Hreflang Validator

Hreflang Validator - Free Online Hreflang Tag Checker

Our free online hreflang validator helps you validate hreflang tags instantly and detect errors in your international SEO setup. This powerful tool validates hreflang syntax, checks language codes, verifies bidirectional links, and ensures proper hreflang implementation. All validation happens entirely in your browser using client-side JavaScript, ensuring your HTML content never leaves your device.

Understanding Hreflang Tags

Hreflang tags are HTML attributes used to indicate the language and geographic targeting of web pages. They help search engines serve the correct language or regional version of a page to users. Hreflang tags are essential for international SEO and multilingual websites. They can be implemented in HTML link elements, HTTP headers, or XML sitemaps, and must follow specific syntax rules to be effective.

Hreflang Implementation Formats

Hreflang tags can be implemented in three ways: HTML link elements in the page head (most common), HTTP headers for non-HTML content, and XML sitemaps for large-scale implementations. Our validator primarily focuses on HTML link elements, checking for proper syntax, valid language codes (ISO 639-1), optional region codes (ISO 3166-1), and correct URL formats.

Hreflang Validation Rules

A valid hreflang implementation must include: proper hreflang attribute syntax, valid language codes, correct URL formats, self-referencing tags (x-default or same language), and bidirectional links (if page A links to page B, page B must link back to page A). The validator checks all these requirements and identifies missing elements, invalid codes, and implementation issues.

Common Hreflang Errors

Common errors in hreflang implementation include missing hreflang attributes, invalid language codes, missing self-referencing tags, unidirectional links (missing return links), incorrect hreflang syntax, and non-compliance with Google's hreflang guidelines. Our validator detects all these issues and provides clear error messages to help you fix problems in your hreflang setup.

Security and Privacy

All hreflang validation happens entirely in your browser using client-side JavaScript. Your HTML content never leaves your device, is never sent to any server, and is never stored or logged anywhere. This ensures complete privacy and security, making it safe to validate HTML containing sensitive website structure or URL information.

Use Cases for Hreflang Validation

SEO professionals use hreflang validators to ensure international SEO setup is correctly implemented, verify language targeting, and optimize multilingual website performance. Web developers use validators to check hreflang tags during development, prevent international SEO issues, and ensure proper hreflang implementation. Website administrators use validators to verify hreflang tags, check for errors, and validate international SEO configuration.

Free Online Hreflang Validator Tool

Swapcode's hreflang validator is completely free with unlimited use and no registration required. Unlike other validators that may send your content to servers, our tool runs entirely in your browser, ensuring maximum privacy and security. The validator provides instant feedback, clear error messages, and helpful hreflang implementation validation. Whether you're an SEO professional optimizing international websites, a web developer implementing hreflang tags, or someone learning about international SEO, our free online hreflang validator is the perfect tool for validating hreflang tags securely and instantly.