---
title: "Hreflang tag check — Lemwatch Help"
description: "Validates hreflang tags across your language variants — return-tag mismatches are the #1 cause of Google demoting international sites."
canonical: "https://lemwatch.com/help/hreflang-tag-check"
source: "https://lemwatch.com"
---

# Hreflang tag check

> Validates hreflang tags across your language variants — return-tag mismatches are the #1 cause of Google demoting international sites.

## Quick answer

 Lemwatch builds a cluster of every hreflang-tagged URL and confirms each URL has return tags pointing back to all the others (Google's requirement).

## What it checks

- Valid ISO language + region codes

- Return tags are reciprocal

- x-default present

- All URLs in the cluster resolve to 200

- No language variant self-canonicalises to another

## Where to find it in Lemwatch

 **Site details → SEO → International.**

## How to fix

- Ensure every alternate URL includes hreflang links to every other alternate — including itself.

- Add hreflang="x-default" for your fallback URL.

- Fix any 404s in the cluster.

- Re-crawl.

## FAQ

### Can I use hreflang in the sitemap instead?

 Yes — Lemwatch checks both HTML tags and sitemap declarations.

### Do canonicals fight hreflang?

 Yes — never canonicalise a language variant to another language.

## Related

- Canonical tag check

- Robots.txt check

- Structured data check


## Related

- [Help centre](https://lemwatch.com/help)
- [Canonical tag check](https://lemwatch.com/help/canonical-tag-check)
- [Robots.txt check](https://lemwatch.com/help/robots-txt-check)
- [Structured data (JSON-LD) check](https://lemwatch.com/help/structured-data-check)
- [Mobile-friendly check](https://lemwatch.com/help/mobile-friendly-check)
- [Lemwatch pricing](https://lemwatch.com/pricing)
- [HSTS header check](https://lemwatch.com/help/hsts-header-check)
- [How does Lemwatch check hreflang tags?](https://lemwatch.com/help/hreflang-monitoring)