What does this tool check?
We fetch your page the way a search engine does and read the hreflang tags in the head and in the HTTP header. Then we visit every listed language version and check whether it is a working page (status 200, no redirect), whether it links back to your page and whether its canonical points to itself. The language codes themselves are validated too: en-UK does not exist, for example, it is en-GB.
If your page has no hreflang, we look in your links for language folders such as /fr/ or subdomains such as fr.. A site with language versions but no hreflang leaves Google guessing, and in multilingual markets such as Belgium Google then often shows the wrong language to the wrong visitor.
Spotting machine translation
Services such as Weglot, GTranslate, ConveyThis and the Google Translate widget translate your site automatically by default. That is fast, but without review a French or German-speaking buyer notices the errors straight away. We recognise such a layer by the scripts and markup in your page, and we also flag multilingual plugins such as WPML, Polylang and TranslatePress. A plugin is not a problem in itself: what matters is who reviews the copy and whether every language has its own URL.
The rules we test follow Google's documentation on localized versions of your pages.
Frequently asked questions
What is hreflang?
A tag that tells Google which language or country versions of a page exist, so a French-speaking visitor in Brussels sees the French page and a Dutch-speaking visitor sees the Dutch one. It goes in the head, in the HTTP header or in the sitemap.
Why does every language version need a return link?
Google only counts an hreflang pair when both pages point to each other. If the French page does not link back to the Dutch page, the annotation is ignored. Every version therefore lists itself and all other versions.
Should I use x-default?
It is not required, but it is recommended. x-default names the page for visitors whose language is not in your list, for example a language selector page or your English version.
Are Weglot or GTranslate bad for SEO?
Not as such. The risk is in two things: translations nobody reviews, and translations that only appear in the browser without their own URL, so Google cannot index them. This check shows whether such a layer is active; reviewing remains human work.
Why do I see a canonical error?
When a language version has a canonical to another language (often the Dutch homepage), that page is really saying "I am a copy". Google then ignores the hreflang. Every language version should have a canonical to itself.