Content revised 21 October 2026.
Before launching regional or language versions, test complete page pairs. The technical annotations should reflect useful equivalent content and a working customer journey.
Check the equivalence
Choose an important service or product and compare its versions. Confirm the offer, facts and intended audience. Regional conditions may differ, but an unrelated homepage is not automatically an equivalent destination.
Inspect the annotations
Review complete public URLs and valid language or language-region codes. Check return references between the corresponding pages and use the same set consistently. Do not rely on the HTML language attribute as a replacement for hreflang.
Follow the human journey
Switch versions using the visible navigation. Open each URL directly and test contact or purchase steps safely. Visitors should be able to access a preferred version without an unavoidable redirect based only on inferred location.
Review changes together
When a page is removed or translated later, update its references across the related set. Keep a small mapping document with owners and review dates. Technical correctness supports understanding, not a guarantee of international rankings.
Official guidance: Google alternate-language requirements.