Hreflang Tag Generator

Hreflang is how you tell search engines which URL is meant for which language or region when the same (or closely equivalent) content exists in multiple places. It does not translate pages, replace rel=canonical , or fix duplicate content by itself. It answers a narrower question: for this topic, which URL should we prefer for French users in France versus English users in the UK? When hreflang is wrong or incomplete, the symptom is rarely a Search Console banner. The wrong template ranks in the wrong country, or none of the locales build stable relevance because signals conflict. This guide covers how to implement hreflang in HTML, HTTP headers, and XML sitemaps, how x-default fits in, and the mistakes that silently invalidate a cluster. To build tag blocks before deploy, use the Hreflang Tag Generator . To audit live pages, use the Hreflang Checker . What a hreflang cluster is A cluster is a set of URLs that are locale alternates of the same content (or the same template type, such as every product detail page). Each URL in the cluster must: Reference every other URL in the cluster, including itself (self-reference). Use reciprocal links — if page A lists page B, page B must list page A with matching codes. Use valid IETF language tags (ISO 639-1 language, optional ISO 3166-1 region — en-GB , not en-UK or en_GB ). Google documents hreflang as annotations in HTML, HTTP headers, or XML sitemaps. The syntax differs; the logical set must be the same whichever channel you choose. | Method | Where it lives | Best when | |--------|----------------|-----------| | HTML <link rel="alternate" hreflang> | Page <head> | CMS can inject head tags per template | | HTTP Link header | Response headers | Edge/CDN or server rules manage alternates |…