// generate hreflang link tags
Generate hreflang link tags for multilingual and multi-region pages. Build correct alternate annotations and copy HTML or HTTP headers instantly.
en, en-US, fr, de-AT)
Ready to generate
Add language/URL pairs and click Generate TagsSelect HTML link tags or HTTP header format depending on how you plan to implement hreflang.
Enter each language code (e.g. en-US) and the full URL for that locale. Click "+ Add Language" for more rows.
Click Generate Tags, then copy all output and paste into your page <head> or server config.
Hreflang tags tell search engines which version of a page is intended for which language or region. Without them, Google may show the wrong version to users in different countries, hurting both rankings and user experience.
A hreflang tag is an HTML attribute that signals to search engines like Google which language and/or geographic region a specific page is intended for. It helps search engines serve the correct language version to the right audience in search results.
Hreflang tags go inside the <head> section of each page in your site. Alternatively, you can specify them in your XML sitemap or as HTTP response headers. Every page in the set should reference all other pages in the set, including itself.
The x-default value is a fallback hreflang annotation that tells Google which page to show when no specific regional or language URL matches the user's preferences. It's commonly used for a homepage or a language selector page.
Hreflang tags don't directly boost rankings, but they prevent duplicate content issues across languages and ensure the correct page ranks in the correct country. Incorrect or missing hreflang can cause the wrong page version to appear in search results, hurting CTR and user experience.
Use ISO 639-1 two-letter language codes (e.g. en, fr, de). For region-specific targeting, combine with ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 country codes (e.g. en-US, en-GB, pt-BR). Always use a hyphen, not an underscore.
Yes. Every page in a hreflang set must include the full set of annotations — including a self-referencing tag — for the implementation to be valid. If only some pages carry the tags, Google may ignore the annotations entirely.
When you run a website that targets users in multiple countries or languages, you need a way to communicate your intentions to search engines. Hreflang tags are the solution. Introduced by Google in 2011, hreflang is an HTML attribute added to <link> elements that tells search engines — particularly Google — which language and regional variant of a page should appear for which users.
Without proper hreflang implementation, your Spanish-language page might rank in the US, or your British English content might outrank your American English page for users in the United States. These mistakes hurt both user experience and your site's organic performance.
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Hreflang tags appear in the <head> section of each page and form a bidirectional relationship. If page A references page B, page B must also reference page A. This mutual confirmation is what Google uses to validate the annotation set. A typical hreflang implementation looks like this:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-US" href="https://example.com/en-us/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-GB" href="https://example.com/en-gb/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="https://example.com/fr/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/" />Each page in this group must carry all four of these tags. The self-referencing tag (e.g. the US page must include its own hreflang="en-US") is mandatory and often forgotten, causing validation failures.
Hreflang values combine ISO 639-1 language codes with optional ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 country codes. You can use just a language code (en) to target all English speakers regardless of location, or combine them (en-US, en-GB, en-AU) for country-specific targeting. The country code is always uppercase; the language code is always lowercase. Use a hyphen (-) as the separator — underscores are not valid.
Some commonly used combinations include zh-CN for Simplified Chinese in China, zh-TW for Traditional Chinese in Taiwan, pt-BR for Brazilian Portuguese, and es-MX for Spanish in Mexico. When in doubt, start with just the language code and add regions only when you have distinct content or URLs for specific countries.
You have three options for delivering hreflang annotations to Google, and you only need to use one of them consistently:
HTML link tags in <head>: The most common method. Place all <link rel="alternate" hreflang="..."> tags inside the <head> of every page in the set. This works for any CMS or static site.
HTTP response headers: Useful for non-HTML files like PDFs. The server sends a Link: header in the HTTP response with the same information. This is harder to implement but useful in specific technical situations.
XML sitemap: You can add hreflang information to your XML sitemap using the <xhtml:link> element. This is useful when you can't easily modify page HTML but have sitemap access.
The most frequent implementation errors include: missing return tags (if page A points to page B, page B must point back to page A), incorrect language code format (using underscores instead of hyphens, or mixing up language and country code order), applying hreflang only to some pages in a set, and forgetting the self-referencing tag. Each page must include a hreflang tag pointing to itself. Skipping any of these is enough for Google to ignore your entire annotation set.
Another common mistake is using hreflang on pages that don't have genuinely different content. If your "localized" pages are identical or near-identical, hreflang will not solve duplicate content issues — you'll need to actually localize the content itself.
The special x-default value tells Google which URL to serve when no hreflang value matches a user's browser language or region. This is typically your home page, a global landing page, or a language-selector page. It's not mandatory, but it's strongly recommended because it gives Google a clear instruction for all the edge cases your other hreflang tags don't cover.
After implementation, use Google Search Console's International Targeting report to check for hreflang errors. Common warnings include missing return tags, invalid language codes, and inaccessible URLs. You can also use this generator to produce correct tags from scratch, reducing the chance of typos or formatting errors in your code.
For larger sites with hundreds or thousands of locale-specific pages, consider automating hreflang tag generation through your CMS or a build process rather than maintaining them manually. The logic is straightforward: for every page, output a link tag for every equivalent page in every locale.