Generate hreflang tags for multilingual and multi-regional websites. Instantly create HTML, HTTP header, and XML sitemap implementations. Validate your existing hreflang setup to find errors.
| Language | Region | Page URL | Hreflang Code | Status | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
🌐 No language variants yet. Click Add Language Variant to start building your hreflang tags. | |||||
Add these tags to the <head> section of every page that has language/region variants.
For server-side implementation via Apache .htaccess, Nginx config, or your server's response headers.
💡 When to use HTTP headers: Use this method when you cannot modify the HTML source directly (e.g., for non-HTML files like PDFs). Apache and Nginx can add these headers via configuration. This is one of three supported hreflang implementation methods.
Hreflang XML sitemap format using xhtml:link elements inside each <url> block.
Add this to your theme's functions.php file to inject hreflang tags into the <head>:
Paste the HTML tags directly into your theme's header.php or use a WordPress SEO plugin that supports custom head code:
🔔 Note: For production WordPress sites, use a dedicated multilingual plugin (such as Polylang, WPML, or TranslatePress) which handles hreflang automatically based on your site's translation structure. Manual hreflang implementation works best when you manage separate domain/subdomain configurations.
Paste your existing hreflang HTML tags or XML sitemap to find implementation errors, missing x-default, duplicate codes, and syntax issues.
Hreflang is an HTML attribute used in <link rel="alternate"> tags to tell search engines which language and region a page targets. Google uses hreflang to serve the correct regional or language version of a page to users in different countries or speaking different languages. It does not directly affect rankings but prevents duplicate content issues across language versions.
The hreflang attribute accepts ISO 639-1 language codes (en, fr, de) alone or combined with ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 region codes (en-US, fr-CA, pt-BR). Use language-only (en) when targeting all speakers of a language regardless of country. Use language-region (en-GB) when targeting a specific country's language variant.
The hreflang="x-default" value specifies the fallback page to show when no other language/region variant matches the user's settings. This is typically the homepage or a language-selector page. While x-default is optional, Google recommends including it for multilingual sites. It should point to your default or internationally-targeted URL.
Every hreflang annotation must be reciprocal — if page A references page B, page B must also reference page A. If your English US page references your English UK page, the English UK page must reference the English US page back. Missing reciprocal annotations cause Google to ignore the hreflang signals. Every page must include hreflang references to all its alternatives, including itself.
Hreflang can be implemented in three ways: (1) HTML <link rel="alternate"> tags in the <head> — most common for HTML pages; (2) HTTP Link: response headers — useful for non-HTML content like PDFs; (3) XML sitemap <xhtml:link> annotations — useful for large sites where modifying every HTML page is impractical. All three methods are equally valid according to Google.
Canonical tags tell search engines which URL is the preferred version when you have duplicate or near-duplicate content. Hreflang tells search engines which language/region each URL targets. These signals serve different purposes. A page can have both: a canonical pointing to itself (self-canonical) and hreflang annotations pointing to language/region alternatives. Never set a canonical from one language version to another — use hreflang instead.
The most common hreflang mistakes include: missing reciprocal annotations (required), invalid language or region codes, non-absolute URLs in href attributes, duplicate hreflang values for the same language/region, missing x-default, canonical conflicts where one language version points canonical to another, inconsistent URL formatting (HTTP vs HTTPS, trailing slashes), and implementing hreflang on noindex pages.
Google uses hreflang as a hint, not a directive. Google crawls each URL in the hreflang cluster and validates the annotations. If it finds errors (invalid codes, missing reciprocal references, canonical conflicts), it may ignore the hreflang signals entirely. Googlebot must be able to crawl the URLs referenced in hreflang annotations — never block them in robots.txt. Changes may take weeks to reflect in search results.
Use language-only targeting (hreflang="en") when content is intended for all English speakers regardless of location. Use language-region targeting (hreflang="en-GB") when content differs between countries — for example, when prices, spelling, or content vary between UK and US audiences. You can mix both approaches: use en-US, en-GB, and a generic en as fallback if needed.
| Target | Hreflang Code | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| English (all regions) | en | English content for any English-speaking audience |
| English – United States | en-US | US-specific English content (prices in USD, US dates) |
| English – United Kingdom | en-GB | UK-specific English (British spelling, GBP prices) |
| English – Australia | en-AU | Australia-specific English content |
| French – France | fr-FR | Standard French for France |
| French – Canada | fr-CA | Canadian French variant |
| Spanish – Spain | es-ES | Castilian Spanish for Spain |
| Spanish – Mexico | es-MX | Mexican Spanish variant |
| Portuguese – Brazil | pt-BR | Brazilian Portuguese |
| Portuguese – Portugal | pt-PT | European Portuguese |
| Default / Fallback | x-default | Shown when no other language matches |
