Checks / Links, canonical and speed
Invalid hreflang
Language alternates that are malformed or not reciprocal are ignored.
hreflang_invalid · Links, canonical and speed · Notice
What triggers it
An hreflang value on a page is not a valid language code, or its address is not a full URL.
What to change
Use valid codes (en, fr-BE, x-default) with absolute URLs.
Example
HTML to put in the page:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/en/">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr-BE" href="https://example.com/fr-be/">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/">How common it is
We have not measured how common this is on a sample of sites. Counts appear here when a study covers it.
About this check
| Check ID | hreflang_invalid |
|---|---|
| Report section | Links, canonical and speed |
| Severity | Notice |
| How it is decided | Measured: read directly from the page or the server's response. |
| Added | Before 19 Oct 2026 (versions 1 and 2), or a site-wide check with no version date yet |
| Status | Measured in every report |
| Report gives the code | No, the fix is described in words |
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