Every page references every version
Each URL in a cluster must list the complete set of alternates, including a self-referencing tag pointing at itself. Miss the self-reference and search engines may ignore the whole set.
Technical SEO Tool
Hreflang Generator & Validator
Build valid hreflang annotations as HTML tags, XML sitemap entries, or HTTP
headers, then validate a live page to catch the mistakes that quietly break international SEO.
Your URLs and locales
One row per language or region version. Codes validate as you type. Add an x-default row for the fallback URL.
Output
Validate a live page
We fetch the page and read its hreflang from both the HTML and any Link: response headers.
Checks
| hreflang | URL | Source | Return link |
|---|
Getting hreflang right
Return links must be reciprocal
If page A points to page B with hreflang, page B has to point back to A. One-way annotations are treated as errors and dropped. The validator's return-link check confirms reciprocity.
Language and region codes are specific
Language is ISO 639-1 (en, not eng); region is ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 (GB, not UK). en-uk and x-default mistakes are the most common cause of failures.
x-default is your fallback
Add x-default for the page to serve when no language or region matches, often a global or language-selector page. It is optional but strongly recommended.
International SEO is fiddly. We do it daily.
Hreflang errors waste crawl budget and split your rankings across markets. StudioHawk's specialists audit and fix international setups end to end.