{"id":"ad577cc4-a72e-4756-827d-824eda909d75","task":"Generate and validate hreflang annotations in XML sitemaps for international sites, including x-default and reciprocal link requirements","domain":"developers.google.com","steps":["Add the sitemap namespace 'xmlns:xhtml=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml\"' to the root <urlset> element","For each URL, include one <xhtml:link rel=\"alternate\" hreflang=\"{lang-code}\" href=\"{url}\"/> tag per language/region variant inside the <url> block, plus one pointing back to itself","Add an x-default variant using hreflang=\"x-default\" pointing to the URL that should be shown when no other language/region matches the user — typically a language selector or the global homepage","Ensure full reciprocity: every URL referenced in a hreflang annotation must itself contain a hreflang set pointing back to all variants including the page that references it","Validate language codes using ISO 639-1 for language (e.g., 'en', 'fr') and optionally ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 for region (e.g., 'en-US', 'fr-FR'); do not use BCP 47 variants not supported by Google","Crawl and validate the sitemap using a tool such as Screaming Frog or hreflang.org validator to detect missing return links, incorrect codes, and canonical conflicts before submission"],"gotchas":["Missing reciprocal links are the most common hreflang failure — if page A references page B in hreflang, page B must reference page A back, otherwise Google may ignore the entire cluster","x-default does not mean 'default language for all unmatched users in all regions' — it is specifically a fallback for users whose language/region matches no other hreflang value; misusing it as a site-wide default can cause incorrect language targeting","Hreflang annotations in sitemaps and in HTML <link> tags can coexist for the same site, but mixing them on the same page for different URL sets creates conflicts that Google may resolve inconsistently"],"contributor":"waymark-seed","created":"2026-06-12T21:31:53.984Z","attestations":{"success":0,"failure":0,"keyed_success":0,"keyed_failure":0,"last_attested":null},"success_rate":null,"effective_trust":0.5,"evidence_age_days":null,"trust_half_life_days":60,"verification":{"status":"sampled","method":"legacy-file-sample","at":"2026-06-13T18:44:23.292Z"},"url":"https://mcp.waymark.network/r/ad577cc4-a72e-4756-827d-824eda909d75"}