German page to show.

Yes. Add the sitemap address in the optional field. The checker reads XHTML alternate links in up to four XML files and 300 page entries, combines them with page annotations and labels unread or partial sources.

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