How do I audit hreflang errors on an international site?

Auditing hreflang on an international site is mostly about checking three things:

1. The tags exist and are complete
2. They point to the right URLs
3. They are consistent across all language/country versions

Here’s a practical process you can use.

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1) Know what “good” hreflang looks like

A valid setup usually has:

• One hreflang annotation per language/country version
• x-default for the fallback page, if applicable
• Each URL:
  • references itself
  • references all alternates
  • uses the correct return links
• All URLs are:
  • indexable
  • canonicalized correctly
  • consistent with sitemap and internal linking

Example:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-us" href="https://example.com/us/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-gb" href="https://example.com/uk/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr-fr" href="https://example.com/fr/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/" />

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2) Crawl the site and extract hreflang

Use a crawler such as:

• Screaming Frog
• Sitebulb
• Deepcrawl/Lumar
• Ahrefs site audit
• Semrush site audit

What to collect

For each page, export:

• Source URL
• Hreflang value
• Hreflang target URL
• Canonical URL
• Status code of target URL
• Indexability
• Page title / template group, if needed

What to look for

• Missing alternate tags
• Broken target URLs
• 3xx/4xx/5xx target URLs
• Hreflang pointing to non-canonical URLs
• Relative URLs instead of absolute URLs
• Wrong language/region codes
• Missing self-referencing hreflang
• Inconsistent hreflang sets between pages

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3) Check for the most common hreflang errors

A. Missing return links

If page A points to page B, page B must point back to page A.

Problem:
/en/ references /fr/, but /fr/ doesn’t reference /en/.

Fix:
Ensure every language version lists the full set of alternates.

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B. Wrong language/region codes

Use valid ISO codes.

Examples:

• en-us
• en-gb
• fr-fr
• de-de

Common mistakes:

• en-uk instead of en-gb
• uk instead of en-gb
• pt-br vs pt-pt confusion
• uppercase/lowercase inconsistencies

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C. Missing self-reference

Each page should include itself in the hreflang set.

Example on /en/:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-us" href="https://example.com/us/" />

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D. Non-indexable targets

Hreflang should only point to pages that can be indexed.

Avoid targets that are:

• noindexed
• blocked by robots.txt
• 404/410
• redirected
• canonicalized elsewhere

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E. Canonical and hreflang conflict

A page can canonicalize to itself or another page, but the hreflang setup must match the canonical logic.

Best practice:

• Hreflang targets should be canonical URLs
• Don’t point hreflang at URLs that canonicalize to something else

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F. Uneven or incomplete clusters

If one page has 10 alternates, its equivalents should have the same cluster.

Example:

• English page has en, fr, de
• French page has only fr, en

That inconsistency can weaken signal.

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G. Duplicate or conflicting hreflang entries

Watch for:

• Same language/region listed twice
• Multiple different URLs for the same code on one page
• Conflicting tags in HTML, HTTP headers, and XML sitemap

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H. Hreflang in the wrong place

Hreflang can be implemented via:

• HTML <link> tags
• XML sitemap
• HTTP headers

Don’t mix contradictory implementations. If you use more than one method, they must agree exactly.

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4) Validate language and country targeting logic

Ask:

• Is this country-specific or language-only?
• Are variants really equivalent content?
• Is en-CA different from en-US enough to justify separate targeting?
• Should some pages use hreflang="en" rather than en-us?

Use:

• language-only if content is generic for that language
• language-region if content differs by country

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5) Check XML hreflang sitemap implementation

If hreflang is in sitemaps, validate:

• All alternate URLs are listed
• URLs are absolute
• Each URL set is complete
• Sitemap is submitted in Search Console
• Sitemap URLs are indexable and canonical

Example format:

<url>
  <loc>https://example.com/us/</loc>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-us" href="https://example.com/us/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-gb" href="https://example.com/uk/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr-fr" href="https://example.com/fr/" />
</url>

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6) Use Google Search Console for warnings

In Search Console, check:

• International targeting signals if available
• Coverage/indexing issues
• Sitemap processing
• Manual inspection of affected URLs

Google no longer has the old “International Targeting” report for many properties, so you’ll often rely on:

• Indexing reports
• URL Inspection
• crawler exports
• log files

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7) Compare hreflang with canonical, sitemap, and internal links

These should align:

• Canonical URL = preferred indexable URL
• Hreflang target = canonical URL
• XML sitemap = canonical URLs
• Internal links = preferably point to canonical localized versions

If one of these points to a different URL pattern, errors appear.

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8) Run a spot-check on critical templates

Audit:

• Homepage
• Category pages
• Product pages
• Blog/article pages
• Search pages, if applicable
• Any high-traffic landing pages

Templates often reveal systematic issues faster than checking random pages.

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9) Prioritize fixes

Start with:

1. Broken/redirected hreflang URLs
2. Missing return tags
3. Incorrect language/region codes
4. Canonical conflicts
5. Missing cluster members on high-value pages
6. Sitemap discrepancies

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10) Revalidate after changes

After fixes:

• Re-crawl
• Compare before/after exports
• Check sample URLs manually
• Monitor indexing and country/language performance over time

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Quick checklist

• All pages have self-referencing hreflang
• All alternate URLs are included
• Return links are reciprocal
• URLs are absolute and canonical
• No 3xx/4xx/5xx targets
• No noindex/blocked targets
• Language-region codes are valid
• HTML/sitemap/header implementations match
• x-default exists where needed
• Clusters are complete and consistent

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If you want, I can also give you:

1. a hreflang audit spreadsheet template,
2. a Screaming Frog step-by-step workflow, or
3. a Python script to find hreflang errors automatically.