Is hreflang="uk" British English?

No, and this is the single most common mistake. `uk` is the ISO 639-1 code for Ukrainian. The United Kingdom's region code is GB, so British English is `en-gb`. The language always comes first and the region second; a region on its own is never valid.

What does x-default do?

It names the page to show visitors whose language and region match none of your alternates — typically a language selector, or your main international version. It's optional, but without it a Portuguese speaker with no Portuguese version gets whichever page Google guesses at.

Should hreflang go in the HTML, the sitemap, or the headers?

Any one of the three, but only one — mixing them is a common source of conflicts. Link tags are simplest for small sites. Sitemap entries scale far better, because a 20-language site otherwise carries 20 tags in the head of every page. HTTP headers are for non-HTML files like PDFs.

Hreflang Tag Generator

Paste your language codes and URLs and get a complete, consistent set of hreflang annotations — as HTML link tags, XML sitemap entries or HTTP headers. hreflang is the most error-prone tag in technical SEO, and nearly all of the errors are mechanical: an invalid code, a region used as a language, a duplicate, or a missing return link. This checks for each of those rather than only assembling the markup.

Your text

x-default URL

The page shown to visitors whose language matches none of the others. Leave blank to omit it.

Output

Result

Nothing is uploaded — this tool runs inside your browser, so your files never leave your device.

Help us improve

Why use this tool

Validates every language code and flags the invalid ones
Catches duplicate codes pointing at different URLs
Outputs link tags, sitemap entries or HTTP headers from one list
Adds x-default, and explains the reciprocal-link rule that catches everyone

How it works

1Put one language and URL per line, separated by a space — `fr https://example.com/fr/`.
2Add an x-default URL for visitors whose language matches none of them.
3Put the same complete set on every one of those pages, including a link to itself.

Hreflang Tag Generator — frequently asked questions

Almost always because they aren't reciprocal. If page A lists page B as its French alternate, page B must list page A back — and every page must include a self-referencing entry. Google discards the whole set when the return links are missing, which is why hreflang usually fails silently and completely rather than partially.

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