HTML Lang Checker
Score whether the document declares a real BCP 47 language — not hreflang, not a ranking trick.
What this tool gives you
Check html lang
Fetch a public page or paste the root tag. This scores document language — not hreflang, not a ranking trick.
What this checker looks for
html lang tells browsers and screen readers the page language. It does not replace hreflang.
lang on <html>
One BCP 47 tag on the root element, not only xml:lang.
Hyphens, not underscores
en-US is valid. en_US is not.
Canonical casing
Language lowercase, region uppercase.
xml:lang optional
Fine to omit on HTML5. If present, it must match lang.
Not Content-Language
http-equiv is a fallback, not a substitute.
Not a ranking lever
This is a11y and crawl hygiene, not a citation trick.
How to use the checker
Fix the root lang first. hreflang is a separate map of language variants.
Check the live page
Fetch the public URL or paste the <html> tag from view-source.
Keep a BCP 47 tag
lang="en" or lang="es-GT". Hyphens, not underscores.
Leave xml:lang alone
Omit it on HTML5, or make it match lang exactly.
What a healthy html lang usually includes
One root. One language. Hyphens. No x-default on the document itself.
| Part | Job | Default for public sites |
|---|---|---|
| html lang | Declare this document's language | lang="en" or lang="es" |
| BCP 47 | Machine-readable language tag | hyphens, not en_US |
| Region | Optional locale | en-US / es-GT only if true |
| xml:lang | XHTML leftover | omit, or match lang |
| Content-Language | HTTP/meta fallback | omit if lang is set |
| x-default | hreflang only | never on <html> |
Related GEO pages
Fix document language, then lock hreflang, then title/meta.
hreflang Checker
Score BCP 47 hreflang links, absolute HTTPS hrefs, self-reference and x-default.
Title and Meta Description Checker
Score unique title, meta description length and matching og:* copy.
Viewport Meta Checker
Score width=device-width, initial-scale=1 and pinch-zoom hygiene.
Meta Charset Checker
Score UTF-8 meta charset, HTML5 attribute and first-1024-bytes hygiene.
Canonical URL Checker
Score one absolute HTTPS rel=canonical and matching og:url.
JSON-LD Checker
Score schema.org identity, page type and review hygiene.
GEO Visibility Checklist
Score citation-ready content, entity clarity and weekly mention tracking.
Robots Meta Checker
Score meta robots and X-Robots-Tag index/noindex hygiene.
Tools Lab
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HTML lang FAQs
Does html lang make ChatGPT cite my page?
No. lang tells browsers and screen readers the page language. Citations still depend on crawl access, answer-ready content and corroboration.
Is html lang the same as hreflang?
No. lang describes this document. hreflang points at language/region variants. A Spanish page still needs lang="es" even with no alternate links.
Should I use en or en-US?
Use the most specific tag that is true. en is enough for generic English. Use en-US or es-GT only when the content is region-specific.