What this check inspects
Shipwork reads the link rel=alternate hreflang tags on the page, normalises the values and reports duplicates, values that do not look like valid language or region codes, tags with no href, a missing x-default, and whether the page references itself in the set.
What a failure means
Duplicate hreflang values and tags without an href are errors: the cluster is contradictory or incomplete. Invalid codes and a missing self-reference or x-default are warnings. A missing self-reference is the most common cause of a cluster that quietly does nothing.
How to fix it
- Include a self-referencing hreflang on every page in the cluster.
- Add one x-default entry for visitors whose language and region match nothing else.
- Make the set reciprocal: if the UK page lists the US page, the US page must list the UK page.
- Use valid codes such as en-GB and de-DE, and never list the same code twice on one page.
A typical failure, worked through
The setupA store adds hreflang tags to its English pages pointing at the German and French versions, but the German and French templates were never given the return tags.
What the check reportsThe check reports a warning that the page has no self-referencing hreflang, and fetching the alternates would show the return links are missing. The cluster is not confirmed.
The pointHreflang is a set, not a list. Every member has to declare every member, including itself.