Generating an hreflang XML Sitemap From a Spreadsheet Using Python

A guide explains how multilingual sites can generate hreflang annotations from a CSV page inventory instead of embedding them in every page's head section. Each row lists a page's group, language, and URL, and every URL in a group references all others, including itself. The accompanying Python script builds a sitemap with alternate links and designates a default version. The author recommends validating for duplicate languages, using an allowlist of language codes, logging orphaned pages, and dropping any URL that does not return a 200 status code. The post also suggests adding an x-default entry, referencing the sitemap in robots.txt, and submitting it to Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.