How to Check Canonical URLs, Hreflang and Sitemaps

On a multilingual website, one page may be available at several addresses, while similar-looking pages in different languages serve different visitors. These are separate situations. A canonical identifies a preferred URL, hreflang connects language or regional equivalents, and a sitemap provides addresses you want discovered.

Start with the actual page address

Open a service page and record the final address after any redirects. Inspect the page source for a single canonical that points to the correct, working content. Pointing a normal Turkish service page at its English translation or at the homepage attempts to consolidate distinct pages incorrectly.

Review HTTP and HTTPS, www, trailing slashes and unnecessary query parameters separately. Do not apply blanket redirects or canonical rules to useful filters and pagination without examining their content. Meaningful differences for visitors must be preserved.

Check language equivalents in both directions

The document language should match the content: tr for Turkish and en for English. Hreflang links should connect corresponding pages. If a Turkish page names its English equivalent, check that the English page declares the same language group. Each address should also include its own language reference. Where x-default is used, the general fallback should be deliberate and consistent.

Do not advertise a translation that does not exist. Publishing English text beneath a Turkish URL does not turn it into Turkish content simply because its lang attribute changes.

Compare sitemaps with indexing directives

Sitemap entries should identify preferred, published pages. Exclude drafts, error responses and empty collections. Listing a page while also marking it noindex creates conflicting publication signals. Remember that a page must be crawlable for Google to discover its noindex directive.

Removing an address from a sitemap does not immediately remove it from Google's index. Consider the response, robots directives and existing links together. Google may select a different canonical from the one declared by your site; URL Inspection can help explain that difference.

Keep a record of the checks

For every URL, record the response status, canonical, language equivalents, indexing directives and sitemap membership. After a correction, recheck the corresponding page in the other language. Review the sitemap's processing status and actual URL Inspection data in Search Console. Page source alone cannot prove that Google's indexing decision has changed.

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Sources: Google canonical guide, Localized versions guide.