Hreflang checker for multilingual and multi-country sites
Running a site in several languages or countries is hard enough without the wrong version showing up in search. Hreflang tags break quietly: one missing return link or a code like "en-UK" and search engines ignore the set. Your todo.is agent reads the tags on each page and cross-checks every pair.
The prompt
- Check the hreflang setup on [WEBSITE]. Our versions are [LANGUAGE AND COUNTRY VERSIONS]. Check [PAGES TO CHECK], reading hreflang from the HTML head, HTTP headers and the XML sitemap. Report: invalid language or region codes, missing return links (page A points to B but B does not point back), missing self-references, hreflang URLs that redirect, 404 or are noindexed, canonicals that point to a different URL than the hreflang, and whether an x-default is set. Also check that each page is really in the language it claims. Save the results as an Excel file with one row per page pair, and send me a short summary with the 5 most important fixes to [WHERE TO SEND IT].
What to change
- [WEBSITE]: Your site, e.g. "sundaybrew.com".
- [LANGUAGE AND COUNTRY VERSIONS]: e.g. "English US (/), English UK (/uk/), German (/de/), French (/fr/)".
- [PAGES TO CHECK]: e.g. "the home page and top 50 product pages", or "all pages in the sitemap".
- [WHERE TO SEND IT]: Email, WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack or Discord.
Example result
- Hreflang check · sundaybrew.com (example)
- Versions: en-US (/), en-GB (/uk/), de-DE (/de/), fr-FR (/fr/) · Pages: 50 per version
- Summary
- • Invalid code: all UK pages use en-UK. The correct region code is en-GB, so these tags are ignored.
- • 37 missing return links: most German pages do not point back to the French versions
- • No x-default on any page
- • 6 hreflang URLs redirect (old /de/kaffee/ path)
- • 3 French pages are partly in English (product descriptions not translated)
- Top 5 fixes
- • Replace en-UK with en-GB everywhere (template change, one fix)
- • Add the fr-FR link to the German page template so every pair is two-way
- • Add x-default pointing to the US home page or a language picker
- • Update the 6 old /de/kaffee/ URLs to their final /de/shop/ URLs
- • Translate the 3 mixed-language French pages, or remove their hreflang until they are ready
- Example of a correct set (on every version of the page)
- • hreflang="en-US" → https://sundaybrew.com/shop/cold-brew
- • hreflang="en-GB" → https://sundaybrew.com/uk/shop/cold-brew
- • hreflang="de-DE" → https://sundaybrew.com/de/shop/cold-brew
- • hreflang="fr-FR" → https://sundaybrew.com/fr/shop/cold-brew
- • hreflang="x-default" → https://sundaybrew.com/shop/cold-brew
- Checks that passed
- • Every page includes a self-reference
- • Canonicals are self-referencing on all language versions
How to do it with todo.is
- Copy the prompt and list your language and country versions with their folders or domains.
- Paste it into todo.is, or message it to your agent on WhatsApp or Discord.
- Your agent reads each page, its headers and your sitemap, and pairs the versions up.
- Fix the template-level issues first, since one change often fixes hundreds of pages, then ask for a re-check.
Tips for a better result
- Language codes use ISO 639-1 (en, de, fr) and region codes use ISO 3166-1 (GB, US, DE). "en-UK" and "en-EU" are not valid.
- Every page in a set must list all versions, including itself. One missing link can make search engines ignore the pair.
- Do not canonicalize all language versions to one page. Each version should point its canonical to itself.
- Pick one place for hreflang (HTML, headers or sitemap). Using two increases the chance they disagree.
hreflang checker: FAQ
- What is hreflang used for? It tells search engines which language or country version of a page to show to which users. It does not translate pages or boost rankings by itself.
- Do I need hreflang if I only have one language? No. Hreflang is only useful when you have two or more versions of a page for different languages or regions.
- What is x-default? It marks the page to show when no other version matches the user's language or region, often a language picker or your main version.
- Can the agent fix the tags for me? It gives you the corrected tag sets and a fix list. If you attach your sitemap, it can also produce a corrected XML sitemap with hreflang entries for your developer to upload.
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