Hreflang Tags Auditor

Fetches one public web page and audits its rel="alternate" hreflang tags for international SEO QA. The actor reports discovered alternate URLs, duplicate language targets, invalid values, missing x-default, missing self-reference, and a simple readiness score.

Use cases

• Check localized landing pages before a site launch or migration.
• Monitor important international SEO pages on a schedule.
• Add hreflang QA to agency audit reports and technical SEO workflows.
• Feed structured hreflang diagnostics into internal dashboards.

Input

Field	Type	Required	Description
startUrl	string	Yes	Public HTTP or HTTPS page URL to audit. Credentials and private network targets are rejected.
timeoutSeconds	integer	No	Request timeout in seconds. Defaults to 10. Allowed range: 3 to 30.

Output

Each run pushes one dataset item.

Field	Type	Description
inputUrl	string	URL submitted in the input.
normalizedInputUrl	string	URL after adding a default HTTPS scheme when needed.
finalUrl	string	Final URL after safe HTTP redirects.
status	integer or null	HTTP status returned by the final page.
ok	boolean	True when the final fetch returned a 2xx or 3xx status and no fetch error occurred.
checkedAt	string	ISO 8601 timestamp for the audit.
canonicalUrl	string or null	Canonical URL found in the page head, if present.
tagCount	integer	Number of hreflang alternate tags found.
uniqueHreflangCount	integer	Number of unique hreflang values found.
hasXDefault	boolean	Whether an x-default tag is present.
hreflangTags	array	Objects with hreflang and absolute href values.
score	integer	Readiness score from 0 to 100.
grade	string	Letter grade from A to F.
issues	array	Detected problems.
recommendations	array	Suggested fixes.
error	string or null	Fetch or validation error, if any.

Example input

{
  "startUrl": "https://example.com/en/",
  "timeoutSeconds": 10
}

Example output

{
  "inputUrl": "https://example.com/en/",
  "normalizedInputUrl": "https://example.com/en/",
  "finalUrl": "https://example.com/en/",
  "status": 200,
  "ok": true,
  "checkedAt": "2026-07-09T00:00:00.000Z",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://example.com/en/",
  "tagCount": 3,
  "uniqueHreflangCount": 3,
  "hasXDefault": true,
  "hreflangTags": [
    { "hreflang": "en", "href": "https://example.com/en/" },
    { "hreflang": "fr-fr", "href": "https://example.com/fr/" },
    { "hreflang": "x-default", "href": "https://example.com/" }
  ],
  "score": 100,
  "grade": "A",
  "issues": [],
  "recommendations": [],
  "error": null
}

Security

The actor only fetches public HTTP and HTTPS URLs. It rejects URL credentials, localhost and private IP literals, and hostnames that resolve to private IPv4 or IPv6 ranges. Redirect targets are validated before being followed. Response bodies are capped at 2 MB.

Pricing

Suggested pay-per-event pricing:

Event	Price
Actor start	$0.005
Page audited	$0.010

At this pricing, a single page audit costs about $0.015 before Apify platform fees.

FAQ

Does this crawl an entire website?

No. It audits one submitted page per run. This keeps runs fast, predictable, and easy to price.

Does it verify reciprocal hreflang links?

No. It checks the tags present on the submitted page. Reciprocal cluster crawling can be added later if customer demand justifies the extra network requests and cost.

Does it require login or cookies?

No. It only works with public unauthenticated pages.

What happens when a page has no hreflang tags?

The actor returns a low score, an issue explaining that no hreflang tags were found, and a recommendation to add tags when the page targets multiple languages or regions.