Hreflang tags: the complete guide for your multilingual website

Q: Which hreflang code should I use for English in the UK?

Use en-GB: GB is the ISO country code for the United Kingdom, while UK is not a valid region code, so en-UK is ignored by Google. For English in Ireland use en-IE, and add en-US if you also target the United States.

Q: How do you set hreflang for a multilingual site in Belgium?

Create one version per language for the Belgian market and give each its own code: nl-BE for Dutch, fr-BE for French and, if needed, de-BE for German. If the same pages also target the Netherlands or France, add nl-NL and fr-FR versions and link every version to all the others.

Q: What is the best x-default hreflang strategy?

Point x-default to the page you want visitors to see when no language version matches them: usually a language selector or your main international version, often in English. Use one x-default per set of pages and include it on every version, alongside the other hreflang tags.

Q: Is there a list of hreflang language and country codes?

Yes. The language is an ISO 639-1 code (fr, de, nl, en) and the optional region an ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 code (FR, BE, CH, GB). Common combinations include fr-FR, fr-BE, de-DE, de-AT, de-CH, nl-NL, nl-BE, en-GB and en-US. The free generator on this page offers 29 of them and writes the tags for you.

Q: Is hreflang a meta tag?

Not exactly. Hreflang is an attribute of the link tag placed in the head of the page, which is why it is often called the hreflang meta tag. The same information can also go in an HTTP header or in your XML sitemap, and Google treats the three methods the same way.

By Antoine Sanières · 26 September 2026 · 6 min read

At a glance – Hreflang guide

What it does links the language versions of a page so Google shows the right one in each country.
Syntax rel="alternate", a language (and optional country) code and an absolute URL, in every version.
Two rules every page lists itself, and every link is returned.
x-default optional but recommended, for searchers no version covers.
Checking no dedicated Google tool any more; use a crawler and Search Console, page by page.

You have translated your website, yet Google keeps showing your French page to Belgian searchers, or your German version in Switzerland instead of the Swiss one. Nine times out of ten, the culprit is the hreflang tag: missing, incomplete or badly written.

Here is how hreflang works, how to write it, and the mistakes I fix most often in audits, based on the rules Google publishes.

Generate my hreflang tags

What is the hreflang tag?

The hreflang tag is an attribute of the link element. It tells Google: “this page also exists in other languages or for other countries, and here are their addresses”. Google uses it to show the right version in its results, for example your Belgian page to someone in Brussels rather than your French one.

People sometimes talk about an “hreflang meta tag”, but it is not a meta tag: it is an alternate link, placed in the page head, in the XML sitemap or in the HTTP headers. Nor is it the lang attribute of the html element: Google says it uses neither to detect a page's language, which it works out from the content itself. Hreflang connects versions; it does not declare a language.

Hreflang syntax, with an example

Every hreflang link has three parts: rel="alternate", the language code (plus an optional country code) in the hreflang attribute, and the absolute URL of that version.

Example: the same page in French (France), French (Belgium), Dutch (Belgium) and German

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr-FR" href="https://www.example.com/fr/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr-BE" href="https://www.example.com/be-fr/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="nl-BE" href="https://www.example.com/be-nl/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://www.example.com/de/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://www.example.com/" />

These five lines appear, identical, in the head of each of the five pages: every page lists itself and all the others.

Two rules are non-negotiable. First, every page must reference itself (a self-referencing hreflang). Second, links must be reciprocal: if the French page points to the German page, the German page must point back. Missing return tags are the error I find most often in audits.

The reciprocity rule: each version points to every other version, and to itself

Language and country codes: right and wrong

The code always starts with the language, in ISO 639-1 format (fr, de, nl, en), followed if needed by the country in ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 format (FR, BE, CH, GB). A country on its own is never valid: “BE” is read as Belarusian, not Belgium. Only add a country when you genuinely have different versions for two countries that share a language, such as France and Belgium.

Hreflang codes: language (ISO 639-1), then an optional country (ISO 3166-1)
Target	Correct code	Common mistake
English, United Kingdom	en-GB	en-UK (the country code is GB)
French, Belgium	fr-BE	be (that is Belarusian)
German, Switzerland	de-CH	ch-DE (wrong order)
Dutch, all countries	nl	nl-NL (limits the page to the Netherlands)
Czech	cs	cz (that is the country code)
Fallback page	x-default	default or en-default

What is x-default in hreflang?

The x-default value names the page to show when no version matches the searcher: an Italian landing on a site available in French, German and English, for instance. It usually goes to the English version, or to a homepage that lets visitors choose their language.

It is optional, but I recommend it: it is one extra line, and it saves Google from choosing for you. If your site exists in a single language, you do not need hreflang at all.

Hreflang and the HTML lang attribute

Hreflang and lang attributes are often confused, but they do two different jobs. The hreflang attribute is used in link tags (or in a sitemap) to tell Google which other language and country versions of a page exist. The HTML lang attribute, as in <html lang="es">, declares the language of the page itself, for browsers, screen readers and translation tools. Google relies on hreflang, not on the lang attribute, to show the right version.

Example: hreflang on a Spanish HTML page

<html lang="es">
<head>
  <link rel="alternate" hreflang="es-ES" href="https://www.example.com/es/" />
  <link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-GB" href="https://www.example.com/en/" />
  <link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://www.example.com/" />
</head>

The lang attribute describes this page; the hreflang annotations describe all its versions, including itself.

Both should tell the same story. A hreflang and HTML lang mismatch, such as a page declared as es-ES in hreflang but coded as <html lang="en">, usually reveals a template error. Audit tools flag it, and they also report when pages have no hreflang and lang attributes at all: on a multilingual website, every page needs both.

Generate your tags

Hreflang tag generator

Tick your versions and choose your URL structure: the code writes itself, ready to copy.

Original page address

Version structureSubfolders (/de/)Subdomains (de.example.com)

URL of each version (editable)

x-default version

Code for the <head> of every version

✦ The same block must appear on every version: each page points to the others and to itself.

Link tags, hreflang sitemap or HTTP headers?

Google accepts three methods, and they carry the same weight. What matters is to use only one, so the signals never contradict each other.

Three ways to declare hreflang, equivalent for Google: pick one
Method	Best for	Watch out for
Link tags in the <head>	Most sites, CMS included	Bloats the head when there are many languages
XML sitemap (xhtml:link)	Large sites, many languages	The sitemap must be updated with every new page
HTTP headers (Link)	PDFs and other non-HTML files	Server configuration, harder to check

An hreflang sitemap has one advantage on large sites: it keeps the page code light and can be generated automatically. The flip side: make sure it is regenerated whenever a page is added or removed.

Hreflang on different domains and ccTLDs

Hreflang works across separate websites: a French page on example.fr can point to a German page on example.de, as long as each domain lists all the others and every link is returned. Verifying each domain in Search Console makes the whole setup much easier to monitor.

ccTLD SEO has real strengths: a .de or .fr domain sends a strong local signal and reassures buyers. The price is that each domain builds its authority on its own. Subfolders on a single domain (example.com/de/) share that authority, which is why I recommend them to most companies taking their first steps abroad. Whatever the structure, hreflang for multiple languages follows the same logic: one cluster of reciprocal links per page.

Hreflang on WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, Drupal, Magento and more

On most CMSs you do not write the tags by hand: your multilingual tool generates them. It still has to be set up properly.

Hreflang and CMSs: what generates what
CMS	What happens	What to check
WordPress + Yoast SEO	Yoast alone adds no hreflang: your multilingual plugin (WPML, Polylang, TranslatePress, Weglot) does	That translated pages are properly linked in the plugin
Shopify	Tags are added automatically once languages and markets are set up	Market country codes and untranslated pages
Webflow	Localization generates hreflang for every published locale	Pages excluded from a locale and the fallback page
PrestaShop	Depending on version and theme, alternate tags are built in or need a module	That they point to canonical URLs without parameters
Drupal	Core content translation adds hreflang to translated content; the contributed Hreflang module covers the other pages	x-default, which core does not add
Magento 2	No native support: Magento 2 hreflang tags come from an extension or custom code	Store views, and the mapping of each product and category between stores
Wix	Wix Multilingual adds hreflang automatically for each language	Untranslated pages and the default language
Next.js	The Metadata API generates the tags from alternates.languages	That every locale lists all the others, plus x-default

In short: Magento hreflang always needs an extension or custom code (hreflang on Magento 2 included), Drupal hreflang works out of the box for translated content, hreflang on Wix is automatic, and hreflang in Next.js takes a few lines of metadata.

Choosing a WordPress plugin? My comparison of Weglot, TranslatePress, WPML and Polylang for SEO is in French, but the tables speak for themselves.

Rather not handle the tags yourself? Weglot translates your website and adds the hreflang tags for every language version automatically, on WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, Wix and other CMSs. Affiliate link: if you subscribe through it, I earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.

Canonical and hreflang: the rules

Each language version should have a canonical tag pointing to itself. If your German page declares the French page as canonical, you are telling Google it is only a copy: Google will not index it, and its hreflang becomes pointless.

On a multilingual website, the canonical URL of a multilanguage page therefore always points to itself, never to the default language.

Likewise, only list canonical, indexable URLs that return a 200 status in your hreflang tags. A page that is noindexed, redirected or blocked breaks the link, and the reciprocity with it.

The 7 hreflang errors I see in audits

Missing return tagsThe French page lists the German one, but the German page does not list the French one. Google then ignores the pair.
No self-referencing hreflangEvery version must appear in its own hreflang list.
Invalid codesen-UK, a country without a language, or an invented language code: the tag is invalid.
Relative or redirected URLsHreflang expects absolute, indexable URLs returning 200. A redirected or noindexed URL breaks the link.
A canonical pointing to another languageIf the German page names the French one as canonical, its hreflang is useless.
Near-identical versions left undeclaredfr-FR and fr-BE without hreflang: both pages compete for the same queries.
Two methods at once, telling different storiesTags in the <head> and a sitemap that do not say the same thing.

How to check your hreflang tags

Google retired Search Console's International Targeting report in 2022, so there is no official hreflang tester any more. To audit a site, I use:

a crawler such as Screaming Frog, which lists missing return links, invalid codes, non-indexable URLs and a missing x-default;
URL Inspection in Search Console, to see which canonical Google has chosen for each version;
the search results themselves, checked from each country, to see which version really shows up.

It is one of the first checks in my international SEO audit. On a multilingual site, a poorly configured hreflang is enough to put the wrong version in front of the wrong country.

Hreflang FAQ

What is the hreflang tag?

It is an attribute of the link element that tells Google which other language or regional versions of a page exist. Google uses it to show the right version to each searcher, for example your Belgian page to someone in Brussels rather than your French one.

Does hreflang improve rankings?

Not directly. It does not push a page up, but it stops the wrong version from showing in the wrong country and keeps near-identical versions from competing with each other. It is a signal, not a directive: Google may ignore it if the set is inconsistent.

Do I need an x-default hreflang tag?

It is optional but recommended. It names the page to show when no version matches the searcher's language, usually the English version or a language selector page.

Is there a Google tool to test hreflang?

Not since 2022, when Google retired the International Targeting report in Search Console. Today you check hreflang with a crawler such as Screaming Frog, or with the site audit in Ahrefs or Semrush, then with URL Inspection in Search Console.

Does hreflang replace the canonical tag?

No, the two work together. Each language version should carry a self-referencing canonical, and hreflang links the versions to one another. A canonical pointing to another language cancels out the hreflang.

What does hreflang mean?

The hreflang meaning is simple: it is short for “href language”, the language of the linked page. Hreflang annotations tell Google which language, and optionally which country, each version of a page targets. The hreflang markup always pairs a language code with a URL, in link tags, XML sitemaps or HTTP headers.

Which hreflang values are valid? Can I use en-EU?

Hreflang values combine an ISO 639-1 language code (en, fr, de) with an optional ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code (en-GB, fr-BE), plus the special value x-default. Hreflang en-EU is not valid, because EU is not a country code: Google ignores it. For an English version aimed at all of Europe, use en on its own, or one tag per country.

What does a correct hreflang implementation look like?

A correct hreflang implementation follows these hreflang best practices: every version lists all versions including itself, all links are reciprocal, every URL is canonical and indexable, codes are valid, and x-default points to your fallback page. To implement hreflang, choose one method (link tags, sitemap or HTTP headers) and stick to it: your hreflang tag implementation will then be much easier to check. Good hreflang usage is above all about keeping the tags in sync with your content.

How do I validate hreflang?

To validate hreflang, crawl your website with a tool such as Screaming Frog: it lists hreflang issues such as missing return links, invalid codes or non-canonical targets. Then check a few pages by hand with URL Inspection in Search Console. Issues with incorrect hreflang links usually come from redirects, noindexed pages or URLs with parameters. Conflicting hreflang and rel canonical tags are the other classic: a canonical pointing to another language cancels the hreflang.

Is hreflang a meta tag?

Is there a list of hreflang language and country codes?

What is the best x-default hreflang strategy?

How do you set hreflang for a multilingual site in Belgium?

Which hreflang code should I use for English in the UK?

Your point of contact

Antoine Sanières

International SEO, GEO and AEO consultant

Based in Pantin, on the edge of Paris, I am a native French speaker and also work in English and German, as well as in Dutch in writing. I hold two master's degrees, in international business and in digital marketing, and since founding Anton Anton in 2023 I have completed more than 100 projects for French and international companies.

I write every article on this blog myself, based on what I see every day in my international assignments.

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