Crawl and indexing
hreflang Validator
Paste the hreflang tags of your pages and see missing return links, bad codes and inconsistent sets.
Runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded. · Free, no account · 4 min
To check return links, paste the tags of several pages, each after a line like <!-- page: https://example.com/en/ -->.
Importing a saved run into your account is coming soon. Until then, your last runs stay in this browser only, and you can download your files.
How to use
- Copy the hreflang link tags from each page's head, or open your hreflang sitemap and copy its XML.
- For HTML tags, put a line like # page: https://example.com/en/ above each page's tags.
- Paste everything into the box and read the errors, warnings and notes.
- Fix the pages, copy their tags again and re-check until no errors remain.
What it checks and how it works
The validator applies the rules in Google's documentation on localized versions. Each page must list itself as well as the other versions; if page X links to page Y, page Y must link back to X (a missing return link can make Google ignore the annotations); URLs must be fully qualified; and values must be an ISO 639-1 language with an optional ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 region, or x-default.
Return links can be checked only for pages you paste, so tags for pages outside your paste are reported as not checked. It also compares pages for the same code pointing to different URLs and for versions that one page lists and another leaves out. It reads what you paste and does not fetch your pages.
Sources
- Google Search Central: Tell Google about localized versions of your page opened 29 Oct 2026
Related tools
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Questions
About this tool
If page A names page B as an alternate, page B must name page A back. Google says missing return links can cause the annotations to be ignored or misread.
The tool runs in your browser and does not fetch other sites or pages. Paste the tags of every version you want checked, or use a hreflang sitemap, which lists all versions in one file.
Google's documentation says only ISO 639-1 languages and ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 regions are supported, and names es-419 as not supported. The validator reports codes outside those lists.
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