1. Generate hreflang tags

Add every language/region version of the page. The tool builds a complete, self-referencing, fully reciprocal tag set for each one — the exact thing that goes wrong most often when done by hand.

Include an x-default tag (recommended — tells Google which version to show when no language matches)

Default (fallback) page

Updates instantly — no page reload.

🏷️ Tags for page:

Paste this exact block into the <head> of that specific page only — each page version gets its own (identical-content) block.

📋 All pages (reference copy)

🗺️ Sitemap-based alternative

Instead of per-page <link> tags, some sites declare hreflang once, centrally, inside their XML sitemap. Use one method or the other — never both for the same URL.

🔁 Missing return links

Hreflang is bidirectional. If your English page links to the Spanish page, the Spanish page must link back to the English page — and to every other version. One-directional hreflang is the single most common real-world error, and Google's documented behavior is to disregard the annotations when a return link is missing.

🪞 No self-referencing tag

Every page must list itself as one of its own alternates, in addition to the other language versions. A page that references its siblings but not itself is a broken hreflang set even if every other link is correct.

🌐 Wrong language/region codes

The language part must be a valid ISO 639-1 code (en, es, de). The optional region part must be ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 (en-US, en-GB), joined with a hyphen, never an underscore. A region code can't be used without a language code.

📌 Canonical/hreflang conflicts

Each language version should have its own self-referencing canonical tag. Pointing every version's canonical at one "main" language tells Google that page is the only real one — which contradicts the hreflang set and undermines it entirely.

🔗 Relative URLs

Hreflang href values must be full, absolute URLs including the protocol (https://example.com/es/), never a relative path like /es/. Search engines can't reliably resolve relative hreflang references.

🏳️ Missing or wrong x-default

x-default tells Google which version to serve a visitor whose language/region doesn't match any of your listed versions. Skip it and you have no control over that fallback — Google decides for you.

💡 Why the generator matters: because it builds every page's tag block from the same shared list, reciprocity and self-reference are automatic — the two errors that cause search engines to disregard the annotations simply can't happen if you paste the generated blocks as-is.

2. Check an existing implementation

Already have hreflang live? Paste the tags (or full <head> source) from each language version below and the checker will flag missing return links, missing self-references, bad codes and more.

Needs at least 2 pages to check cross-links.

Issues found

Hreflang Tag Generator & Reciprocity Checker