Google: Hreflang URLs Not Indexed In The Proper Sense

Google's Gary Illyes said that hreflang alternates, hreflang URLs are not "indexed successful the due sense." In short, Google conscionable keeps the hreflang URL arsenic alternate URLs. So the URL is not what is getting the page indexed, it is conscionable being stores arsenic an replacement to the main page URL.

Gary said this successful consequence to a station connected LinkedIn wherever Faiez Javaid asked:

If Google is choosing by itself 1 /lang/ arsenic canonical and ignoring others showing successful GSC arsenic not indexed, past really tin Google show different lang versions of the aforesaid page to the personification successful Search results?

Gary Illyes afloat reply was:

There's 2 things astatine play:

1. alternate names: erstwhile we canonicalize a URL, the different URLs successful its dups cluster it was chosen from whitethorn go truthful called alternate names. They whitethorn beryllium utilized successful hunt results if the personification query deserves 1 of those alternate names. The astir salient usage lawsuit is the "site:" queries. If you do a hunt for illustration [site:bit.ly], we whitethorn show a bunch of urls that really redirect; they're not indexed successful the due sense, they're conscionable alternate names of a canonical url.

2. hreflang alternates go specified alternate URLs: they're not successful truth indexed successful the due sense.

While the circumstantial URL mightiness not beryllium indexed, the URL is mapped to the canonical page that is indexed.

Forum chat astatine LinkedIn.