Canonical and hreflang checker.

Canonical tags in one paragraph

The same content often lives at several URLs: with and without www, with tracking parameters, or in two categories at once. A canonical tag (<link rel="canonical" href="…">) tells search engines which one is the main version, so rankings aren't split between duplicates. Most pages should point to themselves. Only true duplicates should point elsewhere, and the target must load with a 200 status, not redirect.

How hreflang works

Hreflang tells Google that several pages are versions of the same content for different languages or countries, so it can show the English page in the UK, the Arabic page in the UAE and the Urdu page in Pakistan.

• Codes are a language (ISO 639-1, like en, ar, ur), optionally followed by a country (ISO 3166-1, like GB, AE, PK).
• Every page in the set must list every version, including itself.
• Links must go both ways. If page A lists B but B doesn't list A, Google ignores the pair.
• x-default names the page to show everyone else, often a language picker or the main English page.
• Every URL in the set must load directly with a 200 status.

Common mistakes

• "uk" for the United Kingdom. It's the code for Ukrainian; the UK is en-GB.
• A country on its own ("GB") without a language.
• Hreflang pointing to URLs that redirect.
• Each language version canonicalising to the English page, which tells Google to ignore the translations.
• Missing return tags on one version after a redesign.

Getting international SEO right

Hreflang is only the signalling layer. Each market also needs genuinely localised content, local reviews and, for local services, proper location pages. Our technical SEO and multi-location SEO services handle both sides.