A translated guide can have working language-switch links while its canonical still points to the English edition. Check the canonical against the main content of each page before changing the translation relationships.
This example uses two fully translated paper-crane guides. Both are intended to remain public and available in Search. The German guide has a copied English canonical, so the review begins with a two-page map.
Record the page you actually receive
Open each URL directly and read the instructions in the main article. Record any redirect destination as well as the address requested. The example map below describes the intended result after correction.
| Page URL | Main content | Intended canonical |
|---|---|---|
https://example.com/en/paper-crane/ |
English instructions | https://example.com/en/paper-crane/ |
https://example.com/de/papierkranich/ |
German instructions | https://example.com/de/papierkranich/ |
Read the main instructions as part of this check. A translated navigation menu alone cannot establish that the article is translated. Google’s multilingual-site guidance discusses visible page language and separate language URLs. See the multilingual-site documentation.
Compare the declared canonical with the map
View the public source for each edition and find rel="canonical" in its head. In our faulty example, the German page contains this line.
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/en/paper-crane/">That target conflicts with the German page’s intended canonical in the map. Google recommends a canonical in the same language when using hreflang, and also recommends a self-referential canonical on the preferred page itself. For this fully translated pair, each preferred edition points to its own URL. See the canonical implementation guidance.
Check the existing hreflang annotations alongside the canonical. If they already identify the two intended editions, record that observation before editing. Google’s localized-page guidance distinguishes fully translated main content from untranslated duplicates and describes reciprocal language annotations. See the localized-version requirements.
Draft one canonical for each edition
- Open the Meta Tag Generator. Enter
Paper Crane Guideas the page title and the English URL from the map in Canonical URL. - Leave the optional social-tags checkbox off and select Generate Meta Tags. Locate the canonical line in the output.
- Change the title to
Papierkranich-Anleitungand the canonical input to the German URL. Generate again and compare the new line.
The English output uses its own address.
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/en/paper-crane/">The German output uses its own address too.
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/de/papierkranich/">The generator formats the entered target. It will also print the wrong English target if you leave it in the German exercise, so compare the output with your saved map.
Correct the existing provider and retest
Use the CMS or template setting that currently supplies the canonical. A hardcoded English target in a shared template may affect several translations, so check another page using that template after the repair. Keep each page’s existing title and description appropriate to its content.
Fetch both public editions again and check the declared canonical, the actual article language and the visible language-switch destination. Review the hreflang set through the existing multilingual integration using the language-version checklist.
Record the observed canonical for each URL and the date of the check. Repeat the two-page review after a shared-template update so a copied target can be caught again.