# Hreflang & Canonical Tag Validator (`mellora/hreflang-canonical-validator`) Actor

Checks the hreflang and canonical tags on the URLs you provide and reports missing return tags, invalid language codes, missing x-default, and canonical conflicts.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/mellora/hreflang-canonical-validator.md
- **Developed by:** [James Barnes](https://apify.com/mellora) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$10.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Hreflang & Canonical Tag Validator

Checks the hreflang and canonical tags on the page URLs you provide and reports exact problems: missing return tags, invalid language codes, missing x-default, missing self-reference, and canonical conflicts.

### What it does

For each URL the Actor fetches the page (HTML `<link>` tags and HTTP `Link` headers), extracts canonical and hreflang annotations, and optionally fetches every alternate page to verify reciprocity. It reports one result per input URL with a list of issues.

Issues detected include:

- `MISSING_RETURN_TAG`: the alternate page does not link back
- `HREFLANG_INVALID_CODE`: invalid language/region code (e.g. `en-UK`)
- `X_DEFAULT_MISSING`, `HREFLANG_NO_SELF_REFERENCE`
- `HREFLANG_DUPLICATE_CONFLICT`: same language pointing to different URLs
- `CANONICAL_MISSING`, `CANONICAL_NOT_SELF`, `CANONICAL_MULTIPLE_CONFLICTING`, `CANONICAL_CHAIN`
- `CANONICAL_HREFLANG_CONFLICT`: hreflang on a page that canonicalizes elsewhere
- `ALTERNATE_CANONICAL_CONFLICT`, `ALTERNATE_REDIRECTS`, `ALTERNATE_UNREACHABLE`

### Input

- **urls**: list of page URLs (max 200)
- **checkAlternates**: fetch alternates to verify return tags (default true)
- **respectRobotsTxt**: skip URLs disallowed by robots.txt (default true)
- **requestDelaySeconds**: delay between requests to the same host (default 1)

### Output example

```json
{
  "url": "https://example.com/en/",
  "finalUrl": "https://example.com/en/",
  "httpStatus": 200,
  "canonical": "https://example.com/en/",
  "hreflangCount": 3,
  "hasXDefault": false,
  "isValid": false,
  "errorCount": 1,
  "warningCount": 1,
  "issues": [
    {"code": "MISSING_RETURN_TAG", "severity": "error", "message": "Alternate page does not link back to this page.", "hreflang": "de", "href": "https://example.com/de/"},
    {"code": "X_DEFAULT_MISSING", "severity": "warning", "message": "No x-default hreflang annotation."}
  ]
}
```

### Pricing

$0.01 per result (one result per input URL), charged by the platform per dataset item.

### Limits

- Max 200 input URLs per run; extra alternate/canonical pages fetched for checks are not charged.
- Only the first 3 MB of each page is parsed; no JavaScript is executed, so tags injected by scripts are not seen.
- Sitemap and HTML-only hreflang is supported via page tags and HTTP headers; XML sitemap hreflang is not checked.
- The Actor identifies itself with its own User-Agent, honors robots.txt by default, and rate-limits requests per host.

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

Page URLs to validate (max 200). Each URL is fetched directly to read its hreflang and canonical tags.

## `checkAlternates` (type: `boolean`):

Also fetch each hreflang alternate and canonical target to verify return tags and canonical conflicts.

## `respectRobotsTxt` (type: `boolean`):

Skip pages disallowed by the site's robots.txt.

## `requestDelaySeconds` (type: `integer`):

Minimum wait between requests to the same host (0-30).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.python.org/"
  ],
  "checkAlternates": true,
  "respectRobotsTxt": true,
  "requestDelaySeconds": 1
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "urls": [
        "https://www.python.org/"
    ],
    "checkAlternates": true,
    "respectRobotsTxt": true,
    "requestDelaySeconds": 1
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("mellora/hreflang-canonical-validator").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "urls": ["https://www.python.org/"],
    "checkAlternates": True,
    "respectRobotsTxt": True,
    "requestDelaySeconds": 1,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("mellora/hreflang-canonical-validator").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.python.org/"
  ],
  "checkAlternates": true,
  "respectRobotsTxt": true,
  "requestDelaySeconds": 1
}' |
apify call mellora/hreflang-canonical-validator --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,mellora/hreflang-canonical-validator"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/Cj0nqYpQp6ewT3Bsy/builds/DyIB4y87zc3ehYsw5/openapi.json