hreflang is a link annotation used on multilingual or multi-regional sites. It tells search engines that alternate language or regional versions of a page exist, so the right URL can be selected more easily for a user’s language or region.
It does not translate the page
hreflang does not create translated content. It describes the relationship between URLs that already exist, such as Japanese, English, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, or Portuguese versions of the same page.
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="ja" href="https://example.com/ja/page" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/en/page" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/" />Include the current page too
An hreflang cluster should include the current page as well as its alternates. A Japanese page should list the Japanese URL, and an English page should list the English URL, alongside the other language versions.
What to check
- href values are absolute URLs
- The current page has a self-referencing hreflang entry
- Language and region codes use valid formats
- Alternate pages return the same relationship set
- Canonical does not point to a different language version
- x-default points to the intended fallback or language selection page
The TOOLPOOL hreflang Checker fetches a public URL and summarizes alternate links, language codes, self references, x-default, and canonical relationships.