Create hreflang tags that tell Google which language or country version of a page to show, as HTML, sitemap entries or HTTP headers.
Loading the tool…
What hreflang does
If you have the same page in several languages or for several countries, hreflang tells search engines how the versions relate, so a searcher in Germany sees your German page and a searcher in the UK sees your UK page.
Example
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-GB" href="https://example.com/uk/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-US" href="https://example.com/us/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.com/de/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/" />Rules that trip people up
| Rule | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Use ISO 639-1 language codes | de for German, ja for Japanese (not jp) |
| Region codes are optional, ISO 3166-1 | en-GB is right; en-UK is invalid |
| Every version lists every version | Including itself; missing return links can make Google ignore the tags |
| Use absolute URLs | https://example.com/de/, not /de/ |
| Add x-default | The fallback for anyone who doesn’t match a listed language |
Which format to use
Use HTML tags for most sites, sitemap entries for large sites where editing every page is hard, and HTTP headers for non-HTML files like PDFs. Pick one method; you don’t need all three.
Frequently asked questions
Is hreflang a ranking factor?
No. It helps Google show the right version, but doesn’t boost rankings.
What is x-default?
The page shown to users whose language or region doesn’t match any of your versions, often a language picker or your main site.
Is it en-GB or en-UK?
en-GB. UK isn’t a valid ISO 3166-1 country code.
Does Bing use hreflang?
Bing mainly uses the content-language meta tag and other signals, but hreflang does no harm.
Sources
Last updated: