When running a multilingual or multi-regional website, ensuring that search engines understand which version of your page to show is critical.
This is where hreflang tags come in. A wrong implementation may cause duplicate content issues, incorrect regional targeting, and lost traffic.
To help SEOs, webmasters, and developers, we built the International SEO Hreflang Validator – a free tool that scans your website and validates all your hreflang tags.
Why Hreflang Tags Matter
Improve International SEO
-
Tell Google which page to serve based on the user’s language or region.
-
Prevents wrong-language pages from appearing in search results.
Avoid Duplicate Content Issues
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Correct hreflang tags consolidate ranking signals.
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Ensure different language versions are treated as unique content.
Better User Experience
-
Users land on the right page in their own language.
-
Increases engagement and reduces bounce rates.
Key Features of the Validator
🔍 Detect All Hreflang Tags
-
Crawls
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="...">
tags in your HTML. -
Works with absolute and relative URLs.
✅ Validate Language Codes
-
Checks if
hreflang
values follow ISO standards (e.g.,en
,en-us
,fr-ca
). -
Detects invalid or malformed codes.
⚡ URL Status Check
-
Verifies if each hreflang URL is reachable.
-
Reports HTTP status codes (200, 301, 404, etc.).
📊 Duplicate & x-default Detection
-
Flags duplicate hreflang entries.
-
Confirms if an
x-default
tag is present for fallback.
Example: How It Works
Suppose you check https://example.com
. The tool finds:
-
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/en/" />
→ ✅ Valid, Status 200 -
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="https://example.com/fr/" />
→ ✅ Valid, Status 200 -
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="es-us" href="https://example.com/es-us/" />
→ ⚠️ Invalid code -
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/" />
→ ✅ Present
With one scan, you know which hreflang tags need fixing.
When Should You Use This Tool?
-
Site migration or redesign → verify hreflang tags after launch.
-
International SEO audit → ensure consistency across all language versions.
-
Content expansion → confirm new pages have correct hreflang setup.
-
Competitor analysis → analyze how global competitors use hreflang tags.
Conclusion
The International SEO Hreflang Validator is an essential tool for global websites.
It helps you:
-
Detect hreflang tags automatically.
-
Validate language codes and canonical signals.
-
Ensure all alternate URLs are live and working.
-
Improve international SEO performance and user experience.
👉 Try it today and make sure your multilingual or multi-regional site is fully optimized for search engines and users worldwide.