Lingue

returntag

Free, no signup. A page can declare its hreflang alternates perfectly and still get ignored — because the page on the other end never links back. returntag crawls the whole cluster from one URL (or a sitemap) and checks return tags, self-references, x-default, redirects, and language codes across all three declaration methods, flagging any disagreement between them — the reciprocity check Search Console's old International Targeting report used to run.

Built by Patrick Stox

Notes: pages are fetched as Googlebot Smartphone by default (switchable, or bring your own user-agent) — some sites' bot management may challenge or block these fetches. Raw HTML only: hreflang or content injected by JavaScript needs a rendering browser and is not seen. Content-language detection covers ~30 major languages; pages in other languages simply aren't language-checked.

Example data — replace with your own, then press Validate cluster

Crawls this page's whole hreflang cluster (head tags + Link headers), then also reads the site's XML sitemaps from robots.txt and cross-checks all three sources.

Checks run from our server; we fetch the URL you enter and don't keep the results. Anonymous aggregate outcomes feed our research posts; checked domains are counted once via an anonymized hash, never stored in the clear. Anonymous run-level outcome counters may be used for aggregate research; URLs, domains, IPs, and identifiers are never included, and no statistic is released below 100 runs.

Feedback
Report a bug

Found something broken in Returntag? Let us know what happened — this goes straight to a private triage queue, not a public list.

What will be sent 
 No tool inputs, uploads, pasted source, complete results, query parameters, or URL fragments are attached automatically. You can edit or remove the selected passage above. Browser and anti-abuse metadata is processed for spam prevention. 
  
 
  
 
 
  
 
 
   
 
 
Sample report Illustrative example — worked by hand from the rules below, not a live crawl
 

Say your English homepage, French page, and German page all declare each other, but the
          French page is missing its return tag pointing back to English. You enter the French URL,
          whose <head> contains:

 
 
<!-- in the <head> of https://example.com/fr/ -->
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="https://example.com/fr/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.com/de/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/" />
 
 
…and returns this:
  
     
  • Two of three pairs are reciprocal (green ✓) — those pairings are valid; see
what reciprocal / missing / broken mean.
    •  
  • One pairing is one-directional. English lists French, but French doesn't list
            English back — the matrix shows a yellow ▲ and the issue below names the exact
            page and the exact tag to add.
    •  
  • One missing tag breaks the whole pairing, not just half of it — Google drops
            English↔French entirely until the return tag exists, which is why a map across the whole cluster
            matters more than checking one page at a time.
    •  
  • Building the fix? The Hreflang Cluster Generator
writes a self-referencing, bidirectional set so this can't happen in the first place.
    •  
 
Migration variant: an alternate redirects before returning
 
 
<!-- stale US annotation -->
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-GB"
      href="https://shop.example/gb/shoes/" />

<!-- /gb/shoes/ redirects to /uk/shoes/;
     the final UK page returns to the US page from a different URL -->
 
 

This is not repaired merely because the redirect reaches a live UK page. Update every
          cluster member to reference the final /uk/shoes/ URL, confirm that final page
          self-references, and verify that it returns the exact US alternate. The `.example` URLs are
          illustrative, not a company finding.

 
 
 
How to use it
 
     
  1. Pick a mode. Matched pair fetches exactly two market counterparts;
Page URL crawls a live page's whole hreflang cluster; Sitemap URL validates the xhtml:link
declarations in an XML sitemap on their own.
    2.  
  2. Paste one URL — in Page mode, any page in the cluster (e.g.
https://example.com/fr/); in Sitemap mode, the sitemap or sitemap-index URL.
    3.  
  3. Optionally change the user-agent pages are fetched as (Googlebot
            Smartphone by default), or in Page mode add a sitemap URL to cross-check.
    4.  
  4. Press Validate cluster. The tool follows every alternate, fetches
            each page, and cross-checks head tags, Link headers, and sitemaps.
    5.  
  5. Read the stat strip, then switch between the graph and
matrix views and open the Issues list — export it as CSV.
    6.  
 
 
 
       
     
 
     What this result means ↓  
International ecommerce pair mode
Compare two regional equivalents for canonical, hreflang, language, market facts, link leakage, and structured data. Identical product descriptions are recorded without being failed.
 
   
 
What the results mean
 
The stat strip counts the cluster; each pairing (edge) resolves to one of three states:
 
     
  • Reciprocal pair (green ✓) — both pages list each other. This pairing
            is valid; Google will honour it. Redirected-but-still-reciprocal pairs count here with a note.
    •  
  • Missing return (yellow ▲) — page A declares B, but B does not link
            back to A. The pairing is ignored until the return tag is added.
    •  
  • Broken target (red ✕) — an alternate points at a URL that returns a
            non-200 or can't be fetched, so every hreflang aimed at it is dead.
    •  
 
Issues below the map carry one of three severities:
 
     
  • error — breaks
            the cluster: an invalid or region-only language code, a relative href, two
            conflicting x-default targets, or the same locale declared twice.
    •  
  • error — a
            missing return tag, a broken alternate, or a sitemap/head/header disagreement.
    •  
  • warning — a
            canonical/noindex conflict or another non-fatal inconsistency. Missing self-references are notes.
            The validator does not require x-default; it is optional.
    •  
  • note —
            informational: a reciprocal pair that resolves through a redirect, a cross-domain cluster,
            a deprecated-but-tolerated code, or a language that doesn't match the page's detected text.
    •  
 
How it works
 

Fetching is the only server-side part. Your browser calls a small endpoint
          (/api/hreflang-check) that requests one URL as the chosen crawler user-agent,
          follows redirects, and returns just the extracted facts — status, self-reference,
          annotations, <html lang>, Content-Language, canonical. The browser then
          drives the crawl: it seeds with your URL and queues every newly referenced alternate,
          fetching up to six at a time until the whole connected cluster is mapped (capped at 500 URLs).

 

All the validation runs client-side. Once the pages are in, it builds the cluster graph,
          resolves each declared href (accounting for redirects), marks every edge
          reciprocal / missing-return / broken, then layers on self-reference, x-default, language-code,
          and three-source-agreement checks. In Page mode it also pulls the site's sitemaps and merges
          their xhtml:link annotations so head, header, and sitemap declarations are
          cross-checked against each other.

 
Features
 
     
  • Full-cluster crawl from a single URL — follows alternates up to 500 pages, six concurrent fetches.
    •  
  • Fast matched-pair mode, optional sitemap skipping, queued/active progress, per-URL timeouts, and cancellation.
    •  
  • Return-tag reciprocity across all three declaration methods (head tags, Link headers, sitemap xhtml:link), flagging any disagreement between them.
    •  
  • Interactive graph and matrix views, with a picker when the crawl finds several separate clusters.
    •  
  • Self-reference, conflicting x-default, redirect-through-alternate, and separate mobile-URL (m-dot) checks. x-default itself remains optional.
    •  
  • ISO 639-1 / 3166-1 language-code validation, plus content-language detection for ~30 major languages.
    •  
  • Choice of crawler user-agent (Googlebot, Bingbot, YandexBot, and more) or your own; SVG/PNG graph export and CSV issue export.
    •  
  • Sitemap-only mode for validating an XML sitemap's declarations without fetching pages.
    •  
 
Limitations
 

Pages are fetched as raw HTML — hreflang or content injected by JavaScript
          is not seen and will be reported as missing. Bot management on some sites may challenge or
          block the fetches. Content-language detection covers ~30 major languages; pages in other
          languages simply aren't language-checked. The crawl caps at 500 URLs and reads the first
          20 child sitemaps, and Sitemap mode validates only what the sitemap declares (it doesn't
          fetch the pages, so an on-page return tag will still read as missing there).

 
Frequently asked questions
 
What is an hreflang return tag?
A return tag is the reciprocal hreflang link. If page A lists page B as an alternate, page B must list page A back — otherwise Google ignores the pairing entirely. returntag crawls every page in the cluster and checks that each declared alternate links back, so a missing return tag on any single page shows up on the map instead of silently breaking the whole set.
Does this replace Search Console’s International Targeting report?
It replaces the "no return tags" errors that report used to surface. Google retired the International Targeting report in 2022, so there is no longer a first-party place to see missing hreflang return tags. returntag runs the same reciprocity check against a live crawl of the cluster, plus x-default, self-reference, redirect, and language-code validation on top.
Why does the tool crawl other pages instead of just the one I entered?
Reciprocity can only be verified by reading both ends of every pair. When you enter one URL, returntag follows its hreflang annotations to each alternate, fetches those pages too, and keeps expanding until the whole connected cluster is mapped (up to 500 URLs). That is the only way to know whether the return tags actually exist on the other pages.
Can it check hreflang declared in an XML sitemap?
Yes. In Page URL mode it also reads the site’s sitemaps (from robots.txt, or one you supply) and cross-checks all three declaration methods — head tags, HTTP Link headers, and sitemap xhtml:link — flagging any disagreement. Sitemap URL mode validates the sitemap’s declarations on their own without fetching the pages.
Does it see hreflang added by JavaScript?
No. Pages are fetched as raw HTML (as Googlebot Smartphone by default), so hreflang tags or content injected client-side by JavaScript are not seen. If your alternates are rendered by JS, this tool will report them as missing — validate the rendered HTML separately.
 
 
 
     
Next stepSEO Incident Simulator — practice the same investigation on labeled fixtures.

People also explore
Toolhreflang Generator + LinterToolLocal SERP GeneratorToolGoogle Index CheckerArticlex-default HreflangArticleHreflangArticleTechnical International SEO
 
 
 
Feature requests for Returntag
 

Upvote what you want most. New ideas can be submitted from the floating Feedback menu;
      requests appear here once approved, and the most-wanted rise to the top.

   
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Informazioni sullo strumento
Analizza un URL o una sitemap XML e verifica l’intero cluster hreflang: return tag mancanti, target rotti, autoriferimenti, x-default, codici lingua e conflitti tra head, Link header e sitemap.
Funzionalità
  • Mappa interattiva del cluster con export CSV.
  • Controlli di reciprocità, autoriferimento e x-default.
  • Validazione dei codici lingua e dei target raggiungibili.
  • Confronto tra dichiarazioni head, Link header e sitemap.
Come funziona
Scegli URL singolo o sitemap, seleziona la modalità e lascia che il tool recuperi i target delimitati. Ogni nodo conserva la fonte della dichiarazione e il risultato indica missing, broken, self-reference e conflitti.
Limitazioni
  • Il crawl è limitato a 500 URL e legge solo le prime dichiarazioni utili.
  • Bot management, firewall e risposte transitorie possono nascondere un tag o produrre falsi mancanti.
Domande frequenti
Che cosa controlla returntag?
Controlla return tag, target, autoriferimenti, x-default, codici lingua e coerenza tra head, Link header e sitemap.
Il tool verifica la lingua delle pagine?
Verifica i codici dichiarati e i collegamenti del cluster; non interpreta il contenuto per dimostrare la lingua.
Quanti URL posso controllare?
Il crawl è limitato a 500 URL per esecuzione.
Un target rosso è sempre un errore del sito?
Indica che una destinazione restituisce un errore o non è raggiungibile dal punto di controllo; verifica rete, bot management e risposta finale.