Region Version Generator

A quick orientation: this page explains how the region version generator creates region-specific page versions from a base page, walks through the setup process, covers the region-targeting mistakes that cause search engines to serve the wrong version, and explains how this tool differs from language-only hreflang generators.

What is a region version generator?

A region version generator creates localized page versions that target specific geographic regions rather than just languages. While a language code like es targets all Spanish speakers globally, a region code like es-MX targets Spanish speakers specifically in Mexico. This distinction matters when your content — pricing, legal terms, shipping options, phone numbers, or cultural references — varies by country even within the same language.

The generator takes a base page URL and produces a set of region-specific versions, each with the correct BCP 47 locale code and URL. If you have an English page that needs to target the US, UK, Australia, and Canada separately, the generator creates entries for en-US, en-GB, en-AU, and en-CA, along with the appropriate URL for each version. It also generates a language-only fallback (en) for English speakers in regions you haven't explicitly targeted.

Region versioning sits at the intersection of language targeting and geographic targeting. The hreflang specification supports both — you can declare language-only codes, region-specific codes, or a mix of both. The region version generator helps you plan and produce the correct set of region-specific entries, including the often-overlooked language-only fallback. All processing happens in your browser.

How to use this region version generator

Follow these steps to create region-specific page versions:

1. Enter your base page URL. Start with the absolute HTTPS URL of the page you want to regionalize. This is typically the generic language version — for example, https://example.com/en/pricing.

2. Select the base language. Choose the ISO 639-1 language code for your base page (e.g., en for English, es for Spanish). This determines which regional variants the tool suggests.

3. Add target regions. For each region you want to target, add a region entry. The tool suggests common regions for your base language — for English: US, GB, AU, CA, IE, NZ; for Spanish: ES, MX, AR, CO, CL, PE. Select the regions that have distinct content on your site.

4. Specify regional URL patterns. For each region, enter the absolute HTTPS URL of the region-specific page. Common patterns include subdirectory-based (/en-us/pricing, /en-gb/pricing), subdomain-based (us.example.com/pricing), or parameter-based (example.com/pricing?region=us). The generator validates each URL.

5. Configure the language fallback. Decide how the generic language code (en without a region) is handled. Options: point it to your primary regional version, point it to a region-selection page, or omit it entirely (not recommended). The generator defaults to including a language-only fallback pointed at your primary region.

6. Generate region versions. The output shows every region-specific entry plus the language fallback and x-default, ready to be used with the hreflang tag generator to produce the final tag markup.

Common errors and how to fix them

These are the five region-targeting mistakes that most often cause search engines to serve the wrong page version.

1. Missing the language-only fallback. If you declare en-US, en-GB, and en-AU but omit plain en, users in Canada, India, or any other English-speaking country not explicitly listed get no English result from your hreflang annotations. The generator always includes the language-only fallback unless you explicitly exclude it.

2. Using country codes as language codes. Writing hreflang="us" instead of hreflang="en-US" is invalid. Country codes are not language codes. The hreflang attribute requires the language code first, optionally followed by a region code. The generator enforces correct BCP 47 format.

3. Inconsistent region content. Declaring en-GB but serving identical content to the en-US page (same prices in USD, same phone format) sends a false signal to search engines. Only create region versions for pages where the content genuinely differs. The generator includes a checklist reminder of content elements that typically vary by region.

4. Conflicting region and language signals. Having en-US point to one page and generic en point to a completely different page with different content (not just different regional details) confuses search engines about which page serves English speakers. Region versions should be variations of the same content, not different content entirely.

5. Omitting x-default for multi-region setups. When you have multiple region-specific versions, the x-default entry becomes especially important as the catch-all fallback. The generator requires x-default configuration before producing output.

How this tool is different

Four things set this region version generator apart from language-only hreflang tools:

• Region-aware suggestions. The tool knows which regions commonly pair with which languages and suggests relevant regional variants, reducing research time.
• Language-fallback automation. It automatically generates the language-only fallback entry that most manual implementations forget, eliminating the most common region-targeting gap.
• Content-difference checklist. The tool prompts you to confirm which content elements actually differ by region (pricing, legal, contact info), helping you avoid empty region versions that dilute your hreflang signals.
• BCP 47 validation. Every locale code is validated against the full BCP 47 specification, catching invalid codes like en-UK (the correct code is en-GB — GB is the ISO 3166-1 code for the United Kingdom, not UK).

Everything runs in your browser with no server processing. For more on region versus language targeting strategy, see the what is hreflang guide.